108 THE ETON COLLEGE HUNT. 



like to follow that up by saying that the sport of hunting 

 compares very favourably with other sports from a hmnanitarian 

 view. Take shooting ; how many animals and birds in a day's 

 shooting get away wounded, many to die a lingering death? 

 Quite a considerable percentage. In hunting it is certain death 

 or escape, and, though cases are known of hunted animals being 

 picked up afterwards having died of exhaustion, these cases are 

 exceptional. They never get away wounded, and their end when 

 killed by hounds is as quick as it is certain. I imagine there are 

 more things mortally wounded in a big day's covert shoot than 

 any one pack of hounds kills in a season, and I venture to think 

 that taking the country as a whole there are more wounded in 

 one day's shooting than all the packs in the kingdom kill in a 

 whole season. 



I recall an incident Avhen hunting in Lanarkshire which 

 illustrates the often mistaken ideas of humanitarians. I had a 

 beaten hare in front of me that took to the roads. I came to a 

 cross road where hounds checked, and met a lady whom I asked 

 if she had viewed my hare. She said yes, but she would rather 

 not tell me where she had gone, as she looked on hunting as cruel. 

 I told her I respected her feelings of humanity, and if I were of 

 her opinion I would give up hunting. I asked her her views on 

 shooting and whether she did not think it was cruel that so many 

 things died from wounds. She replied, *' No good sportsmen 

 ever wound things, they always kill them dead." How many of 

 us, I wonder, could under this definition claim to be good 

 sportsmen ? 



An officei of that excellent Society the S.P.C.A.. once met 

 me returning home with hounds from hunting, and, noticing a 

 lame hound, was going to run me in for cruelty. I told him if 

 he could insure prevention of such cruelty I hoped he would come 

 and stay with me for the winter. 



Some people would have us believe that a hunted animal 

 suffers agonies of mind (vide Modern Society, 18th February, 

 1899), and Somervile's Chace conveys that impression. This no 

 one who has had much experience of hunting believes. Many of 

 these animals spend their lives in a state of being hunted by 

 others, dogs, cats, vermin, etc., and they are chiefly occupied in 

 avoiding their natural enemies. Fright they may feel, as a hare 

 will if put up by a person walking across a field, but their 

 attempts at escape are their only thought, and they do not realise 

 the penalty of being caught. I don't think they are at all 

 distressed until they are dead beat, when the end generally comes 

 quickly and surely. 



