THE BENEFIT OF FIELD SPORTS 79 



of betting men. Spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur 

 et ipsi. 



In a social point of view, therefore, fox-hunting is 

 productive of some benefit, as tending to keep up good 

 fellowship and communion amongst those who, living 

 out of visiting distances from each other, would otherwise 

 have perhaps few opportunites of meeting. It is also in 

 the zenith of its season when all other country amusements, 

 save shooting and coursing, are at a stand, and when 

 Members of Parliament have laid aside the weightier 

 concerns of the nation, to luxuriate in their country 

 seats, and give some little relaxation to their wearied 

 frames and over-worked brains. To those, of course, 

 I allude, who have any brains to work for the good of 

 their country, not to the drones of the hive. It is not 

 necessary to argue, as some have, that fox-hunting and 

 field-sports deserve support on account of the influence 

 they may possess in attaching our aristocracy and landed 

 proprietors to their homes, although no doubt many 

 are swayed by these considerations ; but notwith- 

 standing the devious spirit of the age, the instinctive 

 love of country animates still the breast of every true 

 Briton whose heart responds to the words of the o]d song — 



'Midst pleasures and palaces though we may roam, 

 Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home. 



Neither shall I enter on another favourite plea so often 

 used by the advocates of fox-hunting, as to its utility 

 in causing money to flow more readily into the pockets 

 of the farmers for the enhanced value of their produce ; 

 such being admitted to be the case in the neighbourhood 

 of large hunting establishments. Irrespective of these 

 advantages to the country, the employment it affords 



