CRUELTY IN SPORT
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,--I was greatly interested in the article by Sir S. H. Scott, but would like to know how he would define the word " sport." Of course, I know that to-day it is applied to every game or pastime—even to driving a petrol engine—but when I was a boy I was taught that " sport " implied " the pitting of the brains and skill of man, with or without the help of his equine and canine friends, against the instinct and natural cunning of a wild animal (the term to include bird or fish) in its natural surroundings." If this definition is the correct one, there is a vast difference between shooting that most cunning of birds, the wood pigeon and the " potting " of a tame pigeon out of a trap. The latter has no chance of making use of the little cunning it may possess.
Bull-fighting cannot be a sport because a bull is a domesti- cated animal, and an arena can never be the natural surround- ing of any animal. The fairness practised in genuine sport is the reason why the term is applied to games and so forth to-day.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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