102 PHEASANTS 



still as firm a hold as ever on popular 

 affection, as large a share in our national 

 life, and men live for hunting as they 

 live for little else. 



In this twentieth century more than 

 four hundred packs of hounds take the 

 field with each opening season in the 

 British Islands : of these about half either 

 chase the red-deer — in a few instances 

 nobly wild, but for the most part ignomini- 

 ously carted — or pursue the hare with 

 harrier, beagle, or bassett ; they have 

 happily little concern with the pheasant 

 rearer, but there remain the two hundred 

 packs of fox-hounds, representing a most 

 potent influence in the realm of sport — 

 whose interests cannot — and should not 

 — be lightly set aside by anyone whose lot 

 is cast in a hunting country. 



Now it would be idle to pretend a 

 happier state of affairs than exists ; the 

 interests of hunting and shooting have 

 little in common ; the conduct of one sport 

 is largely at variance with the successful 

 pursuit of the other, and the modus 



