Fox hunting, however ancient the practice, evolved on the British Isles into a ritualized chase during which bluebloods on horseback sicced hounds on red-wrapped wild dogs. Foxes plucking the gentry’s chickens from the manor apparently could not stand.

Besides, the group culling of foxes proved jolly good sport. Yoicks!

George Washington, reputedly America’s wealthiest president until this century, kept foxhounds. A segment of the landed aristocracy in Virginia and Maryland was loath to break with its English forebears when it came to an exhilarating exercise in holding onto poultry.

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