FARMERS AND FOX-HUNTING 279 



be kept fairly quiet, but I am sorry to say this is 

 not always the case. I know of one covert — it is 

 not more than three and a half acres in extent — 

 for which a rent of £6 per annum is paid ; the 

 value of the land for agricultural purposes is 

 perhaps 10s. per acre. During eleven years one 

 fox has been found in the covert. Now I am 

 only stating the fact, and I imply nothing. I do 

 not suggest for a moment that the farmer kills 

 foxes, but there are rides cut through the covert at 

 intervals, and it is obvious that it is never quiet, 

 the farmer and his friends being always on the 

 hunt for rabbits. Of course it would be folly to 

 continue to pay rent for this covert under the 

 circumstances, yet I make no doubt that when the 

 M.F.H. ceases to pay rent the farmer will imagine 

 he has a grievance. Another case which came to 

 my personal knowledge will scarcely commend 

 itself to those who advocate fair play. The rent 

 of £ 1 7 per annum was paid for a covert of some 

 eight or nine acres, the agricultural value of the 

 land being about 17s. 6d. per acre. Hounds were 

 advertised to meet in the neighbourhood, and 

 though it was quite possible that they might not 

 require the covert, it was equally likely that they 

 might. Four days before the hunting day the 

 covert was shot by a party of several guns, and on 

 the very morning that hounds met some rabbiting 

 was indulged in. Of course the covert was drawn 

 blank. It is only fair to say that the lessor of the 

 covert expressed his sorrow at what had taken 

 place, which he said was due to inadvertence, and 

 it is also right to say that such a thing has not 

 occurred again, but had the lessor of the covert 

 thought of others, had he, in other words, treated 



