36 SPORT. 



the whole, fox-hunting brings happiness to all — the 

 fox, when killed or hard run excepted — but I cannot 

 go into the larger question of humanitarian sentiment ; 

 he is often noi killed ; and till he is, leads a jovial life, 

 feasting on the best, and thief, villain, and murderer 

 as he is, protected even by the ruthless gamekeeper. 

 In return for this his day of atonement must come. 

 But for the sport, he would not have existed ; and 

 when he dies gallantly in the open, as in the run above 

 depicted, his sufferings are short. I myself like not 

 the last scene of some hunts, when, his limbs having 

 failed him, the poor fox is driven to depend on the 

 resources of his vulpine brain alone. Often have I 

 turned aside, declining to witness the little stratagems 

 of his then piteous cunning ; nay, more, I confess, 

 when I alone have come across the hiding-place of a 

 "beaten fox," and he has, so to speak, confided his 

 secret to me with his upturned and indescribably 

 appealing eye, it has been sacred with me ; I have 

 retired softly, and rejoiced with huge joy when the 

 huntsman at last called away his baffled pack. 



