CUB-HUNTING 277 



sport it is impossible for us to hedge ourselves within 

 barriers as impenetrable as barbed wire fencing. 

 We must leave gaps and ride through them if the 

 attendant obstacles are too big to be jumped. I fail 

 to understand why there should be any antagonism 

 between hunting and shooting, since there are few 

 hunting men who cannot handle a gun, and few 

 shooting men who cannot ride to hounds. But the 

 antagonism does exist, unfortunately, and I have no 

 hesitation in stating my belief that it has been 

 created by gamekeepers. No sooner does a man don 

 the regulation velveteens than he begins to regard 

 the fox as his inveterate enemy. He dare not shoot 

 him or poison him, but he resorts to a worse method 

 of vulpicide by " stopping-in " the earths during the 

 daytime, so that the strongest dog-fox could not 

 possibly dig himself out, and must rot to death 

 through starvation. Unfortunately, the earth-stopper 

 on his pony is now a relic of the past, and earth- 

 stopping is left to the tender mercies of the game- 

 keeper. Unfortunately, also, gamekeepers seldom 

 have a master eye over them to control their actions, 

 owing to the increase of non-resident shooting- 

 tenants. This is the crux of the whole matter 

 concerning the disputes between hunting men and 

 shooting men. 



Now, if cub-hunting were confined to the enjoy- 

 ment of the early morning ride, the interest in the 

 young entries, and that peculiar pleasure only known 

 to hunting men derived from once again seeing the 



