INTRODUCTION 7 



increased area of our manufacturing districts, there is 

 less land for them to hunt over, with the result that 

 we find more complaints from the farmers. The 

 finances of hunting, as represented by the subscrip- 

 tion lists, are not in such a flourishing condition as 

 they ought to be, considering the number of men 

 who hunt. The increased railway facilities, which 

 enable a man to breakfast in London and to be 

 present at covert-side in Leicestershire, have added 

 largely to the list of men, who never subscribe a 

 halfpenny towards the expenses of the sport which 

 they enjoy and towards the damage which they 

 cause through their ignorance of agriculture. Agri- 

 cultural depression has obliged many landlords to 

 let their shootings to non-resident tenants, and, 

 what is worse, to syndicates of non-resident tenants. 

 There has been a decrease in large graziers, who can 

 afford to hunt, and an increase in small farmers who 

 cannot afford to hunt ; or, to put it in other words, 

 large holdings have decreased and small holdings 

 have increased. The character of the hunting-field, 

 which was originally the club of the neighbourhood, 

 to which the tenant farmer was as welcome as the 

 Lord Lieutenant, has lost the social significance of 

 local surroundings. The hereditary autocracy, as 

 possessed by the Beaufort, Yarborough, and Fitz- 

 william families, has given way to the limited govern- 

 ment of the Master of a subscription pack. Many 

 of these changes are the inevitable result of that rule 

 of modern life which tells us that the old order 



