We’re all fox-hunters. It’s just some of us are more honest than others. These days we sneer at past generations and their blood sports: Roman gladiatorial contests; early-modern bear-baiting; Victorian bare-knuckle boxing. And we have a point. Those sports prized the blood-spatter. Ignore your conscience briefly, though, and imagine what the spectators might have felt. An almost giddy thrill, plus deep relief: thank god it was not your blood in the sand. But even to indulge this thought experiment feels wrong. That past is foreign. I class fox, deer, and bird hunting in that same group. I think they're outdated, outmoded, and will soon be out of fashion. I also don’t think I’m alone in this – look at the huge reaction to the Tory manifesto commitment to repeal the fox hunting ban. Hunting is part of a bloodsport world sustained by an aspect of human nature that is disappearing. That's why I scoffed when I read Gilbert White, an otherwise astute observer, say the fol