i6 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



mountable to apply the same rules to hunting, 

 though I am convinced that, if these rules had been 

 applied when hunting by rail first became fashion- 

 able, we should have heard little of the present 

 grievance. But till within the last five years the 

 number of these non-subscribing visitors was so 

 small that it was possible for the M.F.H. to know 

 them by sight, and by a judicious exercise of his 

 authority to prevent them from causing mischief in 

 the hunting-field. Now increased railway facilities 

 have added to their ranks to such an extent that 

 I doubt whether, in the home counties and the 

 fashionable shires, the M.F.H. knows even the names 

 of a quarter of his field, while it is certain that the 

 names of half the field do not appear on the sub- 

 scription list. The tenant farmers are perfectly aware 

 of this, and are consequently indignant that they 

 should be expected to promote sport for the sake 

 of men who do not expend a penny in the country, 

 and whom they regard with that contempt which the 

 English yeoman has always felt for the shopkeeper. 

 In those countries which are beyond the reach of the 

 non-subscribing visitor the farmers are, almost with- 

 out exception, friendly to hunting; but when the 

 country is invaded by fox-poachers, who wear the 

 outward garb of gentility in the shape of a pink 

 coat, and by their conduct betray the breeding of 

 the profanuin vulgus, the farmer resents their delin- 

 quencies and becomes either an open or a secret 

 enemy to hunting Yet, in spite of vigorous appeals 



