FARMING AND FOXHUNTING 



land or forests, vv^ith big boundary fences of neigh- 

 bouring properties, probably with few gates, so that 

 unless big fences could be negotiated it meant 

 good-bye to hounds for that day. The distances 

 to Meets were enormous and in consequence there 

 were very few days each week that anyone could 

 hunt unless he was prepared to ride twenty miles 

 out and perhaps a much longer distance home 

 again." This story rather suggests to me that if 

 to-day we had to undertake these long journeys, 

 together with a probability of not finding a fox, 

 hunting would very soon go out of fashion in this 

 the twentieth century. 



The point I should like to make here is that one 

 often hears a reference to the good old days of 

 foxhunting with no barb-wire, hedges cut and laid, 

 and ditches dug out to keep the land dry and 

 rideable. When will they return, they ask ? I am 

 not quite sure that these days ever existed, or if they 

 did could they have had a long innings ? Those of 

 us who have never hunted without the knowledge 

 of barb-wire, the bane of the foxhunter, have never 

 faced the rigours of these early days, if we had I 

 rather fancy we should not be looking for their 

 return with any degree of pleasure. I cannot make 

 myself believe that these good old days of which 

 we hear so much were ever half so enjoyable as 

 the ones we get to-day. This not only applies to 

 foxhunting. 



But to return to the medieval history of the V. W.H. 

 It is very interesting to read the start of our Cricklade 

 pack. Mr. C. A. R. Hoare hunted the whole of 



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