402 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



man hunted thirty years ago, a dozen do so at the 

 present day, and the attendance at the meets of 

 some of the more fashionable packs has become 

 so enormous as to cause no little anxiety to the 

 Masters and hunt-committees, as to how best to 

 confine it within reasonable limits. 



It may be considered as beyond all dispute 

 that, socially or financially, the presence of a well- 

 organized and well-managed pack of hounds in a 

 neighbourhood is of the very greatest benefit to 

 the inhabitants. If I remember rightly, I think 

 that the sum which it was estimated was annually 

 lost to a certain district in Ireland consequent upon 

 the abolition of a well-known pack of hounds was 

 some forty thousand pounds. I am acquainted 

 with the district referred to, and, judging from 

 my own experiences, I should say that this sum 

 was by no means exaggerated. The result has 

 been most disastrous to the poorer inhabitants, all 

 of whom, in a greater or less degree, participated 

 in the former prosperity. 



Despite the annual increase in the number of 

 men who hunt, it is nowadays a matter of no 

 little difficulty to procure the services of efficient 

 Masters for the various packs of fox-hounds in the 

 kingdom. The continued agricultural depression 

 has, of course, contributed very largely to such a 

 condition of affairs. Incomes being thereby re- 

 duced, subscriptions are consequently lessened or 

 altogether withdrawn. In the most prosperous 

 times there were but few packs in which the money 



