nt day, on Exmoor,
where the wild stag is still found, its chase ranks ahead of that of
the fox. It is not really the hunting proper which is the point of
fox-hunting. It is the horsemanship, the galloping and jumping, and the
being out in the open air. Very naturally, however, men who have passed
their lives as fox-hunters grow to regard the chase and the object of
it alike with superstitious veneration. They attribute almost mythical
characters to the animal. I know some of my good Virginian friends, for
instance, who seriously believe that the Virginia red fox is a beast
quite unparalleled for speed and endurance no less than for cunning.
This is of course a mistake. Compared with a wolf, an antelope, or even
a deer, the fox's speed and endurance do not stand very high. A good
pack of hounds starting him close would speedily run into him in the
open. The reason that the hunts last so long in some cases is because
of the nature of the ground which favors the fox at the expense of the
dogs, because of his having the advantage in the start, and because
of his cunning in turning to account everything which will tell in his
favor and against his pursuers. In the same way I know plenty of English
friends who speak with bated breath of fox-hunting but look down upon
riding to drag-hounds. Of course there is a difference in the two
sports, and the fun of actually hunting the wild beast in the one case
more than compensates for the fact that in the other the riding is
apt to be harder and the jumping higher; but both sports are really
artificial, and in their essentials alike. To any man who has hunted big
game in a wild country the stress laid on the differences between them
seems a little absurd, in fact cockney. It is of course nothing against
either that it is artificial; so are all sports in long-civilized
countries, from lacrosse to ice yachting.

It is amusing to see how natural it is for each man to glorify the
sport to which he has been accustomed at the expense of any other. The
old-school French sportsman, for instance, who followed the bear, stag,
and hare with his hounds, always looked down upon the chase of the fox;
whereas the average Englishman not only asserts but seriously believes
that no other kind of chase can compare with it, although in actual fact
the very points in which the Englishman is superior to the continental
sportsman--that is, in hard and straight-riding and jumping--are those
which drag-hunt