[26] Both these lines of argument were followed by Dr. Lang, Archbishop of York, when on a recent occasion (November 16, 1913) he pronounced what may be called the Foxology at the dedication of a stained window to the memory of an aged blood-sportsman who was killed in the hunting-field. That a Christian minister should have been “launched into eternity,” as the phrase is, while engaged in hunting a fox, might have been expected to cause a sense of very deep pain, and even of shame, to his co-religionists. What actually happened was that an Archbishop was found willing to eulogise, in a consecrated place of worship, not only the reverend gentleman whose life was thus thrown away, but the sport of fox-hunting itself! [27] “My Sporting Holidays,” by Sir H. Seton-Karr, 1904. [28] But let us not forget the delightful remark of the Archbishop of York, that “even the labourer, when he felt the stir of the Meet, got just one of those fresh events, excitements, and interests that he needed in what otherwise was often a very monotonous life.” [29] This humane aspect of sport may be aptly illustrated by a passage in De Quincey’s essay on “Murder considered as one of the Fine Arts”: “The subject chosen ought to be in good health, for it is absolutely barbarous to murder a sick person, who is usually quite unable to bear it. And here, in this benign attention to the comfort of sick people, you will observe the usual effect of a fine art to soften and refine the feelings. From our art, as from all the other liberal arts, when thoroughly mastered, the result is to humanise the heart.” [30] Soame Jenyns, 1782. APPENDIX PAGE I. SPORT AS A TRAINING FOR WAR 149 II. “BLOODING” 155 III. THE HUNTING OF GRAVID ANIMALS 158 IV. DRAG-HUNT _VERSUS_ STAG-HUNT 162 V. CLAY PIGEON _VERSUS_ LIVE PIGEON 166 VI. COURSING 170 VII. THE GENTLE CRAFT 174 VIII. SPOILING OTHER PEOPLE’S PLEASURE 179 APPENDIX I SPORT AS A TRAINING FOR WAR It is often said, in attempted justification of “sport,” that it is the best training for war. This is true only in the sense that as far as concerns the creation and the perpetuation of a certain aggressive spirit, war and sport are certainly kindred pastimes with a good deal in common. They both date from a prehistoric period when man “Butted his rough brother-brute For lust or lusty blood or provender,”