FOX-HUNTING AND ITS FUTURE 



saw no harm in indulging in the good things that 

 came to them, especially in the fine old English sport 

 of hunting. They lived well ; most of them had, as 

 their fathers had before them, excellent cellars of port 

 wine ; and the hospitality of rural Britain was never 

 more open-handed. At this period the farmers, if they 

 lived well, lived within their means. They can scarcely 

 be blamed for not foreseeing the pinching times, the 

 terrible losses that lay before them and their successors 

 between 1875 and the end of the century. Wire 

 fencing and other terrors were undreamed of; the fox- 

 hunter was everywhere welcomed ; no man, except 

 the master and hunt servants, grumbled at large fields ; 

 everything was done by the tenant farmer to minister 

 to the success and enjoyment of the ''sport of kings." 

 The squires and aristocracy for their part flourished 

 exceedingly. They had got their rents up to a record 

 point ; the farmers were good and willing payers ; thus 

 all parties interested in the land could and did most 

 heartily enjoy the wholesome life of the countryside, 

 and especially the sport of fox-hunting. Here and 

 there, perhaps, were discerned the beginnings of future 

 drawbacks and annoyances. One little rift within the 

 lute was just beginning to appear. Pheasants, one of 

 the chief evils of modern fox-hunting, were already 

 being largely cultivated ; and even at this, the best 

 period of English hunting, friction began to arise 

 between the more selfish game preservers and their 

 keepers, and masters of hounds. This drawback of 

 pheasant preservation has, as we all know, by this 

 time attained very menacing proportions ; and, with 

 that other modern curse of barbed wire, now threatens, 

 in places, the very existence of our great winter 

 sport. 



It is needless to recall the piteous tale of the last 



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