31 8 HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS 



soddened by town-life, enervated, soft, purblind, and 

 emasculate. Any out-door sport or pastime, be it 

 hunting, athletics, football, cricket, or any other form 

 of exercise and training, must of necessity be invaluable 

 to such a civilisation as ours ; and these recreations 

 will, I am convinced, be, in the long run, the saving 

 of our manhood and of our country. Hunting, then, 

 in any form, whether it be fox-hunting for the rich 

 man, or hare-hunting with harriers or beagles for the 

 man of moderate means, is surely to be encouraged 

 by all means, by those who wish well to their country. 

 Indeed, it may be hoped and believed that hunting 

 never will die out of these islands so long as England 

 possesses pure air, open country, stout hares, and wild 

 foxes. I believe that if mounted men were ever 

 driven from the field by barbed wire, or other atro- 

 cities, some kind of hunting, whether with fox or hare, 

 would still be pursued on foot, so irrepressible and 

 inborn is the natural instinct of the chase in most men 

 of British blood. And if one might hazard a prophecy 

 — far distant may be the day of its fulfilment ! — it 

 is this, that when the last fox has been extirpated 

 from wild Britain, when the last mounted hunter 

 has leaped his final fence, or fallen a victim to barbed 

 wire, some faithful remnant of our descendants may 

 yet be found following the hare on foot, hunting her 

 down in the ancient manner of their forefathers with 

 beagle or harrier. 



If there should, unhappily, come a time when 

 hunting of any kind is brought to an end within our 

 borders, I am by no means certain that many of our 

 descendants may not be found settled in other and 

 wilder countries, or passing to and fro by some rapid 

 means of communication at present unknown to us, 

 still pursuing those field sports in which their hardy 



