1 8 THE MASTER OF HOUNDS 



^oing on at the present time against hunting. I am 



employed on an estate where neither my employer 



or any member of the family hunt. Game is reared 



every year, and on this estate there were this year, and 



are still, I believe, about fifteen foxes in one wood 



of some two hundred acres. During my stay here 



(two years) I never had, nor have I ever known of any 



keeper on the place, to kill a fox in that time. Still, we 



get, I dare say, the name of killing foxes, simply because 



we do not hunt. To finish, hunting-men owe a great 



deal more to game-preservers than they seem to be 



aware of. I would think there is very little cause for 



the complaints we hear from hunting-men, though they 



may only come from one-horse gentlemen. 



" Yours truly, 



"R. MOLLISON. 

 " Charleville Forest, TuUamore, 



" King's County, 



" November 25, 1902." 



I will say nothing about the personal attacks upon 

 myself, but have preferred to quote the letter as an 

 average exposition of the gamekeeper's views. 



In reference to ladies in the hunting-field, I wash to 

 make only a very few brief remarks. In the first place, 

 I believe that the more ladies who hunt the better it is 

 for the sport, providing the ladies are both sports- 

 women and horsewomen and are mounted on safe 

 conveyances across country. The last proviso is 

 essential. A lady struggling to get a Park hack or a fat 

 cob through a gap, hat half off and hair down her back, 

 with the family coachman plying his hunting-crop 



