346 CHANGES IN FOX-HUNTING 



rupted spell of open weather since November 1st has 

 given us all — hounds, horses, and human beings — 

 enough. I am not thinking of any pack in particular. 

 Some have closed already, and most hunts in Ireland 

 did not go on into April at all. This is altogether 

 different from the practice which obtained in the 

 days of my youth, when it was the universal custom 

 to try to " kill a May fox " ; but although the hunting 

 world is pretty conservative, its manners and customs 

 have altered, and are still changing. No doubt there 

 is often a very good reason for the change, but it 

 sometimes affects the antiquated sportsman rather 

 sadly. 



It is safe to say that in Ireland we are no more likely 

 again to hunt a May fox than to behold a pigtail, 

 though there is said to be a fashionable hankering 

 at present after ancient English customs and costumes. 

 It was not my happiness to have come into the world 

 when the " hirsute appendage " flourished, but I have 

 seen a fox killed in the first week of May, and I have 

 no desire to do so again, believing that all fox-hunting 

 should close by the end of April. 



But the changes in the hunting-field which I myself 

 have seen are so numerous that it would take up a 

 good deal of paper to recount them. A few, however, 

 which occur to me may serve to amuse readers who 

 are still on the sunny side of middle age. For my first 

 day's hunting last week I travelled a very long distance 

 to the meet in a motor-car, the most comfortable, I 

 think, that I ever drove in. We had twenty-nine 

 miles to get over before we reached the fixture and 

 a fair in the village at the gates to get through at 



