106 PHEASANTS 



whole world, fox-hunting may well claim 

 the allegiance of every good EngUshman. 

 Hunting is a catholic sport ; all sorts and 

 conditions of men who could never have 

 any part in the pleasures of covert shoot- 

 ing, may sometimes beg or borrow — when 

 they cannot buy — a horse and have a ride 

 to hounds ; while anyone — no matter 

 what his condition — who is blest with 

 a sound pair of legs, may in some degree 

 share in the ardours of the chase. 



The present is a critical time in the 

 history of our national sport, when con- 

 ditions unknown in the past seem almost 

 to endanger its continued existence. 

 Masters of hounds have to reckon not 

 only with the manifold difficulties of 

 barbed wire — now so generally used, but 

 also with overcrowded fields of incon- 

 siderate strangers, caring little and know- 

 ing less of the land they ride over, their 

 presence only tending to foster a feeling 

 among the farmers, lukewarm, if not 

 actively hostile, to the interests of the 

 hunt. 



