THEIR PHILOSOPHY OF THE CHASE. QI 



Lieut. -Colonel Robert Neilson Thomas (whose mother was 

 a grand-daughter of Lord Lisburgh) ; and Charlotte, who 

 married James Bowdoin, of Boston, U.S.A. 



Although the writer has no desire to enter at length 

 into the oft-debated question whether clergymen should 

 participate in the pleasures of the chase, he sees no reason 

 to adopt an apologetic attitude on behalf of the sporting 

 cleric, or to regard his appearance in the hunting field as 

 necessitating exceptional vindication from any standpoint 

 whatever. Nevertheless, it will not do to allow the con- 

 clusions of those, doubtless well meaning, but misguided 

 folk, who attempt to draw a distinction between the parson 

 and the rest of the field, to go unchallenged. 



Most of my readers are doubtless conversant with these 

 usual grounds of objection, which may be classed under 

 three heads. First : that it is not right for one holding the 

 office of a Minister of the Gospel to indulge in such 

 pursuits ! Secondly : that it is positively cruel and 

 barbarous to hunt the fox, and therefore the parson, by his 

 presence, is not only countenancing evil, but thereby setting 

 a bad example to others ! Finally, through following the 

 hounds, he is said to neglect his parishioners ! 



Far more able pens have "time out of count" 

 demolished all such contentions, which usually emanate 

 from persons profoundly ignorant of the fundamental factor 

 which governs the whole situation, viz., that fox-hunting, 

 paradoxical though it may appear, far from being inimical 

 to the fox, is the only means by which his species is saved 

 from extinction, for all are agreed that were fox-hunting to 

 be abandoned, the fox would be treated as vermin and 

 speedily exterminated ! From such a fate, all lovers of 

 animals, and even those who do not altogether approve of 

 hunting, would no doubt voice their sentiments with the 



