8 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



changeth, but I fail to see why the new order should 

 not maintain the agricultural influence of fox-hunting. 

 It is an axiom that hunting depends upon the 

 sufferance of the farmers, since it is within the power 

 of the farmers to enforce the law of trespass. But 

 until recent years no man would have dreamt of 

 calling in the law to his aid ; for, firstly, the yeoman 

 farmer and the tenant farmer were good sportsmen 

 and rode to hounds ; and, secondly, they were ruled 

 to a great extent by the public opinion of the land- 

 owners. These are merely sentimental reasons. 

 There was a further economical reason, namely, that 

 the farmer reaped directly the profits derivable from 

 the sport. He sold his young horses to the hunting 

 man in his own country, whom he supplied with 

 fodder. He might not make such a large profit out 

 of the transaction as if he had sold through the 

 dealers, but he knew that the small profit was due to 

 the local hunting. He might sell a dozen horses in 

 the open market, without knowing or even caring to 

 inquire whether they were to be used as hunters. 

 He did not care how many horses were sold annually 

 for hunting purposes ; he only cared how many he 

 could sell in his own local hunt. He saw that hunt- 

 ing benefited him individually, and therefore he 

 supported it without giving a thought to the good 

 which it might do to the farming community. It 

 was a selfish procedure, but it was essentially human. 

 Again, it must be remembered that the greater part 

 of the money accruing from the direct advantages of 



