sport: 
23 
Worse still remains to be told. Not only do the titled classes 
countenance brutalising sport, but in one of its meanest and 
most contemptible manifestations it can boast the sanction and 
approval of Royalt\^ itself! A pamphlet written by the Rev. J. 
Stratton, and just issued bj’ the Humanitarian League,* calls 
attention in a simple but forcible manner to the brutalities per- 
petrated by Her ^^lajesty’s Buckhounds, and a petition praying 
for the abolition of this scandal has been prepared, and may be 
obtained from 32, Sackville Street. This “sport ” is carried on 
not only with the approval of Royalty, but at the expense of the 
nation. The “ IMaster of the Buckhounds ” receives a salary of 
£^1,500 a year, and other payments are made out of the Civil 
List. “ Is it right,” asks IMr. Stratton, “ that such money, voted 
by the representatives of the nation for a necessary purpose, 
should be spent on the organised torture of tame stags ? ” 
Space will not allow us to enter at length upon this question, 
but we should fail in our duty if we did not call the attention of 
Selbornians to it, now that public attention is being directed 
towards a remedying of this abuse. These unfortunate stags are, 
to all intents and purposes, tame animals. They are deprived 
of their antlers, their natural weapons of defence, and are turned 
loose in a country they do not know. Even those who consider 
the hunting of wild animals for sport legitimate, must surely be 
revolted when they read such an account as the following, con- 
tributed by “ An Old Sportsman,” to the Standard of November 
14th, 1889 : — 
“The above pack metat U.xbriclge Common to-day (November 13). The moment 
the pour stag was let out it was surrounded by a howling mob of men and boys. 
After a short run, and when dead beat, it stopped in the road, where — and I think 
all sportsmen will agree with me — it ought to have been roped and put into the 
cart ; inste.ad of which it was driven on .again, and in jumping a wire fence it tore 
a small place in its near side. The huntsman then attempted to rope it ; the poor 
brute was very frightened, and in trying to jump a garden fence it tore its stomach 
completely open, and its entrails rolled out. There were cries from the field — 
‘ Kill it ! kill it ! Cut its throat ! ’ The huntsman followed it to the back of the 
house, and with the help of some men caught it and killed it. ^Yill you believe it 
when I tell you that four women rode up to gaze on the dying agonies of the 
unfortunate animal ? And people call this sport ! I call it inhuman butchery. 
The sooner the slag hounds are abolished, the better it will be for all parties.” 
We heartily endorse Mr. Stratton’s remarks when he says : — 
“ It is not right to punish working men for inhumanity, when the same deeds go 
unpunished in the nobility and gentry. It is a flagrant act of injustice to prosecute 
a person who sets a dog at a cat, or beats a horse or donkey, while high people are 
allowed to treat harmless, sensitive deer with unrestrained cruelty. This inequality 
in administering the laws ought to be rectified without delay.” 
The wealthier classes are bound to set an example to those 
below them in social position, and it must be the part of every 
Selbornian to inculcate and emphasise the teaching of the poet — 
“ Never to blend our pleasure or our pride 
With sorrow of the meanest thing that feels.” 
* Royal Start : some facts coitcer 7 iin° the Queen^s Biickhoumls. Reeves, 181;, 
Fleet Street. 2d. 
