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quarry as a competitor which is given a 'sporting chance' to outwit its pursuers in
the chase. As Serpell (1996:202) describes, 'its status is elevated to that of a worthy
opponent in an amusing game of life and death; an opponent who enjoys nothing
more than pitting [its] own strength, speed or cunning against that of the well-
armed human.' This representation was important in the construction of fox-
hunting as 'the sport of gentlemen' in the late nineteenth century—the pretence of
equal competition glorifying the skill of the hunter, while the ultimate victory of the
hunt reaffirmed the position of human supremacy over nature in the revered 'natural
order'.
In mobilising this representation, hunters allude to the folk figure of Reynard, the
fox hero of the satirical medieval French epic
Roman de Renart
. The character of
Reynard is wise and cunning, and this representation of the fox became entrenched
in European folklore, such that by the late nineteenth century lay discourses in rural
England understood the fox through this mythological filter, thus providing a base
from which the representation of the fox as a sporting foe could be reproduced
through the sporting and political literature of the period:
[F]oxhunting is one of the most characteristic of our national sports, giving
the maximum of pleasure and exercise to those who follow the hounds with a
minimum of cruelty to the object of their pursuit, who very often, no doubt,
has as good a reason to be satisfied with the result of a run as [its] pursuers.
(Gaskell 1906: no pagination)
Similar representations were still being mobilised nearly a century later in the debate
surrounding the Foster Bill. The Countryside Alliance, for example, in a letter to
MPs argued that '[a] fox in prime condition is faster and smarter than any
foxhound. The odds are in favour of the fox and most that are hunted survive'
(quoted in
The Times,
28 November 1997). This sentiment was echoed by the
journalist Anne Perkins (1997:22), drawing a distinction between hunting and
proscribed activities, such as badger-baiting and bull-fighting: 'A strong, brave fox
escapes. If it does not, it dies swiftly. Those are the critical distinctions between
hunting and baiting.' For Perkins (1997:22), the pleasure of hunting is that 'it
connects me with the country and the creatures that live in it in a way that nothing
else can'. The game of hunting generates an admiration for 'the cunning of the fox'
(Moore 1998:2), such that the relationship between the hunter and the hunted is
one of respect. Thus, Sir Nicholas Lyell, speaking in the parliamentary debate,
argued that the bill would
destroy what that wise countryman, our present Poet Laureate, Ted Hughes,
recently called the pact between the farming community and country people
and those animals—the pact whereby in return for the right and opportunity
to pursue ancient sports, those animals live in their natural habitat, with
closed seasons voluntarily observed, in controlled but thriving numbers.
(
Hansard,
301, 28 November 1997: col. 1235)
