172 SPORTING STORIES 



tion the enormous deduction from the revenue consequent 

 upon the aboHtion of the post-horse duties — when we think 

 of its varied and multitudinous bearings upon the present 

 state of society ; and add to all this the fact that in no 

 quarter of the globe were the means of travelling established 

 on so admirable a basis as hitherto in this country ; that, 

 like the dog and the shadow, we are about to cast away 

 the substance of good for the sake of catching at a chance 

 of problematical good, in the opinion of some, and fraught 

 with positive evil in the estimation of many : when we 

 reflect on these things we cannot but wonder at the blind- 

 ness which has countenanced the growth of a monster 

 which will rend the vitals of those by whom it has been 

 fostered." ^ 



Alas, poor prophet, how ludicrously events falsified his 

 predictions in his own lifetime ! If railways have inter- 

 fered with fox-hunting, it is in a very different fashion from 

 what the " Country Squire " imagined, 



I have heard the scarcity of foxes attributed to the scale 

 on which pheasants are now preserved for big shoots. But 

 I am bound to say that, at any rate in the county in which 

 I reside, the proprietors of the shootings deal very fairly 

 with the hunting-men. 



If this decrease in foxes continues, hunting-men will 

 have to fall back upon the much-despised " bag-man," 

 which I would remind them can be pursued with both 

 economy and enthusiasm. The Rev. Jack Russell brought 

 the hunting of bag-foxes to a science, on the same principle 

 as the hunting of carted deer adopted by the Masters of 

 the Royal Buckhounds. This is the way he and his friend 

 Mr Templer used to manage with their bag-foxes. 



When a " bag-man " was to be turned out, it was always 

 done in view of the hounds, Templer standing among them 

 with his hunting-watch open in his hand ; nor was a hound 

 permitted to stir till fair law had been allowed. 



The business, then, was to save the fox alive; and 

 whether he were a wild fox or a " bag-man," such was the 

 hard riding, and such the obedience of the hounds to a 



* Much the same sort of wild talk is heard at present with regard to 

 motors. 



