PREFACE. XI 



who have a right to be, and are, even around the 

 royal stand at Ascot. The lower orders ought to be 

 the better for him, instead of his being the worse for 

 them ; and I do not hesitate to say that, by practical 

 experience, I have found it so. There used to be a 

 vulgar idea, that " a fox-hunter" was unfit for, or 

 dumb in the drawing-room, or in ladies' society : 

 and, indeed, I have seen gentlemen whose heads were 

 capable of but one idea, and that not a very clear 

 one, who had no other conversation than that per- 

 taining to a horse or hound. This should not be ; 

 and among rational men, capable of making the most 

 of the animals they use, it will not be so, for they will 

 exercise the joyous chase as a relaxation from the 

 more important business of life, and not as the chief 

 object of existence, and return from the forest, the 

 river, the field, or the fair combat, only too happy 

 again to share in the refined, the grateful, and grace- 

 ful society of woman. 



