248 IRiMno IRccoUections an& XTurt Stones 



instance, a farmer comes up to his gate when hounds 

 are running towards him ; he has a very choice piece 

 of sheep-cabbage or a good bit of turnips, a bit 

 better than other folks, or he thinks so. He holloas 

 and heads the fox, and he is at once abused, generally 

 by people who don't own an acre of land in the 

 country, and are only there on sufferance themselves. 

 When you ask such men for a subscription to the 

 agricultural fund, or any other institute connected 

 with the farmer, they are the first to refuse. I don't 

 say this is always the case, as I know of a great 

 many gentlemen I could mention who do all they 

 possibly can to help the farmer, and will go out of 

 their way to shut a gate that has been left open by 

 very likely the same men I have just mentioned, or 

 their second horsemen, who are as great a nuisance, 

 or, if possible, worse than the masters. I am sorry to 

 say there are too many of these latter sort of people 

 about now. 1 he time is fast approaching — I don't 

 know whether I shall live to see it — when there will 

 be a tax on gentlemen hunting, so that the farmer 

 or owner will be paid for having his land ridden over 

 and damage done, much in the same way as a rent is 

 paid for shooting rights. I am sorry to say the times 

 are so bad that, where I used to see a dozen or 

 twenty farmers or their sons out hunting ten or fifteen 



