SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 415 



natural? Since the time of Ninirod the love of 

 hunting or venery has been natural to mankind ; and 

 it is nowhere so generally displayed as by the inha- 

 bitants of our British Isles. From rich to poor, from 

 childhood to manhood, men were not only " deceivers," 

 but hunters ever of some kind of game. Rabbit- 

 hunting and rat-catching are to the boy what fox- 

 hunting is to the man. They follow the instinctive 

 impulses of their nature, as dogs and other animals 

 of prey do theirs. It may be a humiliating confes- 

 sion^ yet the fact is so. Nimrod was a mighty 

 hunter; and we find the privilege of hunting and 

 capturing animals, birds, and fishes conferred in 

 these words upon Noah and his descendants : — 

 " The fear of you, and the dread of you, shall be 

 upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl 

 of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and 

 upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are 

 they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth 

 shall be meat for you." Reasonably, therefore, we 

 may say that hunting is our natural sport — battue 

 shooting unnatural, because it involves no risk, no 

 excitement, no labour, no use of skill or science in 

 the acquirement of our game ; and it is like a whole- 

 sale haul of herrings or mackerel in comparison with 

 hooking and landing a salmon of twenty pounds 

 weight. 



Well, we don't quarrel with people merely because 

 our opinions, tastes, and pursuits differ, or we should 

 be for ever quarrelUng. We may, however, offer 

 this piece of advice to game preservers, who too 

 often pretend to preserve foxes also — secretly con- 



