6 FOX HUNTING. 



"The chase was an old EngHsh pastime that had 

 been kept up in the neighborhood of Kennett, 

 from the force of habit, and under the depres- 

 sion which the strong Quaker element among 

 the people exercised upon all sports and recrea- 

 tions." 



GENERAL GEORGE WASHINGTON AS A 

 FOX HUNTER, 



In Washington After the Revolution, by Wil- 

 liam Spohn Baker, which is compiled from Wash- 

 ington's public and private papers, we find that 

 at Mt. Vernon, after the Revolutionary War, 

 he enjoyed fox hunting and frequently indulged 

 in it in hunting season, and his description of the 

 runs with the hounds, taken from his diary, ap- 

 peals to the old fox hunter who remembers the 

 hunting of years ago, when the hounds were 

 hunted by the horsemen who rode with them, and 

 not by a master of hounds with his employed 

 huntsman and whippers-in. An entry from 

 Washington's diary of December 12th, 1785, de- 

 scribes a run as follows : 



"After an early breakfast, George Washing- 

 ton, Mr. Shaw, and myself went into the woods 

 back of Muddy Hole plantation a-hunting, and 

 were joined by Mr. Lund Washington and Mr. 

 William Peake. About half after 10 o'clock 



