Excerpt from The Chase: An Anthology of Hunting
The literature of sport is a vast and ever-increasing one. Unfortunately its quantity is more apparent than its quality. Only here and there does it happen that a trained writer with a gift of literary expression turns his attention to sporting literature. Especially is this true of books on hunting. If enthusiasm counted for perfection, fine indeed would be the quality of its literature. Alas! enthusiasm for the hunting-field is too often the only quality possessed by writers on the subject. The unfortunate compiler is perforce reduced to the task of wading through a mass of stodgy and ephemeral writing, emulating the labours of Hercules in order to search out the jewels of thought and hidden beauties buried under much rubbish.
Nevertheless this book has been a labour of love, and many have been the discoveries made in some quiet backwater of literature, many the friends gained in the course of its compilation. For, in spite of its frequent weakness and absence of charm, the literature of hunting is full of quaint surprises. Here a hunting squire is moved to unwonted eloquence in praise of his favourite pastime; there a lady novelist, fresh from the conquest of the great army of sentimental folk, depicts in glowing colours the delights of the hunting-field.
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