366 RURAL SPORTS. [PART II. 



possibility of a hare having been terribly fright 

 ened without being killed, or of a bird having 

 been left in a thicket with a shot in its body or 

 a fracture in its wing. But, before you go up 

 stairs, give your servant orders to be early at 

 market for fish, fresh out of the water; that 

 they may be scaled, or skinned alive ! A truce 

 ' with you, .then, sentimental eaters of flesh: and 

 here I propose the terms of a lasting com 

 promise with you. We must, on each side, 

 yield something: we sportsmen will content 

 ourselves with merely seeing the hares skip and 

 the birds fly; and you shall be content with 

 the flesh and fish that come from cases of na 

 tural death, of which, I am sure, your compas 

 sionate disposition will not refuse us a trifling 

 allowance. 



372. Nor have even the Pythagoreans a 

 much better battery against us. Sir RICHARD 

 PHILLIPS, who once rang a peal in my ears 

 against shooting and hunting, does, indeed, eat 

 neither flesh, flsh, nor fowl. His abstinence 

 surpasses that of a Carmelite, while his bulk 

 would not disgrace a Benedictine Monk, or a 

 Protestant Dean. But, he forgets, that his 

 shoes and breeches and gloves are made of the 

 skins of animals : he forgets that he writes (and 

 very eloquently too) with what has been cruelly 

 taken from a fowl; and that,.ia order to cover 



