2 THE SPORT OF KINGS 



is a fine shot, he acquitted himself well, and he 

 thinks and talks more about those ten brace of 

 grouse which fell to his gun than of all the 

 excellent days' sport he had seen throughout his 

 thirty years' experience. To him those grouse 

 will always be as fresh as they were when the thud, 

 thud, thud of their bodies on the moor brought 

 music to his ear. 



And as every season brings its pleasures, so 

 does the fox-hunting season bring the greatest 

 pleasure of all. There may be some — as a matter 

 of fact, there are some — who soon drop out of the 

 ranks of fox-hunters, men who perhaps go well for 

 two or three seasons, and then, either from loss of 

 nerve or from self-indulgence, or from giving way 

 to the enticements of her whom Horace so aptly 

 styles " the Siren Sloth," give up hunting alto- 

 gether. But even they, I fancy, have their 

 moments of regret when they see " the glad throng 

 that rides laughing along," or when they hear of 

 a gallant run over a country in which they once 

 showed to advantage. 



It is not with the man who hunts for a season 

 or two, and then gives up of his own accord, that 

 I have to deal. Whatever may have been his 

 motive in taking to the sport — and bear in mind 

 that no man can take to fox-hunting from a bad 

 or selfish motive, for hunting is essentially a social 

 sport — he has never really had the genuine love of 

 hunting in him. It is the man to the manner 

 born, for nascitur non jit applies to the fox-hunter 

 as it does to poet, painter, and gentleman, who 

 sees in the sport of kings an infinite variety ; to 

 whom, in his sere old age, hounds and their doings 

 excite as keen an interest as in his eager youth. 



