2% THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 



might put it to the test. You will say, perhaps, there is 

 ) something too laborious in the occupation of a huntsman, 

 ' for a gentleman to take it upon himself; you may also 

 think it is beneath him ; I agree with you in both ; yet I 

 hope that he may have leave to understand it. — If he 

 follow the diversion, it is a sign of his liking it ; and if 

 he like it, surely it is some disgrace to him to be ignorant 

 of the means most conducive to it, 



• I FIND there will be no necessity to say much to you 

 in commendation of a diversion which you professedly ad- 

 mire* : it would be needless, therefore, to enumerate the 

 heroes of antiquity who were taught the art of hunting, or 



* Since the above was written, hunting has undergone a severe cen, 

 sure (vide Monthly Review for September, 1781) ; nor will any thing 

 satisfy the critic, less than its total abolition. He recommends feats of 

 agility to be praftised and exhibited instead of it. Whether the amend* 

 ment proposed by the learned gentleman be desirable or not, I shall for- 

 bear to determine ; taking the liberty, however, to remind him, that as 

 hunting hath stood its ground from the earliest times, been encouraged 

 and approved by the best authorities, and praftised by the greatest men, 

 it cannot now be supposed either to dread criticism, or to need support. 

 Hunting originates in Nature itself; and it is in perfed correspondence 

 with this law of Nature, that the several animals are provided with neces- 

 sary jaieans of attack and defence. 



