FOX-HUNTING 167 



depended entirely on what he could make 

 of one or two hundred acres of land, and he 

 were asked to forego, for the pleasure of 

 others, the substantial saving and economy 

 that a particular kind of fencing would enable 

 him to make. No man hates the sight of 

 wire, or laments the invention of the hideous 

 barbed variety, more than the writer ; but 

 it appears to him worse than unjust to abuse 

 and upbraid the farmer who puts it up. In 

 the first place, the landlord, who is more 

 often a worse friend to hunting than the 

 tenant, is the man to whom representation 

 should be made. A farmer may say, My 

 ability to pay my rent depends on my 

 carrying out this, with other economies ; 

 and if an occupier does not hunt, the only 

 proper way to prevent his putting up wire 



