CHAPTER XV 

 FOX-HUNTING AND ITS FUTURE 



Difficulties and dangers — Number of packs hunting — Some comparisons 

 — Gentlemen huntsmen — Beckford's definition — Some lady huntsmen 

 and masters — Professionals — The chase in Britain — Some English 

 kings — Modern fox-hunting — Jacobite sportsmen — Somervile — 

 Warde, Meynell, and Corbett — Warwickshire country — Subscriptions 

 — Private packs — The hey-day of hunting— Prosperity of farmers — A 

 critical period — Three great difficulties — Overcrowding and its evils 

 — "Capping" — Lady riders — Pheasant-preserving — Probable dura- 

 tion of fox-hunting. 



IN spite of the ever-increasing difficulties and dangers 

 with which English hunting has been in its later 

 days environed, the sport during the last season seems 

 to have been more keenly pursued than at any former 

 period. For the season of 1903-4 no less than 204 packs 

 of foxhounds were put into the field in Great Britain 

 and Ireland, an advance of 4 upon those of the pre- 

 vious season, and of no less than 22 upon the number of 

 packs hunting in 1895-6 ; of these, 168 packs hailed 

 from England and Wales, 10 from Scotland, and 26 

 from Ireland. In 1895-6 the total number of packs of 

 all kinds hunting in these islands was 389. At the 

 beginning of the last season (1903-4) no less than 427 

 packs — foxhounds, staghounds, harriers, beagles, and 

 basset-hounds — opened the campaign. Harriers and 

 foot-beagles seem to be increasing rapidly in favour. 

 In the palmy days of fox-hunting the chase of the hare 

 had somewhat fallen into disfavour ; but the tide is 

 now setting strongly the other way, and during the 



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