300 Fo2ir-in-Hand in Britain. 



and dogs. It is the last day of July, and the whole 

 country is preparing for the annual massacre of the I2th 

 of August. Is civilization so very far advanced when 

 the titled and wealthiest portions of cultured society 

 have still for their chief amusements — which are in many 

 cases with them the principal business of life — the rac- 

 ing of horses one half of the year, and the murdering of 

 poor half-domesticated birds or the chasing to death of 

 poor foxes and hares the other half ? Can civilized man 

 find nothing better to furnish needful recreation after 

 useful toil ? 



The prices paid for a deer forest in Scotland are in- 

 credible. Twenty-five to fifty thousand dollars per 

 annum for the right to shoot over a few thousand acres 

 of poorly timbered land, and a force of gamekeepers 

 and other attendants to pay for besides. 



For the present the British are what is called a sport- 

 ing people, and the Highlands are their favorite hunting- 

 grounds. Their ideas of sport are curious. General 

 Sheridan told me that, when abroad, he was invited to 

 try some of their sport, but when he saw the poor 

 animals driven to him, and that all he had to do was to 

 bang away, he returned the gun to the attendant. He 

 really could not do this thing, and the General is not 

 very squeamish either. As for hunting down a poor 

 hare — that needs the deadening influence of custom — 

 women ought to be ashamed of it now ; men will be 

 anon. 



