INFLUENCE OF FIELD SPORTS ON CHARACTER. 



Field sports have been generally considered solely in the light 

 of a relaxation from the graver business of life, and have been 

 justified by writers on economics on the ground that some sort 

 of release is required from the imprisoned existence ot the man 

 of business, the lawyer, or the politician. Apollo does not always 

 bend his bow, it is said, and timely dissipation is commendable 

 even in the wise ; therefore by all means, let the sports which we 

 English love be pursued within legitimate bounds, and up to an 

 extent not forbidden by weightier considerations. 



But there seems to be somewhat more in field sports than 

 is contained in this criticism. The influence of character on the 

 manner in which sports are pursued is endless, and reciprocally 

 the influence of field sports on character seems to deserve some 

 attention. The best narrator of schoolboy life of the present 

 day has said that, varied as are the characters of boys, so varied 

 are their ways of facing or not facing a ' bully,' at football ; and 

 one of the greatest observers of character in England has written 

 a most instructive and amusing account of the way in which 

 men enjoy fox-hunting. If, therefore, a man's character and his 

 occupations and tastes exercise a mutual influence upon each 

 other, it follows that while men of different disposition pursue 

 sports in different ways, the sports also which they do pursue 

 will tell considerably in the dev^elopment of their natural cha- 

 racter. 



Now, the field sport which is perhaps pursued by a greater 

 number of Englishmen than any other, and which is most 

 zealously admired by its devotees, is fox-hunting. It is essen- 

 tially English in its nature. 



' A fox-hunt to a foreigner is strange, 



'Tis likewise subject to the double danger 

 Of falling first, and having in exchange 



Some pleasant laughter at the awkward stranger.' 



G 



