106 PHEASANTS 



whole world, fox-hunting may well claim 

 the allegiance of every good Englishman. 

 Hunting is a catholic sport ; all sorts and 

 conditions of men who could never have 

 any part in the pleasures of covert shoot- 

 ing, may sometimes beg or borrow when 

 they cannot buy a horse and have a ride 

 to hounds ; while anyone no matter 

 what his condition who is blest with 

 a sound pair of legs, may in some degree 

 share in the ardours of the chase. 



The present is a critical time in the 

 history of our national sport, when con- 

 ditions unknown in the past seem almost 

 to endanger its continued existence. 

 Masters of hounds have to reckon not 

 only with the manifold difficulties of 

 barbed wire now so generally used, but 

 also with overcrowded fields of incon- 

 siderate strangers, caring little and know- 

 ing less of the land they ride over, their 

 presence only tending to foster a feeling 

 among the farmers, lukewarm, if not 

 actively hostile, to the interests of the 

 hunt. 



