INTEODUCTION 17 



by no means have been looked on as a recognised 

 public institution. It had been confined to " the natives," 

 and the stranger who ventured to join in the sport was 

 regarded with suspicion. The hunting-field was the 

 club of the neighbourhood : a club to which the tenant 

 farmer was as welcome as the Lord-Lieutenant, but 

 still a club ; now every man or woman who could 

 behave decently in the hunting-field was to become 

 eligible for it. 



But the new system could never have been founded 

 or developed if it had not been for the great improve- 

 ment in the English breed of horses. The question 

 is often asked, Did fox-hunting improve the breed of 

 horses, or, did the breed of horses improve fox-hunt- 

 ing ? We have heard no satisfactory answer to this 

 question. Probably it was six of one, and half-a-dozen 

 of the other. The breed of horses was originally 

 improved for racing purposes. The Arab strain had 

 been introduced by Lord Godolphin, through a sire 

 known as " The Godolphin Arabian," with such 

 success that his example had been rapidly imitated. 

 Therefore when the demand arose for hunters which 

 possessed speed as well as endurance, the source of the 

 supply had been in existence for over fifty years, even 

 in Hugo Meynell's early days, with the Quorn. Per- 

 haps the best way of answ^ering the vexed question, is 

 to say that racing introduced the improvement in 

 breeding horses, and hunting encouraged the improve- 

 ment. But, for the present purpose, it is only 

 necessary to point out that the breed had improved. 



By 1850 fox-hunting had become an important 

 factor in the political economy of the country. To 

 hunt meant to encourage horse-breeding, to put money 

 into the pocket of the farmer, by increasing the 



B 



