56 THE COMPLETE FOXHUNTER 



glad to say, is everywhere existent, the hunt being 

 still looked upon not only as a necessary adjunct of 

 each countryside, but as a welcome diversion of the 

 monotony of country life. 



It has been shown that moderate (or degenerate as 

 they are usually called) foxes and barbed wire are 

 two evils which the modern conditions of hunting 

 entail, and, as has been suggested, the sport in many 

 countries has been greatly altered by the advent of 

 these two things. There are, too, several minor changes 

 which have gradually taken place within comparatively 

 recent time, but these will be treated of in the course of 

 these writings, as they crop up. It may here be stated 

 that on the other hand the hunting field is much more 

 cosmopolitan than it used to be, and that hunting is in 

 these days well within the reach of all who are inclined 

 to the sport, and are able to afford the expense. 



There are of course some provincial hunts which are 

 still carried on as they were more than half a century 

 ago, where the country is remote and far away from 

 beaten tracks, and where the hunting folk are the third 

 or fourth generation of the original founders of the 

 hunt. Into such districts strangers rarely penetrate, 

 and old fashions are adhered to merely because the 

 conservative tone of the district has never been altered. 

 But such hunts can probably be counted on the fingers 

 of one's two hands, and in a very great majority of the 

 so-called provincial countries all sorts of innovations 

 have been adopted, chiefly because the composition of 

 each hunt has so greatly changed. What was once 

 — especially in the pre-railway days — the sport of the 

 landed interest and the landowners and their tenants, 

 has become the sport of the community at large, and in 

 these times two-thirds of every field are business men 



