xvi INTRODUCTION 



that they were better fitted, mentally, morally and physi- 

 cally, by their days with the hounds, their long days in the 

 open, where clean living, courage, endurance, patience, 

 and understanding are needed in the making of a good 

 foxhunter? 



If we look back in the pages of our local history, we find 

 that the members of the Gloucester Foxhunting Club, 

 most of whom were members of the Old State in Schuyl- 

 kill, the oldest club in the world with a continuous exist- 

 ence, formed, in the early days of the Revolution, the now 

 famous First Troop, Philadelphia City Cavalry, which has 

 distinguished itself in every war in which this country has 

 ever engaged. 



A great majority of its members have been good fox- 

 hunters, and the lessons of the hunting-field have been 

 useful without doubt in camp and field of battle. 



Therefore, I feel sure that the following simple record of 

 a few years of the sport of a representative American 

 Hunt, cannot be amiss, and that in the long annals of our 

 glorious country this little side-light into our "manners 

 and customs," as Csesar would say, will be not only appre- 

 ciated by those whose names figure in its pages and who 

 will read with personal pleasure; but will in years to come 

 bring pleasure to another generation and shed a light for 

 them upon a not unimportant phase of our lives. 



The increase of the motor in all branches of transporta- 

 tion, and even in the realms of agriculture, seems to indi- 

 cate the gradual elimination of the horse, and it may well 

 be — indeed is not improbable — that in another genera- 

 tion or so the breeding of horses, especially in this part of 

 the country, to a great extent, if not entirely, will be 

 abandoned, and that foxes and foxhunting will be come a 

 thing of the past. It is in those days that this record will 



