82 SOLDIER AND SPORTSMAN 



immoral, football and boxing as brutal, etc. It is 

 not easy to analyse the mentality of such creatures, 

 but racing enthusiasts and those who go in for 

 the chase should be on the alert to combat any 

 symptom whatever of the spread of such a mania. 

 There are probably not one half of the number 

 of hounds in the country at the present time 

 compared with pre-war days, and as it takes a 

 lifetime to breed a pack of hounds, it will be 

 many years before the most fashionable hunts, 

 where large numbers of hounds are kept, can 

 reach their former excellence. There are, I sup- 

 pose, in every hunt anti-sport individuals, such 

 as poultry breeders, who air their views in some 

 of the more Radical papers, and these are not 

 slow to take such matters up, referring, it may 

 be, to hunting as "a classy sport," and so on. It 

 is evident that if a hunt cannot meet its liabilities 

 for damagfes to fences and stock it will auto- 

 matically come to an end. 



In this year of grace 192 1, when the war is 

 over, it is wonderful to consider that hunting has 

 survived the terrible years of devastation in lives 

 and money, and no small credit is due to the 

 ladies who assisted in carrying on the sport of 

 kings. Strange to say, there has been little 

 shrinkage in the list of huntinsf establishments. 

 There are still going fairly strong about a 



