oO COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



not being able to hunt themselves, for the sake of filthy lucre 

 let their coverts and shootings to tenants, who are little better 

 than poulterers, and destroy the sport of half a country by 

 killing foxes in order that they may slaughter so many hundred 

 pheasants in a day, or to those who, keeping the shooting in 

 their own hands, permit their keepers to do the same. 



If it was true that hunting was for the benefit of a country 

 in 1792 by bringing a large influx of money into it, when the 

 men who hunted were, comparatively speaking, few, how much 

 more so is it true now when hundreds hunt where tens were 

 then seen at the covert side, when studs, on the average, are 

 much larger ; for second horses had not then come into fashion, 

 and the great increase of wealth in the country has produced 

 far more luxurious living in every way. What is true of 

 Leicestershire is also true of every hunting country, though 

 in a minor degree; and the man who preserves foxes and 

 encourages the sport is a public benefactor, while he who sacri- 

 fices them either to his selfish pleasure (for selfish shooting 

 must, in a measure, be considered when compared with hunt- 

 ing), or to a thirst for gain, must be content to hold a 

 diametrically opposite position in public opinion. It has been 

 written of late that hunting men are too exorbitant and im- 

 perious in their demands, and expect others to give way before 

 their wishes in too great a degree ; but when we look at the 

 beneficent eff'ect of their amusement on the country wherein it 

 is carried out, I for one cannot endorse the charge, and if, as poli- 

 ticians now say, the greatest happiness of the greatest number is 

 to be arrived at, hunting certainly should be yielded the pas by 

 aU the country sports, except perhaps racing and steeplechasing, 

 with neither of which it clashes. 



