EVERLASTING QUESTION 107 



At such a time the indifference of the 

 landed class would be fatal ; whether a 

 gentleman personally cares for hunting or 

 not is quite beside the question ; if he has 

 a place in a hunting country, he must 

 unless he be lost to all sense of decency 

 have some regard for the customs of the 

 district in which he lives. So far as 

 hunting is concerned, these customs from 

 old - established practice constitute un- 

 written laws, to which long consent gives 

 moral authority, dependent only on the 

 continued support of public opinion. 



Even setting aside the relative import- 

 ance of the interests concerned, and looking 

 at the whole matter from a purely sporting 

 point of view, it would seem almost 

 ludicrous to institute any serious com- 

 parison between the virile, healthy, sport 

 of hunting, giving pleasure to hundreds at 

 a time, calling into play every quality of 

 manly pluck and endurance, attended by 

 just that spice of danger that marks every 

 true sport, and such a degenerate, selfish 

 pastime as covert shooting, with its easy 



