The Sport of Our (^Ancestors 



enables us to see some of our ancestors, if not their sport, 

 as this humorous and acute observer himself saw them. 

 But we will pass on to ^The American Senator,^ published 

 twenty years later. 



The American Senator was one Mr. Elias Gotobed, the 

 Senator for Mickewa. He had ' very advanced opinions of 

 his own respecting government, liberty, and public institu- 

 tions in general.' Such was the man whom John Morton, 

 the Squire of Bragton, known as * the Paragon,' had for his 

 guest when the Ufford and RuiTord Hounds met close to 

 Bragton on the site of the Old Kennels. John Morton was 

 no Fox-hunter, but had just returned from his post as Secre- 

 tary of Legation at Washington, bringing with him the 

 American Senator, whom he proposed to entertain by taking 

 him out hunting on wheels. Trollope had spent some time 

 in America, so he thoroughly understood the point of view 

 of such a one as Mr. Gotobed. He also thoroughly under- 

 stood all the technique and psychology of the hunting-field. 

 Therefore the extracts from his book that we have chosen 

 bear the hall-mark of authority, and are written with a 

 certainty of touch that is the particular property of those 

 who know their subject. He was himself devoted to Fox- 

 hunting, and his custom was to rise very early, write no more 

 and no less than a certain prescribed number of words of the 

 book on which he was then engaged, meet a pack of Fox- 

 hounds within reach of London, return to his literary work, 

 and before going to bed, write the exact number of words 

 he had allotted to himself for his evening task. It sounds 

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