FOX-HUNTING. 33 



chance with the rest ! " All these things are agon- 

 ising to a master, and other anxieties perplex him. 

 He knows how much of his sport depends on the 

 good will of the tenant farmers, and he sees with 

 pain rails needlessly broken, crops needlessly ridden 

 over, gates unhinged or left open, perhaps fronting 

 a road along which the liberated cattle or horses 

 may stray for miles, giving their angry proprietors 

 possibly days of trouble to recover them. Second- 

 horsemen too are often careless in this respect. 

 But I must here remark as to the tenant farmers, 

 that, as a rule, their tolerance is beyond all praise, 

 especially when, as unfortunately is the case in 

 many countries, the mischievous trespassers above 

 alluded to have no connection with the county 

 or hunt, do not subscribe to the hounds, or 

 spend a shilling directly or indirectly in the 

 neighbourhood. 



Time was when the oats, the straw, and the hay 

 were bought and consumed by the stranger in the 

 land, who thus brought some advantage to the 



D 



