Fox-hunting Past and Present 



enumerated we have proof positive to-day that, 

 barring accident, hunting is conducive to long 

 Hfe, health, and happiness, the three greatest 

 blessings mortal man can have. 



No more notable examples of longevity pro- 

 moted by sport with horse and hound have been 

 furnished than by our M.F.H.'s themselves. The 

 late Mr. John Lawrence was still in office as 

 Master of the Llangibby when, at the age of ninety- 

 four, he paid his last debt to Nature a few seasons 

 ago. Though unable to ride to hounds during 

 the last six or seven years of his life, it was won- 

 derful how he used to get across rough country 

 '' on wheels," and thus he managed to see a good 

 deal of the sport almost to the last, but a spill 

 from the carriage unluckily caused a broken leg, 

 and that, it is to be feared, hastened his regretted 

 death. He had been Master of the Llangibby 

 since 1856 ; but, for a long period before he 

 took to foxhounds, he had shown sport with his 

 Cwmbran harriers, and it is estimated that his 

 hunting career lasted altogether something like 

 seventy-six years. Perhaps there was never a 

 more touching incident in the annals of fox- 

 hunting than when what was supposed to be 

 his ninetieth birthday — it was afterwards dis- 

 covered to be his ninety-first — was celebrated by 

 the presentation to him of his portrait ; and it 



was a mere superfluity on the part of the reporter 



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