The Sport of Our Ancestors 



was able to reduce to writing the result of his keen observation, 

 and to do it in a style which is so readable. He never gets 

 very far away from the laugh. He writes so naturally and 

 fluently that he sometimes gets a little oflp the line, and then 

 sets himself straight by a footnote. For instance, in this 

 Letter XX. he opens up a very interesting speculation by 

 saying that it is a great fault in a huntsman to persevere in 

 bad weather, when Hounds cannot run, and when there 

 is not a probability of killing a Fox. But no sooner are the 

 words written than he detects the underlying fallacy of this 

 proposition, and says that although he would not go out 

 on a very windy day, * yet a bad scenting day is sometimes 

 of service to a pack of foxhounds — they acquire patience 

 from it and method of hunting.' 



Perhaps Beckford paid all the expenses himself and owned 

 the Hounds he hunted, and in the Dorsetshire of the eighteenth 

 century only had a small band of followers, probably consist- 

 ing of a few neighbouring squires, to propitiate. If so, he 

 could pick his days and go home when he liked. A modern 

 M.F.H. is expected to hunt in all weathers except a hard 

 frost or a dense fog. This convention saves trouble in the 

 long run. Who shall say what is the exact degree of wind 

 that should keep the Hounds at home } How did Mr. Beckford 

 know that the tempest would not abate in the afternoon } 



Letter XHL, which is here presented, is the best de- 

 scription of a run from the point of view of the Hound 

 man that has yet appeared in print. The author was a 

 Hound man, first and last and all the time. * Thoughts upon 

 no 



