52 THE COMPLETE FOXHUNTER 



ruined if an attempt is made to supplement its 

 strength by the introduction of a couple of wire 

 strands. 



As far as a hunt is concerned its relations to the 

 wire question depend on the local conditions and on 

 the character of the country. All over the Midlands 

 barbed wire is used by the large graziers, but as a 

 rule bullocks are only pastured between May and 

 November, and it is only a very exceptional farmer 

 who will not allow his wire to be taken down when the 

 bullocks are off the ground. It is customary to mark 

 the presence of all barbed wire which is left standing 

 in these and in many other localities, but when danger 

 signals are used the greatest care should be taken that 

 they are put up in every fence where there is a single 

 strand of wire, because in a marked country the un- 

 marked fences are supposed to be clear, and are there- 

 fore ridden at in all confidence. 



Yet accidents have been known to occur when the 

 marking has been forgotten or omitted in one odd 

 unmarked fence amidst a number of marked ones, and 

 in such cases a certain amount of blame must accrue 

 to the wire committee of the hunt, if there is one, 

 and if not, to those who have charge of the barbed- 

 wire arrangements. It is, then, most important that 

 in every country all the wire should be marked or none 

 at all, but this is by no means a regular custom, and 

 strangers who visit one of these half-marked countries 

 must run a great risk. It is all very well to say that 

 members of the hunt know where all the wire is, but 

 every hunt is visited by strangers at some period of 

 the season ; and then, again, it is no easy matter, when a 

 certain amount of wire is marked, to recollect exactly 

 where there is unmarked wire. It seems to us, then, 



