86 SHOOTING THE HARE 



is difficult to see what good has resulted to anyone 

 from this unfortunate piece of legislation. Never 

 once have we heard a good word spoken for it either 

 by labourer, tenant, or landlord. The shooting tenant 

 — to whom the modern landlord looks for the means 

 to pay the charges on his estate, much as the Irish 

 peasant relies on his pig for the means to pay his rent, 

 or rather did rely when rents were honestly paid in 

 Ireland — is the principal sufferer, because farmers do 

 not care to forego any right they may possess — how- 

 ever useless or unsought it may have been — in order 

 to assist a stranger. On some few estates, within my 

 knowledge, the Act has been a dead letter because the 

 farmers' relations with their landlord were such that 

 they did not desire to vex him or curtail his enjoyment 

 of his own property for the sake of any advantage forced 

 upon them without their request by the Government of 

 the day. Especially do I recall the remark of one of the 

 tenants on Lord Wenlock's Escrick estate, near York, 

 when, a year or so after the passing of the Ground 

 Game Act, a passing stranger in the hunting-field paused 

 to remark to the old farmer, ' Well ! you seem to keep 

 plenty of hares in spite of the Act, my friend ? ' 

 ' Ay ! ' was the answer, ' and we had need to have 

 plenty when my lord comes shooting, I can tell you.' 

 There was a kindly ring about the tone and an indi- 



