HUNTERS 91 



through an awkward place when it is necessary to do so. 

 The dictum of the late Mr. George Lane-Fox, Master 

 of the Bramham Moor Hounds, that no horse is a hunter till 

 he will walk through a gap, has very much truth in it, and 

 common sense. 



As a last word on the subject of hunters, mention may be 

 made of the vast amount of money put in circulation 

 through the chase alone, and I venture to refer to the 

 statistics given by Mr. Orde in the first edition of his " Vade 

 Mecum." In this carefully compiled work he estimates 

 that 9,000 couples of foxhounds are in kennel during the 

 hunting season, which at a low estimate require £550,000 

 per annum for their keep, and, in addition, 3,500 couples of 

 harriers and beagles cost £100,000 more. 



Two hundred thousand hunters are kept for the purpose 

 of hunting with these hounds, which will have cost their 

 purchasers £12,000,000, and whose keep will amount to 

 £8,000,000 per annum — figures which have been worked out 

 by experts and checked by them. As the average life of 

 a hunter is reckoned at " probably less than four seasons," 

 a view which I thoroughly endorse, it follows that the large 

 sum of £12,000,000 has to be expended every four years 

 in renewing the stud ; though it is to be feared that the 

 blighting incidence of the Budget will largely reduce these 

 figures in the near future, through the inability of an ever- 

 increasing number of persons to meet its demands, and 

 to continue to follow field sports of any description. Wages 

 for grooms and labourers are calculated as being required 

 for 60,000 to 70,000 men, but these also will have to 

 be largely discounted, for the same financial reasons 

 as those given above. When the families of these 

 men are further taken into consideration, together with 

 the saddlers and shoeing-smiths, and the various small shop- 

 keepers, the butchers, the bakers, the shoemakers, the 

 grocers, and the drapers, who supply their wants, and again 

 the many more persons who act as purveyors to these latter, 

 it will be seen at once what an army of people are depen- 

 dent on the welfare of the hunting ; what widespread 

 destitution would be caused if anything interfered with its 



