372 HUNTING. 



hunts on the free list and pretends to support fox- 

 hunting, while he keeps his land encompassed by wire 

 during the entire season ! I have known some of 

 these men enjoy unmerited popularity with the 

 Master, and even take charge of Hunt wire boards. 

 Their non-hunting neighbours who take down wire 

 and over whose land they ride with safety, are 

 obviously the better supporters of hunting, although 

 they may not be able to afford a nag, even if they had 

 time to devote to the sport. The farmer who takes 

 down his wire is naturally displeased with a Hunt 

 which favours an individual who keeps it up ; but I 

 think if all Hunt secretaries were like Colonel Henry, 

 such delinquents would soon be brought to book, for 

 no Master would care to see with his hounds, a 

 farmer who kept his land wired during the hunting 

 season. Some of the illustrations of wired fences in 

 this book have been photographed on the land of so- 

 called ''hunting farmers." An even worse class of 

 man than the double-dealing farmer is the wealthy 

 landowner who preserves his coverts, shoots foxes, lets 

 his shooting at a big profit, and then goes off to hunt 

 in some fashionable centre, like Melton Mowbray. 

 In Leicestershire he would be regarded as a hunting- 

 man, while in his own district he is known as a vulpicide, 

 for Reynard is seldom, if ever, found in his coverts. One 

 has only to live in the country, and pretend indifference 

 about fox-hunting, to see the tricks which some farmers 

 perform in order to prevent people from riding 

 over their land. I remember in the North Cheshire 



