2IO FOX HUNTING 



In the days of Queen Elizabeth England 

 was still a sheep range, producing wool as the 

 staple industry, and supporting five milHon 

 people. Sufficient grain was raised for feeding 

 the small population ; and to keep the sheep 

 off their crops the people had invented a fence 

 peculiar to Britain. This fence consisted of an 

 earthwork of ridge and ditch called a hedge- 

 row. The ridge carries, and the ditch waters, 

 a row of bushes, trimmed yearly to make it 

 strong and dense, and known as a hedge. 

 Unlike rigid fences the hedge may be safely 

 jumped by horses who have the courage. 



As the population increased the swamps were 

 drained and forests cleared for farming and, 

 outside the sheep down, the whole country was 

 meshed with an intricate small skein of 

 hedges. 



At a period when guns were very short of 

 range, and poison was still dear, the foxes 

 became abundant and destructive, so that a 

 special hound had to be bred able to run them 

 down. This was a matter of business until 

 foxes made it a sport, and from about 1740 

 survived as sportsmen rather than be extinct as 

 merely vermin. There was no detriment to 

 the land from hunting on winter fallows ; and, 

 but for the fox, our people would have been 



