I recall an incident when hunting in Lanarkshire which illustrates the often mistaken ideas of humanitarians. I had a beaten hare in front of me that took to the roads. I came to a cross road where hounds checked, and met a lady whom I asked if she had viewed my hare. She said yes, but she would rather not tell me where she had gone, as she looked on hunting as cruel. I told her I respected her feelings of humanity, and if I were of her opinion I would give up hunting. I asked her her views on shooting and whether she did not think it was cruel that so many things died from wounds. She replied, “No good sportsmen ever wound things, they always kill them dead.” How many of us, I wonder, could under this definition claim to be good sportsmen? An officer of that excellent Society the S.P.C.A. once met me returning home with hounds from hunting, and, noticing a lame hound, was going to run me in for cruelty. I told him if he could insure prevention of such cruelty I hoped he would come and stay with me for the winter. Some people would have us believe that a hunted animal suffers agonies of mind (vide _Modern Society_, 18th February, 1899), and Somervile’s _Chace_ conveys that impression. This no one who has had much experience of hunting believes. Many of these animals spend their lives in a state of being hunted by others, dogs, cats, vermin, etc., and they are chiefly occupied in avoiding their natural enemies. Fright they may feel, as a hare will if put up by a person walking across a field, but their attempts at escape are their only thought, and they do not realise the penalty of being caught. I don’t think they are at all distressed until they are dead beat, when the end generally comes quickly and surely. Objection has been taken to certain terms used in hunting, such as “pulled her down,” “ran into her,” “rolled her over,” “dead beat,” “breaking her up,” “blooding the hounds.” The first three, critics may not know, simply imply catching the hare. “Dead beat”—this feeling is also experienced by any Eton boy in the School Steeplechase when he reaches the School Jump. The last two taking place after the death of the hare can scarcely be urged as cruel. Do these humanitarians inveigh against poisoning rats, destroying wasps’ nests, burning these insects alive, using fly-papers, or mouse-traps? Do they eat game, fish, meat, or have they ever tasted _foie gras_ or lobster? The Humanitarian Society claim to have accomplished the abolition of the Royal Buckhounds by appealing to Queen Victoria’s tender feelings. I think there were other and more cogent reasons. The late Provost, the late Head Master, the late Vice-Provost, the late Mr. R. S. de Havilland and others have been accused of brutality and callousness. All who knew them and who understand the subject resent such baseless attacks on men of kindly disposition and balanced judgment.