CRITICISMS OF HIS FOLLOWERS 147 



enterprising theatrical managers, who wish to make 

 their hunting scenes as realistic as possible. But it is 

 absurd and most unsportsmanlike to imitate theatrical 

 pageantry in the hunting-field. Still more absurd is it 

 to waste the money on the imitation, which is required 

 for hound-breeding and for the purchase of suitable 

 horses, on which to mount the Hunt servants. More- 

 over, the tenant-farmers object to this modern dandy- 

 ism ; and, as we depend upon the tenant-farmers for our 

 sport, it is incumbent upon us to take their opinions 

 into consideration. An old farmer, who has now 

 joined the majority, said, "The fox was born to be 

 hunted, not to kill geese." If he were alive now he 

 might have added, " Nor to amuse geese." Not that I 

 am insensible to the pageantry of fox-hunting. I think 

 that it is a pity that we do not see hunting-scenes more 

 often depicted on the walls of our Royal Academy. 

 But the pageantry is a secondary consideration in con- 

 nection with killing a fox. Therefore, if funds be short, 

 renounce the pageantry, but kill the foxes. I have 

 been told that, if a Master of Hounds were to renounce 

 this pageantry and devote his energies and money 

 solely to the legitimate promotion of sport, he would 

 lose half his subscribers. I question the statement. 

 In the first place, at a fashionable meet of hounds, 

 barely ten per cent, of the congregation are subscribers. 

 Of the odd ninety per cent, many are carriage people, 

 who have only driven, or been driven to the meet, as if it 

 was a social winter function, like driving through Hyde 

 Park during the height of the London season. Then 

 there are the short-skirted cyclists, who wonder why 



