THE TKINITY FOOT BEAGLES 



on your behind legs is not the exhilarating thing that it is to be 

 going one's best on a good horse in that indescribable state of super- 

 confidence known as having ones " blood up " : contrariwise one 

 runs to hunt. But incidentally the running is good, and you must 

 be young and sound to keep going day after day ; and you run to 

 see "good hunting." Beagling, therefore, is a sport for youthful 

 Esaus, not only because of the wholesome and comparatively 

 inexpensive exercise which it provides, but also for the knowledge 

 of hound lore which it affords. Not that it is impossible for the 

 middle-aged and heavy to see the fun : on the contrary, as hares 

 seldom run straight, it is possible for such to forecast the line and 

 so bring themselves in by the use of their brains. The Univer- 

 sities therefore being a place of meeting for undergraduate youth and 

 crabbed donnish age, beagling should be a form of hunting peculiarly 

 fitted for those sportsmen, usually of modest 

 means, whose studies or whose life-work takes 

 them to Oxford or Cambridge. This brings us to 

 consider the position of sport in the Universities. 

 During the Lent Term of 1912 a long, sym- 

 pathetic, and carefully written article appeared in 

 the Cambridge Review dealing with the " Ethics 

 of Sport," from the point of view of the large 

 part which sport appears to play in University 

 life ; it concluded, mirahile dictu, with the follow- 

 ing paragraph : — 



" Another charge which is frequently brought 

 against sport is that it tends to brutalise those 

 who participate in it. As regards certain forms 

 of amusement which are commonly called sport, 

 the charge is a just one. Killing for the joy of 

 killing (sic) is morally unjustifiable, and the day 

 which sees legislation against fox-hunting and 

 the shooting of birds will be a creditable one for 

 the English nation. Such ' sports ' should be 

 relegated to the memories of the past : they 

 are utterly unworthy of their name." 



Middle-aged and Heavy. 



