CHAPTER III 



TRAINING AND HUNTING 



THE sport of hunting wild animals on 

 their native heath, whether with hound 

 or gun, is the natural recreation of man. 

 Love of hunting in its different phases is one 

 of the strongest characteristics of the human 

 race, the principles and methods of which were 

 instilled into our remote ancestors and rightly 

 inherited by us ; and he who has once tasted the 

 sweets of foxhunting is its devotee for life. 

 When the system has once absorbed the love 

 of the chase it never can be eradicated. 



In this country, since the earliest days of 

 colonization, the sport of foxhunting has 

 thrived with unflagging, in fact increasing, 

 enthusiasm. Our early ancestors, especially in 

 Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky, were dev- 

 otees of the sport, and every country gentle- 

 man owned his pack of hounds and stable of 

 horses; but the first organized hunt club on the 



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