Hunting in all its forms has always been a passion of mankind. Tolstoy describes the thrill of departure in the early morning for duck-shooting and the impatience of the dog. Izaac Walton writes of the joys of fishing and Siegfried Sassoon of the lure of fox-hunting. Many cave paintings and Mogul minatures, Renaissance paintings and eighteenth-century British pictures record hunting scenes.
Apart from the excitement of the find and the skill required, the justification of the kill has either been protection of one’s neighbours in the case of the Bengal tiger or one’s poultry in the case of the fox or for the provision of food. As game became prized as a delicacy it was the landowning upper classes that sought to ensure a constant supply for themselves. Game preserves and breeding grounds date back as far as the Romans and in England from Saxon times. Hunting has played a part in court life from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. The ancient practice of falconry, possibly begun in Arabia around 2000 BC, was the king of hunting sports in every European court until the development of reliable guns in the seventeenth century. The ‘guns’ in their smart tweeds and the local beaters, looking like figures out of a Brueghel painting, can still be seen today, linking the modern world to a long aristocratic tradition.
