16 MEMORIES OF THE SHIRES 



Master of Hounds' Association, and that august body 

 ought to arrange a fresh division. Of course, all those 

 who have the interests of hunting at heart see the 

 necessity of giving their support to a hunt centre, 

 which shall adjudicate on any dispute that may 

 arise ; but unless this ruling power base its decision 

 on common sense, it cannot expect to have its 

 dictates unhesitatingly obeyed. It may be laid 

 down as an accepted fact that a country not fairly 

 hunted will become short of foxes, will increase in 

 wire, and, in short, will set up obstructions which 

 when once established are very difficult to remove. 

 Therefore it is important that the prerogative of 

 hunting any part of a country shall not be allowed 

 to lapse, and the residents are justified in taking 

 whatever action may be necessary for preserving 

 their privileges. We are all aware we have no 

 legal right to gallop over another man's field for our 

 own amusement, but custom has sanctioned the 

 practice, and we must not give up what is really a 

 birthright inherited from our forefathers. 



I am not sufficiently versed in the mysteries 

 of the law to give an opinion, but I had an idea 

 that the original titles to all land came through the 

 Crown, and that the sovereign reserved to himself the 

 right, when the titles were granted, of hunting and 

 sporting. If that were the case, there is no reason 

 the king should not hand over his right tempor- 

 arily to the recognized pack of each district, and 

 then hunting would have a legal status. The 

 erection of barbed wire would be an unlawful 

 obstruction to His Majesty's right of hunting, and 

 would entail dreadful penalties on the offenders. 

 There was a little unpleasantness in the Quorn 



