FOX-HUNTING AND WARFARE 307 



Own, loth Hussars, and the Scarlet Lancers, soon 

 enabled him to make his corps as smart as any 

 Yeomanry corps in the country. But if his personal 

 activity was limited to Buckinghamshire, his moral 

 influence extended all over England, and there was 

 a crusade amongst the occupiers of the land to arm 

 themselves and to be prepared for war either in home 

 defence or in active service. The hunting-field was 

 the recruiting ground, and hunting squires came 

 forward to help the movement. Unfortunately, the 

 majority of hunting squires were not, nor are now, 

 as wealthy as public opinion would make them out 

 to be, so that the expenses of equipment had to be 

 borne by the rich minority, who were willing to 

 sacrifice their private interests for the sake of what 

 they deemed to be patriotism. But their efforts were 

 regarded by the War Office with an apathy little 

 short of disgraceful. The authorities in Pall Mall 

 gave the Yeomanry no facilities for rifle practice nor 

 for learning swordsmanship, but regarded the cavalry 

 volunteer movement as a mild amusement for 

 country gentlemen and their tenants. Let me not 

 be misunderstood. It is not within the scope of 

 this work to censure the War Office, even if that 

 department of the Government had not been already 

 censured, but it is necessary to point out how from 

 the beginning till the end of the century the hunting- 

 field has been one of the bulwarks of the army. 



On the other hand, it must be remembered that 

 the army has done much for the support of fox- 



