88 STAG-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



between stag-hunting and railway travelling, there is in 

 the reasoning process which should be applied to both. 



And now for a moment let us turn from the opponents 

 to the defenders of the Buckhounds, and see what they have 

 to say about it all. The opposition to the Queen's Hounds, 

 as I understand their case, concentrates upon a charge of 

 colossal cruelty ; the defence, speaking broadly, takes its 

 stand upon a flat denial of cruelty, and a muscular ' all 



d d rot ' to any ethical considerations which may be 



advanced. 



Kolands and Olivers of this build are as unlikely to 

 compose their differences as opposite angles or the Irish 

 party, and are best left to themselves. But speaking more 

 particularly, I remember being told by several people who 

 claimed to have given special attention to the subject, that 

 the agitation against the Buckhounds was only the first 

 parallel of a general attack upon all field sports, and upon 

 hunting in particular. I confess that is not the impression I 

 have formed. Here and there no doubt people may exist 

 who, in the matter of field sports, are of the sour mind of 

 Lord Macaulay's Puritans. Here and there an individual 

 may be cited who, for some reason or for no reason, honestly 

 dislikes hunting ; I have read that the late Professor Free- 

 man became so angry as to alarm his family whenever he 

 heard the cry of foxhounds running. But at all events 

 neither the Archbishop of Canterbury nor Mr. Stratton can 

 be included amongst these eccentrics. 



Let us devote a moment to the Archbishop in this con- 

 nection. The Archbishop of Canterbury thinks a pack of 

 hounds a very proper appanage of Eoyalty. And, with a 

 superfluity of charity, he recently placed himself at the head 

 of a number of well intentioned gentlemen who seriously 

 recommend to Lord Salisbury the transformation of the Buck- 

 hounds into a National Drag-hunt. Now a National Drag-hunt 



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