CAPPING 159 



is wrong ab initio, but it is very difficult to say 

 how to put it right. A suggestion has been made 

 that a man should subscribe in proportion to the 

 number of days per week that he hunts, and there 

 certainly is something to be said in favour of such 

 a proposal. But there is one thing which must be 

 borne in mind, and that is that as soon as fox- 

 hunting becomes as it were a close borough, as 

 soon as only subscribers are allowed to hunt, and 

 an attempt is made to dictate to a man what the 

 amount of his subscription must be — in other 

 words, as soon as fox-hunting is confined to club 

 members, so soon will fox-hunting be on the down- 

 ward line. For fox-hunting exists on the mutual 

 forbearance not of one or two, but of several 

 classes, and it is not difficult to show how what for 

 want of a better word I will call the "club" 

 system would entail a hardship on many a man who 

 enjoys an occasional day with hounds on a friend's 

 horse, and who works very hard to get it. It may 

 be said off-hand by some who only look at one 

 side of the question, "Well, such a man is as well 

 away. What can he ever do for the sport ? " But 

 besides being a selfish way of putting the matter, it 

 is begging the question with a vengeance. For 

 though this man's circumstances may not admit of 

 his paying a liberal subscription and keeping a 

 large stud of hunters at the present time, it is 

 quite possible that in the future he may be able to 

 do so. In the future, too, he may own coverts, 

 and then he will be an important personage enough 

 in the eyes of all hunting men. And even if he 

 does not, if he never rises even to the position of a 

 one-horse man, he has a kindly feeling for the 

 sport, a kindly feeling which tends to promote a 



