A Letter to Oscar Wilde

Dear Oscar Wilde,

You once described fox hunting as “the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable”. It’s a great observation, and on February 18^th 2005, just a bit over 100 years after you wrote these words, we banned this monstrous, cruel sport in the UK.

Sadly, since then, we have also staged an unprecedented attack on wild-life in this country, creating a strange ecosystem where many animals, including foxes, have become scavengers, and song birds have all but disappeared from many urban gardens. But the fox has moved into the City – and it’s always a thrill to see something so beautiful appear unexpectedly at the bottom of a suburban garden.

And that will not be the only improvement you might note… 67 years after you died, homosexuality was decriminalised in England, and this has to be a very, very good thing.

So even though the land is polluted, the water contaminated, and the air quality is not great, we are striving to be better; the mysterious beauty of the fox is a mystical reminder of this.

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