The sport of our ancestors : being a collection of prose and verse setting forth the sport of fox-hunting online

THE SPORT
OF OUR ANCESTORS



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THE SPORT
OF OUR ANCESTORS

BEING A COLLECTION OF PROSE AND VERSE
SETTING FORTH

THE SPORT OF FOX-HUNTING

AS THEY KNEW IT

EDITED AND SELECTED
WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND APPRECIATIONS

BY

LORD WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE

ILLUSTRATED BY

G. D. ARMOUR



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NEW YORK

E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY

PUBLISHERS



Printed in Great Britain



PREFACE

BY the ' Sport of our Ancestors ' is meant the sport of
Fox-hunting. Anything to do with Sport has always
been so popular in these islands that the word is
now used to dignify almost anything in the nature of a
competition, being applied to golf, football, lawn-tennis,
hockey, or battledore and shuttlecock. But perhaps a better
testimony to the supreme value of the idea of Sport in the
Englishman's mind is the natural way in which he designates
as a good sportsman any one whom he particularly wishes
to praise. No man can have greater honour in this country
than to be known as a good sportsman, or, in the vernacular
of those who are regardless of grammar, as a * Sport.' He
may achieve this reputation without ever having been on a
horse or handled a gun or a fishing-rod. But he must
possess a sense of humour and, above all, an ability to
take risks and to play for his side. These attributes, added,
of course, to a certain standard of kindliness and good conduct,
are what distinguish the good sportsman or ' Sport ' among
his fellows.

But for the purpose of these papers the term Sport will
be only applied to field sports, meaning the pursuit of wild

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The Sport of Our