جدال شکار روباه، ۱۷۸۱-۲۰۰۴: طبقه و بی‌رحمی

August 1781 saw the publication of a manual on fox hunting that would become a classic of its genre. Hugely popular in its own day, Peter Beckford's Thoughts on Hunting is often cited as marking the birth of modern hunting and continues to be quoted from affectionately today by the hunting fraternity. Less stressed is the fact that its subject was immediately controversial, and that a hostile review which appeared on the heels of the manual's publication raised two criticisms of fox hunting that would be repeated over the next two centuries: fox hunting was a cruel sport and a feudal, anachronistic one at that. This study explores the attacks made on fox hunting from 1781 to the legal ban achieved in 2004, as well as assessing the reasons for its continued appeal and post-ban survival. Chapters cover debates in the areas of: class and hunting; concerns over cruelty and animal welfare; party politics; the hunt in literature; and nostalgia. By adopting a thematic approach, the author is able to draw out the wider social and cultural implications of the debates, and to explore what they tell us about national identity, social mores and social relations in modern Britain. Cover 1 Contents 7 Acknowledgements 8 1 Introduction 12 Fox Hunting: A Brief History 13 Peter Beckford and Thoughts on Hunting 14 Hunting and Class 18 Fox Hunting and Cruelty 20 ‘Tyranny and Barbarity’ 21 2 The Field 24 Introduction 24 Aristocratic Packs 30 Hunting Squires 32 Subscription Packs 35 Farmers and the Hunt 37 The Clergy 42 The Urban Middle Class 44 Women and Children 47 The Late Twentieth Century 55 Conclusion: ‘Outsiders in the Field’? 57 3 ‘The Cricket of Savages’?: Class and Cruelty 62 Introduction 62 Early Critics: The Clergy and the Fox 64 John Lawrence and the Rights of Animals 68 ‘Humanity Dick’: The Animal-Loving Sportsman 70 Legislating against Cruel Sports 71 The RSPCA 73 Changing Standards 75 E.A. Freeman: ‘The Morality of Field Sports’ (1869) 78 Universal Kinship: Henry Salt and the Humanitarian League 80 Between the Wars: Hugh Lofting and Grey Owl 84 The Debate from the Second World War 90 Conclusion: ‘Barbarity in High Places’? 93 4 ‘Come Hup! I say, you hugly beast’!: The Hunt in Literature 96 Introduction 96 The Nineteenth Century 97 The Early Twentieth Century: John Masefield (1878–1967) 107 ‘A Deliciously Archaic Spectacle’: Hunting and the Moderns 110 The ‘Pony Book’ 115 Monica Dickens and the Return to Animal Welfare 123 K.M. Peyton (1929–) 127 Conclusion: Gone Away 136 5 Labour and the Fox 138 Introduction 138 The Early Days: Keir Hardie 139 The Post-War Labour Government 143 The Scott Henderson Report, 1951 147 Labour in Opposition and Minority Governments 148 New Labour and the Fox 153 The Ban: ‘accidental policy outcome’? 159 Conclusion: Labour, Class and Cruelty 160 6 The Flight from Modernity: Nostalgia and the Hunt 164 Introduction 164 Nostalgia for a Pre-war World 168 ‘Englishness’ 170 Surtees, Masefield and Rural England 174 Nature versus the Pastoral 176 ‘England is no more what it was’ 178 The Horse 186 ‘What does fox-hunting mean to you?’ 188 Conclusion 195 7 Conclusion 198 Bibliography 204 Index 216 Allyson N. May. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [193]-204) And Index.