"WARE WIRE." 139 



Xortli StafTortlsliire is concerned, it is a well-timliered country, and almost every 

 landed proprietor might easily find plenty of trees on his property that are inter- 

 fering with good forming and that are of btit little vahie and no ornament, and 

 which conld not be put to a better use than in making posts and rails in place of 

 this miserable wire. This is already done on the best-managed estates, and if 

 their example is not followed more generally it will not be long before some 

 putter-up of wire may find a very serious or even fatal accident laid at his door. 

 One frequently sees, side by side, two fences, one in which the farmer has 

 endeavoured to make up for past neglect with wire, and the other in which 

 stunted, superfluous hedgerow timber is growing to the detriment of good farm- 

 ing and to the destruction of the fence in which it is growing. The judicious 

 use of such timber would help the former considerably in these bad times, and 

 would remove any need for the use of wire. H. S. 



The wire question was evidently causing much anxiety 

 to the Master and the Hunt Committee about this time, 

 and the foUowino- circular was sent out to landowners and 

 farmers in the North Staffordshire Hunt, and a similar 

 letter from an unknown correspondent was also inserted 

 at the time in the Staffordshire Advertiser : — 



Swynnerton Park, Stone. January loth, 188C. 

 Dkar Sir, 



By desire of the Marquis of Stafford and the Committee of the North 

 Stafford Hunt, I have to beg your kind attention to the dangerous and increasing 

 practice of laying strands of wire along quick fences, and in other situations where 

 their presence cannot be readily detected by a horseman. Numerous accidents, 

 some of them fatal, have already occun-ed from this cause in various parts of the 

 country. I feel sure, therefore, that you will pardon my expressing the earnest 

 liope of the Runt, that you will do all in your power to prevent the use of wire in 

 the above-named way, and to have it removed in places where it already exists 

 and where it is especiallj- dangerous. 



The Hunt would also feel much indebted to you if j'ou would discourage the 

 use of barbed and all kinds of wire on your estate or holding in any way, using 

 where possible timber instead. 



I remain, yours faithfully, 



"W. Fitziiekbert-Brockholes, 



Hon. Sec, North Staff". Hunt. 



The following is the anonymous letter referred to 

 above as appearing in the Staffordshire Advertiser : — 



WIRE IN FENCES— A FOX-HUNTING DANGER. 



To tJie Editor of the " StaffordsJiire Advertiser.'' 



Sir, — The practice of using wire to strengthen and repair fences is increasing 

 so much, that I would ask you to allow me to take advantage of the large circu- 

 lation of your paper to make a few observations about it. Not a winter now 

 passes without the occun-ence in various parts of the country of accidents, many 

 of them serious and some even fatal, caused by wire in fences. Few people think. 



