THE RATIONALE OF HUNTING 29 



and the owners of the soil would refuse to sink money 

 in the soil from which they derived no pleasure. 

 Farms would fall into decay, and the capital, without 

 the use of which the small farmer is helpless, would 

 be diverted into foreign channels. Agricultural towns, 

 like Melton Mowbray and Market Harborough, would 

 become pauper- villages, and the tradespeople, who made 

 a profit out of the owners of hunting-boxes, would 

 throng to the towns or the county workhouse. Flourish- 

 ing hotels would become pot-houses, and finally, the 

 small farmer would find himself without a market. 

 The truth is, that fox-hunting must exist, if only for 

 the reason that it is the principal factor in our 

 agricultural economy. We almost feel justified in 

 stating that the abolition of hunting means the 

 abolition of English country life ; for the landed gentry, 

 if they could not enjoy their sport, would go abroad 

 during the winter months, and the money which they 

 now circulate in England, would go into the pockets 

 of foreign nations. Therefore, all classes of people, 

 from peer to peasant, derive a substantial pecuniary 

 advantage from the sport. 



Nor should we forget to mention that bond of social 

 union which unites all classes in the hunting-field. 

 The same bond exists on the race-course, the cricket 

 field, the football ground, and wherever English people 

 are gathered together to enjoy sport, whether as par- 

 ticipators or as spectators, in the same degree as in the 

 hunting-field. But at the present day no institution 

 which tends to tighten the bonds of unity between the 

 different classes in the country should be allowed to be 

 lightly handled by the pessimistic agitator. Therefore, 

 hunting, which materially increases the commercial 

 prosperity of the nation, which binds together the 



