153 ROYAL ROCK BEAGLE IIUXT. 



Barbed Mire- 



" Thou shall be whipp'd with wire, and stew'd in brine, 

 Smarting in lingering pickle." 



Anlony and Cleopatra, act ii, scene 5. 



At a meeting of the Cheshire Agricultural Society, held in 1893, prizes 

 were offered by the Tarporley Hunt Club for different classes of horses, the 

 property of hona-fide tenant farmers residing within the limits of the Cheshire 

 Hunt, but with this condition : — " That any farmer having wire of a dangerous 

 " nature in his fences during the hunting season may, at the discretion of the 

 " Hunt, be disqualified from competing for, or winning, any of these prizes." 



The use of barbed wire in a hunting country, or, indeed, in any country, 

 is an offence against all the instincts of good taste, and revolts the soul of all 

 good beaglers. The fiend who invented it is said to have reaped an enor- 

 mous fortune by it : " more's the pity ! '' Hounds are often badly injured by 

 this wire. In recent years, it has been freely placed in one of the Burton 

 woods, with the strands so near together that even a dog could not get 

 through wit'nout being torn. One day, in 1S91, wlien we met at Ness, the 

 hounds ran through this wood, and it was pitiful to see them forcing their 

 way between the strands, with the barbs lacerating their backs and feet. 

 Nothing could be done to help tliem, and they had to go through with it. 

 An hour afterwards, when we had a kill in a meadow near the Dee, snow 

 being on the ground, we were astonished to find the snow all around stained 

 with blood, and. on examination, found nearly every hound badly cut and 

 lamed. 



It is difficult to understand what good purpose is served by this most 

 barbarous fence, as it really is not insurmountable to an active man (to ladies 

 it is an effective bar), though he runs some risk of tearing Iiis breeches if he 

 climbs it, or his coat if he gets between the strands, and in this event the 

 beagler has no legal remedy against the owner, as he is practically there only 

 on sufferance. On some farms there is a horrid practice of putting a strand 

 of barbed wire along the side (somehow it is always the far or off side) of 

 the top bar of a gate, which is most exasperating to the unwary beagler who 

 boldly claps his hand on it. 



It appears now to be settled as a point of law, that the fencing of 

 public footpaths with barbed wire is at the risk of the owner, and renders 

 him liable for damages if any injury is done to person or property. The 

 judgment of the county court judge in the famous Wallasey barbed wire case 

 in 1893, puts the case so clearly that it will no doubt be of general interest 

 to insert it here, as given in the Echo, February 12th, 1893. Tlie case was 

 " Stewart V. Wright," being a claim by T. C. Stewart for ^£2 4s., damage 

 done to his macintosh overcoat by a barbed wire fence. 



