160 THE FOX 



thoroughbred horses of the hunter type as stallions. 

 The hunter is, apart from its connection with sport, 

 by far the most generally useful horse in existence. 

 Foreign buyers are never tired of picking up mares 

 of the well-bred fourteen-stone hunter sort, and these 

 would become as obsolete as the old roadster if the 

 fox was not. It is difficult to exaggerate, though we 

 cannot now enlarge on, the benefits which the fox 

 confers on the nation which preserves him. It would 

 be nothing less than a revolution in the social and 

 economic life of our country districts if over a larger 

 tract of country than is now the case he should come 

 to be regarded as an outlaw. 



