The Cost of Hunting 



days a week in Herts at ;^20oo. Squire Draper, we 

 read, however, kept a good pack on £'joo a year ! 



Other hunting authorities advise hunting and 

 farming to be combined. They could then pro- 

 duce lucerne, hay, oats, and straw, &c. The Earl 

 of Coventry considers about ;^5oo a year for every 

 hunting day to be the round sum required, in his 

 estimation. I herewith add a brief summary of 

 the funds that are required to compensate farmers. 

 They put in claims on account of many damages. 

 Please note, it is the peripatetic hunting-man that 

 does this. Now that capping has been resorted to 

 in some fashionable countries and subscriptions 

 raised, the numbers of those that hunt and do not 

 pay have been thinned. Then there is the wire 

 fund required to mend fences. The taking down 

 and putting up again of wire fences is undertaken 

 by this fund, or some of the best countries would 

 be unrideable. These countries are Northampton, 

 Rutland, Huntingdon, and Leicestershire ; there is 

 little or no wire in other countries. Here, however, 

 red danger-posts mark its position. In the pro- 

 vinces there is no wire fund ; in Berks it is ^lo ; in 

 some countries many hundreds would not cover 

 it. To manage the poultry fund, a country is 

 divided into districts and the claims therein settled 

 by gentlemen of the hunt. The altered condition 

 of the farmer's position and means nowadays 

 entails the compensation for various other damages 



43 



