82 SPORTS AND ANECDOTES. 



" They can't make him run if there is no scent. A 

 good scent makes a good fox, Mr. C." And no 

 doubt this is the right construction to put upon the 

 matter ; but even a bad scent and a bad fox seem 

 to me more worthy objects than hunting an unfortu- 

 nate stag, unless, like the fox, he is a wild one. 



It seems to me legitimate to hunt any really wild 

 animal found in a wild state ; and be it a flea that 

 annoys you, or a bug that you find creeping stealthily 

 away up the curtain in your lodgings in London, when 

 you return at early dawn from a ball you have been 

 attending, or if it should chance to be such an inferior 

 animal as a louse, which has by some unknown acci- 

 dent got into your Indian gauze jersey, I say hunt 

 him by all means, hunt him to death by every ruse 

 you can, and when you've caught him, kill him 

 kill him and eat him, if you like, for he was a wild 

 fox, and therefore fair play. 



Not so the poor stag, who in his natural state 

 is one of the finest animals in the creation. What 

 a noble fellow he looks, with his antlers stretching 

 out so proudly, and seeming to bid defiance to all 

 comers ! On the other hand, what a miserable devil 

 he looks when he is got up for a meet of the stag- 

 hounds at Salt Hill or Slough, and put into a cart 



