14 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



peripatetic fox-poachers, who are morally as guilty 

 of poaching as the rustic, who snares a hare 

 on a moonlight night Legally they are guilty 

 of trespassing, inasmuch as they ride over and 

 damage the land of other people without offering 

 the slightest compensation. But the fact of their 

 hunting for nothing, mean though it is in the 

 extremest degree, is far from being their worst sin, 

 which consists in rendering hunting unpopular, and 

 thereby destroying the material advantages which 

 the sport confers upon agriculture. When we 

 remember that fox-hunting exists on the sufferance 

 of the landowners and tenant farmers, for the benefit 

 of agriculture, I have no hesitation in stating that 

 the abolition of this class of non-subscribers is not 

 only desirable but necessary, and that the need of 

 such abolition is the principal lesson, which has been 

 taught to us during the last decade of the century. 



If I could discover a single argument in favour 

 of the presence of these non - subscribers in the 

 hunting-field, I would have delivered my opinion 

 with less emphasis ; but, after the most diligent 

 inquiries, conducted in a spirit of impartiality, I 

 have failed to find that they contribute even in the 

 remotest degree to the welfare of agriculture. To 

 an infinitesimal degree they have contributed to the 

 wealth of the railway companies, as special hunting 

 tickets have been issued by the companies whose 

 lines run through hunting countries ; but the profit 

 on these tickets has not been sufficiently large for 



