THE FOXHOUND 63 



members of the hunt on their stables and in other 

 ways. Whatever humanitarians may say and they 

 are as fully entitled to their views as other people 

 it would be difficult to find a reason for condemning 

 sport which does so much to bring out the finer, 

 qualities of man and woman by promoting good feel- 

 ing and a praiseworthy indifference to danger. 

 Cervantes puts the case fairly clearly when he makes 

 the Duke say : " You are mistaken, Sancho : hunting 

 wild beasts is the most proper exercise for knights 

 and princes,; for in the chase of a stout noble beast 

 may be represented the whole art of war, stratagems, 

 policy, and ambuscades, with all other devices usually 

 practised to overcome an enemy with safety. Here 

 we are exposed to the extremities of heat and cold ; 

 ease and laziness can have no room in this diversion ; 

 by this we are inured to toil and hardship ; our 

 limbs are strengthened, our joints made supple, and 

 our whole body hale and active^; in short, it is an 

 exercise that may be beneficial to many, and can be 

 prejudicial to none." Burton, too, in his "Anatomy 

 of Melancholy/ 1 declared " hunting and hawking to 

 be honest recreations, and fit for some great men, 

 but not for every base and inferior person. " 



In view of the important part he plays in minister- 

 ing to our pleasures, it is extremely interesting to 

 try to trace the origin of the Foxhound [; but when 

 all is said and done, we have little other than specu- 

 lation to help us. Youatt frankly expresses the belief 

 that he is the old English Hound, sufficiently crossed 

 with the Greyhound to give him lightness and speed 

 without impairing his scent. Other modern autho- 

 rities accept the same view. Beckford, who might 

 have helped us materially from the period in which 



