NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



bination of the fox-hunting interest throughout England 

 would be a force which even hardened pheasant pre- 

 servers would be compelled to listen to. I speak, of 

 course, of the worst and most selfish form of game 

 preserving. As everyone knows, hundreds of good 

 shooting -men are also good fox -hunters and fox 

 preservers. 



Upon the whole it may be asserted that, in spite 

 of the dangers I have touched upon, fox-hunting is by 

 no means upon its last legs. It has yet an enduring 

 vitality. Here and there it may be crowded out of 

 existence, but it will probably survive far into the 

 present century, nay, even beyond. Changes and 

 reforms, in the very nature of things, there will have to 

 be. Many of these are already in progress. The fact 

 that more than two hundred packs of hounds were put 

 into the field last season in the United Kingdom indi- 

 cates that the pastime has still abounding vigour and 

 troops of friends. A fine, manly, and most bracing 

 pastime, fox-hunting, of all our field sports, can least be 

 suffered to die out. 







142 



