18 FEBRUARY 1949, Page 16

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

FIELD SPORTS

think it is worthy of note that our greatest hunting painter is now President of the Royal Academy and that our greatest hunting poet is now Poet Laureate. The latter wrote of his great full-length poem, " Reynard the Fox ": "I wrote my tale of the fox, because I felt deeply the beauty and the life of hunting." He also wrote, " Hunting makes more people happy than anything else I know. When people are happy together, I am quite certain that they build up something eternal, some- thing both beautiful and divine, which weakens the power of all evil things in this life of men and women."—Yours, &c.,