Hunting Is A Mimicry Of The Mediaeval Chase, And This Is The
Nineteenth Century Of The Socialist, Yet Every Man Of The Fields Loves To
Hear The Horn And The Burst Of The Hounds.
Never was shooting, for
instance, carried to such perfection, perfect guns made with scientific
accuracy, plans of campaign among the pheasants set out with diagrams as
if there was going to be a battle of Blenheim in the woods.
To be a
successful sportsman nowadays you must be a well-drilled veteran, never
losing presence of mind, keeping your nerve under fire - flashes to the
left of you, reports to the right of you, shot whistling from the second
line - a hero amid the ceaseless rattle of musketry and the 'dun hot
breath of war.' Of old time the knight had to go through a long course of
instructions. He had to acquire the - manege - of his steed, the use of the
lance and sword, how to command a troop, and how to besiege a castle.
Till perfect in the arts of war and complete in the minutiae of falconry
and all the terms of the chase, he could not take his place in the ranks
of men. The English country gentleman who now holds something the same
position socially as the knight, is not a sportsman till he can use the
breechloader with terrible effect at the pheasant-shoot, till he can
wield the salmon-rod, or ride better than any Persian. Never were
people - people in the widest sense - fonder of horses and dogs, and every
kind of animal, than at the present day.
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