INTRODUCTION 5 



These landowners, disgusted with the profligacy of 

 London, devoted their leisure to classical scholarship. 

 What was the result of their study ? We have only 

 to read the pages of history in order to learn that the 

 gladiatorial shows of Imperial Rome were supported 

 by the luxurious habits of men and the immorality 

 of women. The patricians considered that it was 

 beneath their dignity to take any active participation 

 in the national games ; so they were mere spectators, 

 who paid their servants in proportion to the amount 

 of blood which they shed. I have not been able to 

 discover an instance of a patrician driving his own 

 horses in a chariot race ; nor is it any exaggeration 

 to say that, after the retirement of Tiberius to 

 Capreae, the sport of Imperial Rome was solely 

 emblematic of indolence and cruelty. It was can- 

 cerous, instead of being invigorating, to the heart of 

 the State, with the result that the pristine bravery of 

 the Romans was watered with cowardice when the 

 Goths besieged Ravenna. 



Let me, before dealing with the anecdotal history 

 of fox-hunting, which I hope will amuse my readers, 

 and the statistics, which, though necessarily dull, 

 will, I trust, be found to be authentic, state in a 

 few words the reasons for the popularity of modern 

 fox-hunting. 



Fox-hunting has long been regarded as one of the 

 principal factors in our agricultural economy. If it 

 were, what some of its enemies declare it to be, 

 merely the amusement of the wealthy few, it would 



