14 FOX-HUNTING 



follow on foot as fast and as far as we can ; but 

 we cannot explain why the music of the pack has 

 suddenly created this mad desire. When hounds 

 run through a village, it is a common sight to see 

 the whole population, young men and maidens, 

 old men and boys, all turn out, and with one 

 accord commence to run. They know they will 

 be left behind in the first field, but they never 

 stop to think of that, and only blindly obey the 

 dictates of the impulse which urges them on. 

 My only explanation for this is that hunting is 

 the natural recreation of man, as it is the best 

 means of procuring fresh air and exercise. I am 

 very glad to see that in this, the latter part of the 

 century, the nation has awakened to the necessity 

 of bodily exercise : what with bicycles and games, 

 there are very few young men nowadays who do 

 not get a chance of exerting some of their muscles 

 every day. Formerly, when a boy left school or 

 college, he took to the business of life without 

 ever thinking of his body, and thereupon com- 

 menced to lay on a tissue of fat that made him 

 an old man at forty. It is not, however, the 

 health of the man to-day of which I am thinking, 

 so much as that of future generations. The body 



