HOW SPORT IS SPOILED. 103 



Kingdom wlio, living in a hunting country, would have 

 the face to- say openly (say at a dinner table, taking all 

 chances of whether the party was one of sportsmen or 

 not), ^^1 shoot foxes !" The pheasant is the fox^s worst 

 foe, and the rage for " newspaper bags '' is not the most 

 pleasant trait in our present national character. And 

 I make this remark being personally as fond of shooting 

 as my neighbours, and anything but an admirer of Mr. 

 Peter Taylor, M.P. 



However, given the fox and the hounds, friendly 

 owners of coverts, and keepers who treat Reynard fairly 

 (and there are such, though they can hardly be con- 

 sidered a majority), many other ways exist of "spoiling 

 sport. Next in importance to owners of land come 

 occupiers of the same. (This is the present arrange- 

 ment, but it will ere long be altered, I make no doubt.) 

 Now, no sport can be shown in any country without the 

 hearty co-operation of the farmers thereof; and, luckily, 

 999 out of every 1000 farmers are sportsmen at heart, if 

 not practically, and consequently the warmest supporters 

 of a hunt. If it were otherwise, hunting would cease — 

 die a natural (no, an unnatural) death. Nothing but 

 locking gates and wiring fences is required to make any 

 country impassable : very simple indeed all this is. And 

 damage is done by foxhunters, and that to a considerable 

 extent. That the presence of a pack of hounds benefits 

 a country is equally indisputable ; horses and stablemen 

 must eat, as well as their masters ; and, whether a farmer 

 grows beef or bread, there will be a market for his 

 produce when the population is increased by a neigh- 

 bouring town being full of hunting gentlemen. Yet the 

 damage done to a field of wheat or turnips by an army of 

 careering horsemen is obvious and visible, and it requires 



