188 THE PARTRIDGE 



a fox-hunt is a steeplechase, and any element 

 of uncertainty afforded by Reynard might as 

 well be given by a man riding a devious course 

 and traihng a red herring at his horse's heels. 

 Indeed, says our disappointed sportsman, it 

 would be well at once to recognise the extinction 

 of the fox and make the hunt a " drag," for then 

 the Master could privately arrange his course to 

 the satisfaction of his followers. 



The old-fashioned sportsman is equally bitter 

 against the changes which have taken place in 

 the shooting-field, but these changes are inevit- 

 able, while those in fox-hunting are, to some 

 extent at least, a matter of choice. In most 

 districts of England the farmer " cleans " the 

 harvest fields and trims the hedges and the 

 ditches so thoroughly that there no bird or 

 beast can remain unseeing and unseen ; conse- 

 quently new methods of shooting game have 

 been devised. 



Not long since, while reading what is supposed 

 to be a clever work on shooting, I could not 

 help remarking how strange to me were the 

 phrases the writer used, how bare and uninterest- 

 ing seemed the facts, how into every page had 

 crept the luxury and the artificiaUty of twentieth- 

 century Hfe. It appeared to me that the writer 

 considered the charm of partridge shooting to 

 lie entirely in the act of bringing dov/n a fast- 



