CHAPTER XXIII 



SOME HUNTING CHANGES 



That hunting is carried on under very different 

 conditions from those which used to obtain is so 

 obvious that it seems unnecessary to call attention 

 to the fact. Yet at times it seems as if benefit 

 is derivable from a comparison with the " brave 

 days of old." For occasionally we hear men say, 

 " Such and such a thing would not have happened 

 fifty or sixty years ago," quite ignoring the fact 

 that fifty or sixty years ago the conditions under 

 which hunting was carried on were so totally 

 different that the comparison does not apply. To 

 begin with, in former times, with the exception of 

 the shires, nearly every man who hunted, hunted 

 from home. He resided within the limits of the 

 pack with which he cast in his lot ; the farmers 

 over whose land he rode were personally well 

 known to him ; he had an interest and a stake in 

 the country ; and in many respects his interests 

 were identical with those of the farmers. These 

 things of themselves tended to make farmers look 

 upon hunting men with more than a friendly eye, 

 and to welcome them on their land with that 

 hospitality which is one of the distinguishing 

 characteristics of the English farmer. Now 

 matters have so much altered with respect to the 



