204 VARIETY IN HUNTING COUNTRIES 



summate knowledge of the huntsman's art when 

 such amusing knaves as Soapey Sponge or Facey 

 Romford proceed to handle a pack of foxhounds. 



In Beckford's Thoughts upon Hunting, however, and 

 in the poem he quotes so freely, will be found all 

 that the ardent young sportsman can desire to read 

 for his instruction alone, and if a love of the pic- 

 turesque and what there may be of poetry in the 

 chase appeal to him, he will find delight in these 

 pages, and will learn from them that many pleasures 

 are to be found in most unfashionable countries, and 

 that the glory of the gallop is by no means the sole 

 pleasure of fox-hunting, nor the one that we enjoy 

 the most frequently. 



Some would have us believe that a beautiful land- 

 scape is thrown away upon the fox-hunter, who is 

 supposed to dislike the sight of anything in the 

 shape of a hill that rises higher than the Hemplows, 

 and whose ideal country is one that a horse can 

 easily gallop across. As a matter of fact, however, 

 the majority of fox-hunters have, I find, the keenest 

 appreciation of the beauties of Nature in all her 

 varying moods, and rejoice in them exceedingly. 



" It is true," wrote an early Victorian author, " that 

 among the five thousand who follow the hounds daily 

 in the hunting season there are to be found, as 

 among most medleys of five thousand, a certain 

 number of fools and brutes — mere animals, deaf to 

 the music, blind to the living poetry of nature. To 

 such men hunting is a piece of fashion or vulgar 

 excitement, but bring hunting in comparison with 

 other amusement and it will stand a severe test." 



