56 THE COMPLETE AFGLEK. [PART I. 



teaches man to do the like ! 1 The earth feeds and carries 

 those horses that carry us. If I would be a prodigal of 

 my time and your patience, what might not I say in com- 

 mendation of the earth ? That puts limits to the proud 

 and raging sea and by that means preserves both man 

 and beast, that it destroys them not, as we see it daily 

 doth those that venture upon the sea, and are there ship- 

 wrecked, drowned, and left to feed haddocks; when we 

 that are so wise as to keep ourselves on earth, walk and talk, 

 and live, and eat, and drink, and go a hunting : of which 

 recreation I will say a little, and then leave Mr. Piscator to 

 the commendation of angling. 



Hunting 2 is a game for princes and noble persons; 

 it hath been highly prized in all ages ; it was one of 

 the qualifications that Xenophon bestowed on his Cyrus, 3 

 that he was a hunter of wild beasts. Hunting trains 

 up the younger nobility to the use of manly exercises 

 in their riper age. What more manly exercise than hunt- 

 ing the wild boar, the stag, the buck, the fox, or the hare ? 

 How doth it preserve health, and increase strength and 

 activity ! 4 



And for the dogs that we use, who can commend their 

 excellency to that height which they deserve ? How perfect 

 is the hound at smelling, who never leaves or forsakes his 

 first scent, but follows it through so many changes and 

 varieties of other scents, even over, and in, the water, and 

 into the earth? What music doth a pack of dogs then 

 make to any man, whose heart and ears are so happy as to 

 be set to the tune of such instruments ! How will a right 

 greyhound fix his eye on the best buck in a herd, single 



1 See a very curious and entertaining account of the industry and saga- 

 city of this little insect in " The Guardian," No. 156 ; also an interesting 

 account of English Ants, by the Rev. William Gould, 1747, and another by 

 Huber. ED. 



2 It may be remarked that the passages relating to hunting, hawking, 

 and angling are copied nearly verbatim in "The Gentleman's Recreation ; 

 or a Treatise on Hunting, Hawking, Fowling, Fishing," (by Nic. Cox), 

 8vo. 1674. The praises here inserted on hawking and hunting are not 

 in Walton's first edition. ED. 



3 See Xenophon's "Cyropsedia," book i., chap. v. 



4 A pack of fox hounds has lately been sent to the Crimea to amuse the 

 officers during the winter campaign. The Duke of Wellington kept a pack 

 when in Spain. 



