LETTER XXVII. 299 



wide world, for both size, symmetry, speed, and lasting 

 qualities. Upon this ground racing may be defended, 

 and ought to be supported ; but steeple-chasing answers 

 no such purpose, and I think decidedly it should come 

 under Mr. Martin's Act, and be punished as all wanton 

 cruelty to animals deserves to be. 



Next in order to steeple-chasing, and twin sister to it, 

 stands calf-hunting, or as it is pompously designated at 

 the head of hunting appointments, ** Stag-Hunting.'* 

 Now, stag-hunting formerly was a noble sport, and 

 patronised by royalty. It bears as much affinity to the 

 calf-hunting of the present time as hunting wild foxes 

 does to turning down bagmen. To rouse a wild deer 

 from his lair of heather on the mountain top, view him 

 as he stands erect, his wide-spread antlers flashing in 

 the morning sun, as if defying the approach of man, is 

 rather a different affair to seeing a poor wretched animal, 

 shorn of his chief beauty, bundled out at the tail of a 

 cart, and oftentimes whipped to make him run. I can- 

 not call this by any other name than calf-hunting. Stag- 

 hunting, in the true acceptation of the term, it is not. 

 It does very well for the cockney sportsman of the vast 



metropolis. 



The flourishing tradesman takes down his wife and 

 children on Easter Monday to treat them to a holiday 

 on the occasion of the grand turn-out, himself mounted 

 on a borrowed hackney for the day. The carriage con- 

 taining his precious ones is drawn up to have a good 

 view of the scene, whilst papa is nervously preparing 

 himself for the coming fray. *' La, pa," cries out Master 

 Thomas, " where is the stag ?" " There he is, my dear, 

 in that cart." " I can t see any thing of him, pa." 



