LANDOWNERS, ETC., AND FOXHUNTING. 7 I 



etc., etc. It then passes on to the " field," and after 

 mentioning several names, adds, '' and a few farmers." 

 Possibly, and most probably, the latter care absolutely 

 nothing whether their names are inserted or not, but 

 these accounts only serve to show how the men who 

 do so much for hunting are looked upon by the 

 majority of the follov\'ers of a pack of hounds. I 

 once overheard at a meet, "Who is so and so?" 

 ^'Oh! he is only a farmer; his name is Smith." 

 Now this very man Smith owned and farmed, as his 

 father did before him, nearly a thousand acres, and 

 hounds crossed his fields many times during the 

 season. 



Smith, who was an educated man, did not 

 mind being called a farmer, but did resent the 

 contemptible tone in which he was spoken of by a 

 man who knew him and who hunted regularly. I 

 have been led to relate this incident to point out 

 that all farmers are not the uneducated, ignorant 

 race of men so many think, and that they like some 

 recognition from fellow-sportsmen. 



In "the good old days," when the "field'' was 

 principally composed of the landlords and farmers 

 of the country, all met in the hunting-field on the 

 same level as brother sportsmen. 



Nowadays, in the fashionable countries, from 

 which the provinces take their pattern, things are 

 very different, which in some ways is a great pity, 

 and must in the end do harm to foxhunting. 



