WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS 



It is difficult to understand how any person who is not 

 lost to every sense of humanity and shame can take de- 

 light in the cowardly and brutal amusement of badger- 

 baiting — instead of amusement, I should have said, the 

 disgusting exhibition of a peaceable and harmless animal 

 worried by fierce and powerful dogs. The poor badger, too, 

 has probably been kept for a length of time in a confined 

 andclose hutch, thereby losinghalfhisenergy and strength; 

 while the dogs, trained to the work and in full vigour of 

 wind and limb, attack him in the most tender and vulner- 

 able parts. Truly, I always feel a wish to make the badger 

 and his keeper change places for a few rounds. Not that I 

 would pay the former so bad a compliment as to suppose 

 that he would take delight in tormenting even so great a 

 brute as his gaoler must be. 



-"'^^^.^.^ E«^5^4s!fe^' "^ ^~ 



