SPORTSMAN 69 



would by so doing have all the large houses vacant ; 

 the consequence of which would be, you would 

 only get half-price for your poultry and eggs and 

 butter, independent of its keeping up the price of 

 hay and oats. For instance, by your selling a 

 load of hay to a gentleman for probably a greater 

 price than the postmasters would give you, this is 

 made a handle of at market ; thus, on an offer 

 being made, you say, " No, I won't sell for less 

 than such a man sold for " ; and so with the price 

 of oats (which every fox-hunter should purchase 

 of the farmers who live in the hunt, if they really 

 do wish well to sport. It gives them an interest 

 in the success of the pack, and they feel themselves 

 flattered by being noticed, to which they certainly 

 have a claim). 



Any farmers hostile to fox-hunting should take 

 the trouble of considering the benefit a pack of 

 fox-hounds is to a country, and calculate the con- 

 sumption alone of corn and hay which is caused by 

 it. Supposing, for instance, two hundred horses, 

 —and in few countries, if any, less than that are 

 kept, including hacks and carriage-horses, which 

 otherwise would not be kept there, — they would 

 see that, on a fair calculation, the consumption 

 would be, for eight months only in the year, two 

 thousand four hundred quarters of oats, at two 

 bushels per horse per week ; and if each horse 



