CHANGES IN FOX-HUNTING 345 



be induced to enlarge it when they realise that other 

 folk who are none too well off must be paying largely 

 for their amusement. 



One of the changes that time has brought, besides 

 the increase of expenses and the decrease of private 

 packs, is the extraordinary increase in the number of 

 ladies in the hunting-field, and it is said in many 

 quarters that they should subscribe the fixed amount 

 just the same as mere men, and that from £1 to £5 

 towards a fowl fund is by no means an adequate sum 

 to pay for several days' hunting per week. There is 

 great difference of opinion on the subject. " Let there 

 be no compulsion in the matter," say some of the old- 

 fashioned ones ; "let it be our privilege to pay for the 

 fair! What matter if they do exceed the sterner sex 

 in numbers (as is very often the case)? If they will 

 only learn what grass-seeds and springing wheat look 

 like, and avoid them ! — if they will only practise silence 

 at a check, difficult though it may be for them at any 

 time — if they will only do these things, why, ' Let 'em 

 all come' gratis, free, and for nothing, and the more 

 the merrier ! " 



The changes in the hunting-field are not only 

 economic. If we attempt to contrast our present 

 customs and fashions with those of forty years ago, 

 we find that many differences have grown up. 



The " merry spring-time," which lately brought us 

 such jovial items as blizzards of hail and snow, nightly 

 frosts and cutting north-easterly gales, has also cut 

 short our hunting season a good deal earlier than 

 usual, for some reason which I have not quite been able 

 to discover, unless it be that the practically uninter- 



