330 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



The latter has the ear of the shooting-tenant, and can 

 backbite the farmer with impunity. Now, if the 

 shooting-tenant would remember that his sport could 

 be vastly improved by the goodwill of the farmer, he 

 would sternly rebuke his keeper for telling tales 

 which he cannot substantiate. As a rule, however, 

 he does not take the trouble to inquire into the 

 merits or demerits of the story. What is the result? 

 At the end of the season he is dissatisfied with the 

 shoot, and blames the lessor for misrepresentation, 

 while on the other hand the lessor is angry that the 

 foxes have not been preserved. 



I have been told that the majority of non-resi- 

 dential shooting-tenants are not competent to super- 

 vise their own keepers, that they are commercial men 

 ignorant of country life, who merely rent a shoot 

 because they consider that it is the proper thing to 

 do. I think, however, that this opinion is exaggerated, 

 in spite of the caricatures of the South African 

 millionaire which have constantly appeared in the 

 pages of Punch. My own experience has been that 

 these shooting-tenants have businesses to manage, 

 but can spare a couple of days a week for sport, 

 though they have not the time to devote to the 

 details of sport, and to check the abuse of sport by 

 their keepers. Very often they do not even take 

 the trouble to inspect their shoot before renting it, 

 but rely entirely upon the representation of the 

 agent. Such men are not likely to inquire closely 

 into the antecedents of their keepers, who ex necessi- 



