The Hunt in Literature 13 



The Delights of Hunting o o 



WHAT pleasure doth man take in hunting 

 the stately Stag, the generous Buck, the 

 Wild-Boar, the cunning Otter, the crafty Fox, and 

 the fearful Hare ! . . . 



Hunting is a game for Princes and noble persons ; 

 it hath been highly prized in all ages ; it was one 

 of the qualifications that Xenophon bestowed on 

 his Cyrus, that he was a hunter of wild beasts. 

 Hunting trains up the younger nobility to the use 

 of manly exercises in their riper age. What more 

 manly exercise than hunting the Wild-Boar, the 

 Stag, the Buck, the Fox, or the Hare ! How doth 

 it preserve health, and increase strength and activity ! 



And for the dogs that we use, who can commend 

 their excellency to that height which they deserve ? 

 How perfect is the hound at smelling, who never 

 leaves or forsakes his first scent, but follows it 

 through so many changes and varieties of other 

 scents, even over and in the water, and into the 

 earth ! What music doth a pack of dogs then make 

 to any man, whose heart and ears are so happy as 

 to be set to the tune of such instruments ! For my 

 Hounds, I know the language of them, and they 

 know the language and meaning of one another, 

 as perfectly as we know the voices of those with 

 whom we discourse daily. 



Izaak Walton. 



Sir Roger in the Hunting Field «£> 



(From Addison's Spectator) 

 AD not Exercise been absolutely necessary 



H 



for our Well-being, Nature would not have 

 made the Body so proper for it, by giving such an 



