NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



paper in the Freeholder, depicts the unwonted arrival 

 in town of one of these Tory fox-hunters, who had come 

 up *' in order to give his testimony for one of the 

 rebels, whom he knew to be a very fair sportsman." 

 I am afraid that Addison's opinion of the fox-hunting 

 squire of that period was not of the highest. But then 

 Addison was diametrically opposed in politics to the 

 Jacobites, and held high office under George I. He 

 is constantly poking fun at the poor gentleman. 

 He represents him, in another number of the Free- 

 holder, as complaining that there had been "no good 

 weather since the Revolution." And he makes the 

 same fox-hunter proceed to expatiate on "the fine 

 weather they used to have in Charles the Second's 

 reign." Times have changed indeed since the days 

 of these fine old crusted Tories of the Queen Anne and 

 early Georgian period. A man may now be as strong 

 a supporter of Radical principles as you please and yet 

 be a staunch fox-hunter. One example among many 

 hundreds will suffice. Earl Spencer has always been, 

 to the very last, one of the keenest supporters of Mr. 

 Gladstone's policy. Yet there is no more ardent fox- 

 hunter in England than his lordship ; as witness his 

 various masterships of the Pytchley hounds, and his 

 presence in many a good run during the last forty years 

 over the noble grass pastures of Northamptonshire. 



Fox-hunting, although during the nineteenth century 

 it had attained so amazing a popularity, and now 

 attracts a crowd of votaries of all sorts and conditions, 

 was, in the first instance, designed only for the enjoy- 

 ment of the squires and their immediate friends, as well 

 as the parson, the doctor, the yeomen, tenant farmers, 

 and a few others from the neighbouring countryside. 

 In truth, this seems to be the most proper and reason- 

 able way in which hunting should be enjoyed. The 



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