The Sport of Our (^Ancestors 



Such hounds will not suffer themselves to be disgraced 

 in any country.' His remarks about the handling of Hounds 

 in the field are as fresh to-day as on the day they were 

 written. He liked to see the thing neatly and quickly 

 done, with the least possible expenditure of time and tissue. 

 Fox-hunting had become the amusement of gentlemen, 

 * the intemperance, clownishness, and ignorance of the old 

 fox-hunter ' being ' quite worn out.' It therefore ought to 

 be carried out in a gentlemanly manner at a gentlemanly 

 hour, though, if Hounds are out of blood, they should be 

 taken out at an early hour when the Fox has a full belly, 

 so as to give them every advantage. Beckford is indeed 

 sound according to the light of modern experience on 

 almost every point. 



There are, however, two points on which we venture to 

 disagree with him. One is his recommendation that barley- 

 meal should be mixed with the oatmeal. We have before 

 us an edition of ' Thoughts upon Hunting ' printed in 1798, 

 with pencil notes in the margin evidently written by some 

 old M.F.H. who knew what he was talking about. ' Don't 

 use barley at all,' says he ; ' oatmeal and flesh are the best 

 possible food for hounds.' And later on, ' Hounds cannot 

 run on barley-meal, as those who try will prove it.' This 

 gentleman was quite correct, if not quite grammatical. 

 The other matter in which Beckford may be said to be 

 heterodox is with regard to some remarks he makes about 

 the use of the whip. After posing as an opponent of any 

 unnecessary punishment as being nothing less than gratui- 

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