252 FOX-HUNTING TYPES 



the sport, is gradually disappearing, being too often 

 obliged, by the changed conditions of country life, to 

 let his ancestral home, if not to part with his hereditary 

 acres. 



In my edition of Stonehenge's British Rural Sports, 

 published over forty years ago, it is stated that 

 " there are at this time nearly one hundred packs 

 of foxhounds in England and Wales, exclusive of a 

 considerable number in Scotland and Ireland." In 

 Baily's Hunting Directory of 1909-10 we find 179 

 packs of foxhounds in England and Wales, besides 

 24 in Ireland and 11 in Scotland. This increase of 

 nearly 100 packs of foxhounds in England and Wales 

 in forty and odd years assuredly testifies to the 

 extraordinary popularity of the sport at the present 

 day, in spite of all the difficulties that seem to 

 threaten its continuance. These figures, indeed, make 

 one rub one's eyes in wonder, and as the mighty 

 hosts of the pursuers, thousands upon thousands of 

 the booted and breeched, rise before us in imagina- 

 tion, the thought also arises : How many in every 

 thousand hunt solely because others do ? 



It has become "the right thing to hunt — you're 

 out of it if you don't," as a beginner explained to 

 me not long ago. Therefore sooner than be " out of 

 it," nearly every one hunts who can, though a very 

 great number would very much sooner stay at home. 

 It may seem strange and curious to the philosophic 

 mind that folk who are held to be sane should 

 embark upon a pursuit, or the pursuit of pleasure, 

 simply because other people do it ; that they should 

 spend their money and a great deal of time on its 



