2IO HISTORY OF THE BRAMHAM MOOR HUNT. 



' The greater portion of the landowners do not permit 

 * their servants to interfere with foxes. Before you were born 



' Woods, Wood, , , &c., were full 



'of foxes, and rare sport hounds had, and how the farmers 

 'enjoyed it! Then came the selfish gun, poison, and blank 

 'days. Many good farmers with capital gave up their farms, 

 'and I venture to say the neighbourhood was not benefited. 



'Present my compliments to your friend, "the hunting 

 '"man and rare sportsman, and a member of your Hunt," 

 ' and tell him I should be glad if he will tell me how to 

 'hunt the country. I know some people will be more happy 



'without a fox or a cheery hunt. I only wish , his 



'friend, -, , and if you like had ^10,000, 



'a year in Norfolk.' 



' I have run into a pamphlet, and apologise. 



'Yours truly, G. Lane Fox.' 



The last gentleman alluded to in the letter, I need 

 scarcely say, was the recipient of it. 



As it is somewhat connected with the troubles which 

 masters of hounds have to encounter, and the unjust 

 criticism they have to put up with from the ignorant, I may 

 perhaps be forgiven if 1 give an extract from a letter of 

 Sir Charles Knightley's on the subject. It is unnecessary 

 to say that .Sir Charles, who hunted the Pytchley country 

 for one season, was one of the hardest men in the shires, 

 and that on those two well-known hunters of which Dick 

 Christian speaks, Sir Mariner and Benvolio, he was a very 

 awkward customer to tackle. His opinion upon the question 

 of sport, therefore, is especially entitled to respect, as he was 

 a riding as well as a hunting man : — 



' Do we ever see runs like those of old in the present day r 

 ' If not, what is the cause r Hounds never were better 

 ' than now, or altogether better managed. The sole reason 

 ' is this : where in former days there were fifty men out 

 'there are now three hundred. Formerly five or six men 



