148 FOX-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



on Hunting. Since then there have been count- 

 less works on the same subject, but to this day 

 Beckford still holds his own as our greatest 

 authority, and some of his maxims might still 

 be engraved in eternal brass. 



What could be better than this ? '' It is said, 

 there is a pleasure in being mad, which only mad 

 men know ; and it is the enthusiasm, I believe, 

 of fox-hunting which is its best support ; strip 

 it of that, and you then, I think, had better let 

 it quite alone/' 



I 



