24 HUNTING. 



deserves not the name of a huntsman, for generally they use 

 the same sleights, doublings and crossings.' In Shakespeare's 

 immortal stanzas, of the three beasts which the love-sick 

 goddess advises her flinty-hearted boy to ' uncouple at : ' 



the timorous flying hare, 

 Or at the fox which lives by subtlety, 

 Or at the roe which no encounter dare, 



the first is evidently the chase the poet knew best, though from 

 his compassionate epithets he seems, like a later bard, to have 

 thought it but a ' poor triumph.' Thomson, as we know, held 

 this opinion, and urged the ' sylvan youth ' of Britain, since 

 such noble prey as ' the roused-up lion,' or the 'grim wolf,' or 

 the ' blinded boar,' are not for them, to direct their energies 

 against the fox. 



Your sportive fury, pitiless, to pout 

 Loose on the nightly robber of the fold : 

 Him, from his craggy winding haunts unearth'd, 

 Let all the thunder of the chase pursue. 

 Throw the broad ditch behind you ; o'er the hedge 

 High bound, resistless ; nor the deep morass 

 Refuse, but through the shaking wilderness 

 Pick your nice way ; into the perilous flood 

 Bear fearless, of the raging instinct full ; 

 And as you ride the torrent, to the banks 

 Your triumph sound sonorous, running round, 

 From rock to rock, in circling echoes toss'd ; 

 Then scale the mountains to their woody tops ; 

 Rush down the dangerous steep ; and o'er the lawn 

 In fancy swallowing up the space between, 

 Pour all your speed into the rapid game ; 

 For happy he who tops the wheeling chase ; 

 Has every maze evolved, and every guile 

 Disclosed ; who knows the merits of the pack \ 

 Who saw the villain seized, and dying hard, 

 Without complaint, though by a hundred mouths 

 Relentless torn : O glorious he, beyond 

 His daring peers ! 



