HUNTING THE FOX 185 



But it is irresistible to pay a tribute of sincere 

 admiration to Mr. Masefield's recent work entitled 

 Reynard the Fox, which will take a very prominent 

 place on the shelves of most hunting libraries. 

 There has been but one voice among both hunting 

 and non-hunting people in proclaiming its excel- 

 lence. Had Dr. Johnson seen it he would have 

 had to revise his maxim already quoted in this 

 chapter, that "it is impossible to interest the 

 common readers of verse in the dangers and 

 pleasures of the chase." The feelings of the 

 hunters and the hunted, and in fact the whole spirit 

 of an English hunting country, have never been so 

 faithfully portrayed in rhythm and metre. There 

 has been some discussion among Fox-hunters as 

 to whether Mr. Masefield has committed any 

 solecisms in the matter of hunting technique. To 

 say that he had done so would be to prick spots 

 upon the sun. Yet the Hounds of Sir Peter Bynd 

 would surely have been worthy of a place in the 

 Foxhound Kennel Stud Book, which you may 

 search from end to end without finding any Hound's 

 name expressed by a monosyllable, such as "Queen." 

 The reason of this is that names of a single syllable 

 do not carry when called out in the field so well as 

 names of two or three syllables. The names that 

 are in most general use are what would be described 

 in terms of prosody as dactyls, spondees, and 

 trochees. But possibly Mr. Masefield has authority 



