A HUNDRED YEARS AGO n 



quite recent times, and they quote the fox-hunters' 

 orgy in Thomson's "Seasons" as an accurate de- 

 scription of how the hunting world went then. It 

 may be urged with justice that Thomson and 

 Fielding wrote more than a hundred years ago, 

 and that therefore the hunting man of a hundred 

 years ago is not affected by what they wrote. It 

 can, moreover, be stated without fear of contra- 

 diction that more than a hundred years ago fox- 

 hunting was 



Pastime for princes, prime sport of our nation, 



and that men of refinement and education joined in 

 the sport as freely as they do in these days. The 

 social customs of a hundred years ago were, of 

 course, different from what they are now, a differ- 

 ent standard of manners prevailed, and it is as unfair 

 to sneer at fox-hunting because of the vulgarities 

 of Squire Western as it would be to disparage 

 literature on account of the eccentricities of Henry 

 Fielding himself. 



A hundred years ago hunting was principally 

 confined to country gentlemen, well-to-do farmers, 

 and, perhaps, the parson and the village doctor, 

 who resided within the limits of the hunt ; though, 

 of course, even in those days, Melton was a fashion- 

 able resort, and the Shires were beginning to be 

 looked upon as the desideratum of the hunting 

 man. But it may be laid down as an absolute 

 fact that in and about the year 1796 nearly all 

 men hunted from home, and that when our fore- 

 fathers went to hunt the fox, 



In broad lapped coat, top boots, black cap, and a pigtail 

 sticking out, 



they probably knew every man over whose land 



