THE HOUND 25 



I advise you to close the book now before your 

 mind becomes poisoned. There is something 

 wildly exciting in the hunt of a fox, that is quite 

 unknown to a hare-hunter. What it is I don't 

 pretend to say. There is such a varmint sporting 

 look about the animal, that the mere sight of 

 him sends a thrill down your spine. Now, the 

 hare does not have this effect on you, and you 

 feel inclined to pity her, whereas the fox seems 

 so well able to take care of himself, we never 

 think of pitying him. Besides, it seems the 

 natural justice of Providence that a fox should 

 be hunted, for he lives by hunting other animals, 

 and should therefore die by the same means. 



The history of fox-hunting is comparatively 

 modern, at least in the sense which we know it 

 now. One Thomas Fownes, a former owner of 

 Beckford's home, was, I believe, the first man 

 who kept a pack exclusively for hunting the fox, 

 which would be somewhere about the beginning 

 of the eighteenth century. His pack was sold 

 to a Mr. Bowes in Yorkshire, and I imagine there 

 are few kennels that do not owe something to 

 this breeder, though all direct trace is lost of his 

 hounds. By the middle of the century the 



