THE TRINITY FOOT BEAGLES 



CHAPTEE I 



THE BARBARIANS 



There was a youth, and a well-beloved youth, 

 And he was a squi-er's son. 



Old Emjlish Ballad. 



T is beyond doubt that primaeval man hunted 

 wild animals for food, and later, perchance, 

 learned to cook them : that was in the 

 days of barbarism. As time went on, and 

 men learned to grow crops and to keep 

 sheep, the necessity of hunting disappeared, 

 but not the joy of it. For example, the 

 Patriarch Isaac was a lover of savoury 

 meat : this, as is shown in Holy Writ, 

 could be more easily procured from among 

 the kids of his flock than from the beasts 

 of the wild, and when skilfully dressed, 

 was quite as good to eat. Yet he had a son, 

 Esau, who was a cunning hunter and man of the field, and preferred 

 the more difficult and adventurous methods of stocking the family 

 larder because they were "good hunting." Esau was, moreover, a 

 thorough sportsman in his good qualities as well as in his defects ; 

 unfortunately he is not the only sportsman w^ho has sold his birth- 

 right for a mess of pottage ; but he had none of the meaner vices 

 of his more respectable brother, whose enlightened self-interest 

 outran the limits of common honesty. 



1 B 



