180 THE SPORT OF KINGS 



hundreds. Not long ago I met a pack of hounds 

 at what was always looked upon as one of the 

 worst fixtures. There was quite a strong muster, 

 some fifty or sixty horsemen. I can remember 

 the time when there would not have been more 

 than a dozen. In another and more fashionable 

 district, and with another pack of hounds, the 

 field numbered nearly three hundred. Fifty years 

 ago, and even more recently than fifty years ago, 

 seventy or eighty would have been looked upon 

 as a good field. These facts, combined with the 

 improvement in agriculture, the enclosing of land, 

 the cheapness of wire fencing, and the agricultural 

 depression, necessitating a policy of economy in 

 the management of farms, have tended to do away 

 with the old farmers' hunts, which did so much 

 for the sport in the early years of the century. It 

 is necessary now that a Master of Hounds should 

 have leisure, plenty of money, and an inclination 

 to spend it liberally in the country over which he 

 presides. Then there are poultry and damage 

 funds, which require feeding, and which need the 

 supervision of energetic secretaries, and altogether 

 a great amount of ability and tact is now required 

 to keep a country going which not so many years 

 ago kept itself going. It is not that the sporting 

 spirit is dying out in the places to which I am 

 referring. That, I am happy to say, is as strong 

 as ever it was. But circumstances have taken 

 place which compel it to be exercised in a different 

 way, and though we may lament the necessity for 

 it, we must recognise the fact that gradually the 

 hunt managed exclusively, or almost exclusively, 

 by farmers is dying out in the land. The farmers, 

 however, still continue to take an active interest in 



