8 THE SPORT OF KINGS 



ruffians" by morbid humanitarians. It is a com- 

 pliment to be called names by such apologies for 

 men, and for their criticisms we need only care so 

 far as it is necessary to protect our sport from 

 their insidious attacks. The morbid humanitarian 

 on the war-path is a creature devoid of scruples ; 

 he is insidious in his attack ; he is persevering ; 

 but he is not dangerous if he be opposed thoroughly. 

 His chance is that he is despised by the good men 

 and true against whom he is working, and he 

 makes the most of his chance. In season and out 

 of season he should be opposed, and whatever he 

 may bring forward, it behoves sportsmen to see 

 that there is no attack against sport hidden under 

 his scheme, for, like the famous J. B., he is " sly, 

 sir, devilish sly." 



The charge of cruelty against fox-hunters has 

 been brought again and again by these humani- 

 tarians, but they never make good their case. 

 There is a story told of a hunting man, who, 

 when assailed as to this side of his favourite sport, 

 said, " Why, everything likes hunting ; I like it, 

 the horse likes it, the hounds like it, and I verily 

 believe the foxes like to be hunted." Here is the 

 same thought, which, of course, the supercilious 

 humanitarian turns up his virtuous nose at, ex- 

 pressed in different words — the words of a great 

 man, whose name will live for ever in the history 

 of his country. He imagines a fox addressing the 

 humanitarians after the abolition of fox-hunting : — 



" Formerly we were allowed six months in 

 the year to gain our livelihood and bring up our 

 families in quiet ; many of us, it is true, were 

 destroyed in the course of the winter, but that 

 was the fortune of war, and the enemv did not 



