FOX-HUNTING AND ITS FUTURE 



the landed gentry, who suffer seriously from the depres- 

 sion, and who usually contribute without fee or reward 

 much of the ground hunted over, should pay less than 

 other subscribers. In unfashionable countries the sport 

 will probably revert more and more to the form of chase 

 in vogue with our ancestors ; fields will be small ; and 

 only the squires, wealthy residents within the hunt, 

 subscribers, and such of the farmers as can afford it, 

 will appear at the covert-side. 



Overcrowding has now attained such proportions in 

 many of the more fashionable countries that desperate 

 remedies have to be exhibited in order to get rid of the 

 evil. I have spoken of capping as but a clumsy de- 

 terrent ; yet, such as it is, it is now being seriously 

 adopted in the shires. The Warwickshire, Pytchley, 

 North Warwickshire and other hunts now cap, during 

 the season, all strangers and non-subscribers at the rate 

 of 2 per head per diem. The impost has certainly had 

 considerable success in thinning the horde of irre- 

 sponsible folk who wander from hunt to hunt without 

 paying a shilling for their pleasure. Yet the system 

 has many drawbacks. It is unpleasant to have to dun 

 people for money, while if they refuse to pay there is 

 no real remedy. The master can scarcely be expected 

 to take hounds home and spoil the sport of his sub- 

 scribers for the sake of inflicting a lesson on such 

 wandering folk as refuse to pay the levy required of 

 them. The collection of money itself has its awkward 

 side. The secretary of a well-known hunt last season 

 became so burdened with his load of shekels that he 

 had to transfer the contents of his bulging pockets to 

 a dog-cart. But if no friendly conveyance is handy, 

 the secretary of a hunt, especially if he should chance 

 to be paid the "cap" fees partially in silver, might 

 conceivably find himself burdened with an additional 



137 



