THE HORSE. 225 



excessive damage done to their crops by hunting; 

 indeed such is the only indemnity that a tenant can 

 expect, since however the law may appear to be on 

 his side, it is a mode of relief to which, for the most 

 obvious reasons, he must be little inclined to have 

 recourse. 



No countries in the world are so enthusiastically 

 devoted to field sports, merely as sports, and pursued 

 on regular systematic principles, as our three United 

 Kingdoms; and of all our sports, hunting, especi- 

 ally foxhunting, is the most popular. The rage 

 for hunting some animal or other, seems instinct in 

 the breasts of our children, and to grow with their 

 growth, whence it happens that, in our towns even, 

 this hunting mania prevails to the persecution of any 

 and every unfortunate animal that may present ; and 

 to this source may be traced the abominable and 

 dangerous bullock hunting in the streets of the me- 

 tropolis. Thus a practice unobjectionable, and even 

 necessary in itself, and its legitimate exercise, may 

 be liable to very gross abuses, demanding the point- 

 ing out and reprobation of the moralists, and the 

 earnest solicitude of those parents and instructors in 

 whose province it lies to form and regulate the minds 

 of youth. 



Though, according to the opinions and expecta- 

 tions of philosophic or polite authors, field sports 

 ought to decline in proportion to the advance of in- 

 tellectual improvement in a country, their vaticina- 

 tion has at no rate proved genuine with respect to 

 Britain. Instead of a decline, our sports, both of the 

 field and turf, and every kind, have experienced an 



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