CHAPTER XIX 



THE FUTURE OF HARE-HUNTING 



Assured future of hare-hunting — Comparison with 

 fox-hunting — Troubles of fox-hunters — QuaUfications 

 of a successful Master — Somervile on good manners 

 — How to increase the stock of hares — Beckford on 

 warrens — The menace of over-population — Growth 

 and evils of manufacturing towns — Probable 

 duration of hare-hunting — Past days in Warwick- 

 shire — Necessity of field sports — Future hunting 

 grounds — Hare-hunting in South Africa — Other 

 fields — Good days yet for English sport — Virgil's 

 exhortation on hunting 



The future of hare-hunting, a sport which, eighty 

 years ago and less, when fox-hunting was rising to 

 its zenith, was being laughed out of fashion, is now 

 safe enough. There have been pauses in the quiet 

 tide of popularity, which, during the last score of 

 years, has been running steadily in favour of this 

 ancient and most interesting sport. The Ground 

 Game Act seemed for a time likely to threaten disaster 

 to hare-hunting, but, happily, the dangers of that 

 dubious piece of legislation have been and are being 

 surmounted ; and, with the exception of certain 

 districts, usually where small holdings prevail. Sir 

 William Harcourt's Act has no longer quite the terrors 

 it used to possess. After all, the preservation of hares 

 rests mainly with the farmers, and farmers are more 



