Echoes of the Hunting Horn 



But it is noticeable that foxes rarely do much damage 

 in the vicinity of their earths; instinct warning them 

 that if operations are too confined, instant reprisals are 

 the result. Their nocturnal peregrinations make them 

 conversant, not only with every fowl-house, but with 

 every rabbit warren, and for variety of menu, every 

 mountain and bog within a considerable radius of their 

 earth. When hounds get on the line of such a marauder 

 he has a very big area of country at his disposal, and in 

 making for home he crosses the land of farmers who 

 are praying for his destruction, and farmers who may 

 be unaware of his existence. These latter may not 

 have contributed one chicken to Reynard's menu- 

 there was probably an abundance of delicacies available 

 in the nearby bog and yet they welcome the sight of 

 hounds. These land-owners, especially, deserve a word 

 of thanks from all hunting enthusiasts. As they have 

 lost nothing by Reynard's existence, they will gain 

 nothing by his downfall. They do not object to hounds 

 although it must be said that hounds, when hunting, 

 rarely do any damage other than the occasional injury 

 caused by frightening an in-calf cow, startling sheep in 

 the yeaning season, or terrifying a recently-trained 

 young horse. But most important point of all is that 

 these farmers do not object to that which comes in the 

 wake of hounds and which causes by far the more 

 serious damage the cavalcade of horsemen ! 



Like every other collection of human beings the field 

 is composed of different types of people. One type 

 realise that they are, primarily, trespassers on other 

 men's property, and as they are tolerated as such, it 



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