Excerpt from Thoughts on Hunting: In a Series of Familiar Letters

The year 1911, marking as it does the centenary of the death of the author, seems appropriate for publication of a new edition of Thoughts on Hunting.

What Izaak Walton is to angling, that Peter Beckford is to foxhunting, each is the father of the literature of his sport, but with this difference, that whereas Walton as an instructor has long since been relegated to honourable retirement, Beckford retains his place as 'head master' and will retain it so long as fox-hunting continues. The reason lies on the surface, Beckford knew his subject from the bottom and was above all things thorough, he seems always to have kept a huntsman, but he himself was a perfect master of all that pertained to hounds whether in the field or in kennel, and had occasion required could have discharged the duty of kennel huntsman or of feeder with complete knowledge of its minutiæ. A man much above the average in ability, intelligence and power of observation, he made a study of fox-hunting in its every aspect, and his Thoughts were penned only after many years of experience. Various changes have come over the sport during the hundred and thirty years which have passed since his book first saw tho light, but its essentials remain the same, hence the permanent value of Beckford's work. It is hardly too much to say that the Thoughts are unique, even as they wcro the first word on their subject, so they are like to be, in a sense, the last, for in oach of tho numberless works since written on fox-hunting, acknowledgment of Beckford is to be found.

It is curious to contrast with the author's enduring monument the inscription - self chosen, surely - on the memorial tablet in Steepleton Church:

'We die and are forgotten - 'tis Heaven's decree,
Thus the fate of others will be the fate of me.'

The production of Thoughts on Hunting, however, was a mere incident in Beckford's career, though the book passed through five editions in his lifetime and undoubtedly won him recognition among his peers, he could not have anticipated the permanence of its fame.

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