FOX-HUNTING 

 I 



To speak of the early days of a comparatively 

 ■modern sport like steeplecliasing is, it will 

 readily be seen, a very different matter from 

 embarking on a description, however slight, 

 of olden time hunting. " Lost in the mists 

 of antiquity " is a phrase that would be no 

 more true to apply to the beginning of the 

 sport than " Lost in the mazes of perplexity," 

 if applied to the seeker after such prehistoric 

 knowledge. And, indeed, if it were intended 

 to amplify the present small tome into a work 

 of as many volumes as "Harry Hieover," of 

 immortal memory, produced, there would 

 still be insufficient space to give anything 

 more than a mere glossary of the doings in 

 a pastime of which Homer sang, and wherein 

 Xenophon took part. 



