FOX-HUNTING 



* '■—^OX-HUNTING,' wrote Beckford in 1787, 'is now 

 B ^ become the amusement of gentlemen : nor need 

 I ^ any gentleman be ashamed of it.' 

 ■^^ Time had been when fox-hunting and fox- 



hunters lay under social ban. Lord Chesterfield kindly bore 

 testimony to the good intentions of him who followed the 

 hounds, but could say little else in his favour : in the days of 

 Queen Anne a ' fox-hunter,' in the esteem of some, meant a 

 boor or something very like it ; but the slighting significance 

 attaching to the word must surely have become only a memory 

 long ere Beckford wrote. 



There is, however, room for doubt whether fox-hunting in 

 its early days was the amusement of others than gentlemen, 

 and whether any such were ever ashamed of it. William the 

 Third hunted with the Charlton in Sussex, inviting thither 

 foreign visitors of distinction ; and Charlton continued to be 

 the Melton of England in the days of Queen Anne and the two 

 first Georges, for fox-hunting was the fashion. Harrier men 

 maintain that their sport was reckoned the higher in these 

 times ; but, I venture to think, harrier men are mistaken. 

 Read this,^ dated 14th July 1730, from Sir Robert Walpole 

 to the Earl of Carlisle : — 



' I am to acquaint your Lordship that upon the old 

 Establishment of the Crown there have usually been a Master 

 of the Buckhounds and a Master of the Harriers. The first is 

 now enjoyed by Colonel Negus ; the latter is vacant, and if 

 your Lordship thinks it more agreeable to be Master of the 

 Foxhounds, the King has no objection to the style or name of 



» Letters of Sir Robert Walpole, Hist. MSS. Comm. 

 A I 



