A CENTURY AGO. 



107 



Clashing Interests.— Foxes or Game.— 

 Saddle v. Gun. 



Although the majority of covert owners both hunt and 

 shoot, there have always been a few who do neither, and 

 some again who follow exclusively the one pursuit or the 

 other, and it is curious to observe how members of the same 

 family in successive generations change their pursuits, as 

 occasionally they do their creed and politics. 



A century ago reynard was viewed, in every sense, by 

 shooting men, with great disfavour and sometimes with 

 open and avowed hostility ; and the man who could by fair 

 means or foul encompass his death was esteemed a public 

 benefactor ; whereas to-day the vulpicide is generally 

 regarded with contempt and aversion. 



The accuracy of the above is easily demonstrated by an 

 old letter recorded by my late gallant friend Capt. F. 

 Chapman, in his most interesting history of the '' Wensley- 

 dale Hounds, 1686-1907." 



This letter was addressed by my grandfather, the Rev. 

 Jacob Costobadie, Rector of Wensley 1802-28 (a considerable 

 land-owner in the Dales, and as fond of the gun as his sons 

 became attached to the chase) to the Second Lord Bolton, 

 the original being in the possession of the present Baron. 



The document draws his Lordship's attention to " the 

 destruction of the farmers' lambs and the game caused by 

 these vermin," which had become so numerous as to 

 over-run the countryside, and suggesting (I quote from 

 memory) that as hounds could not m that hilly district keep 

 them down, "other means should be found to deal with 

 them." But to come nearer home and to more recent times, 

 it is well known that Lord Harborough was so averse to 

 fox-hunting that he used to have traps set in Stapleford 

 Park, and from time to time other owners and occupiers 



