1 1 4 The Poets Beasts. 



And though the fox he follows may be tanned, 



A mere fox-follower never is reclaimed : ^ 



Some farrier should prescribe his proper course 



Whose only fit companion is his horse : 



Or if deserving of a better doom 



The nobler beast judge otherwise, his groom." 



The squire, when he goes to the cover-side, never affects 

 a sympathy with chickens, or maudles about " the turkey's 

 callow care." Most of the hunt are there because they 

 enjoy the excitement of the hard ride, a few because they 

 take an extra pleasure in seeing hounds working well, but 

 all of them hunt the fox because it is brave. Probably, also, 

 not a man in the field, except the huntsman, cares whether 

 the fox is killed or not. They want to overtake it, to break 

 down the pluck of the "game " little beast by a combination 

 of their hounds' sagacity, their horses' power, and their own 

 straight riding. The huntsman likes to see the fox killed 

 simply from a professional point of view. It encourages 

 the pack, and the brush is "good for a sovereign." But the 

 fox-hunting poet musters his hounds and huntsmen out of 

 sheer revenge, and murderously pursues the fox because it 

 has killed a chicken,' and exults over the actual mangling 

 of the little body. 



" Here, huntsman, from this height 

 Observe yon birds of prey ; if I can judge 

 'Tis there the villain lurks, they hover round, 

 And claim him as their own. Was I not right ? 

 See ! there he creeps along, his brush he drags, 

 And sweeps the mire impure : from his wide jaws 

 His tongue unmoisten'd hangs, symptoms too sure 

 Of sudden death. 



Ha ! yet he flies, nor yields 

 To black despair. But one loose more, and all 



* " The fox's brusli still emulous to wear, 

 He scours tiic county in his elbow-chair." 



— Rogers : Pleasures of Memory. 



