FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES 5 



Pytchley in the past, as to-day, were drawn from all 

 England, nay, from all parts of the world. 



If we have our Counts Kinsky or Trautsmandorf, 

 or Larische, there was the Russian Matusciewitz, a 

 contemporary of Nimrod and Alvanley, whose name 

 crops up continually in all the memoirs of the early 

 part of the nineteenth century. Nowadays we also 

 have our American and Colonial detachments, for as 

 wealth has grown in those lands, so these descendants 

 of Englishmen come back to the sports of their fore- 

 fathers, and show that they can hold their own with 

 the best of us in the hunting-field and on the polo 

 ground. But they all come to Melton, or Harborough, 

 or Rugby, because the chance of sport there is better 

 than elsewhere, and because there is more of it. 



As we have seen, a country naturally suited for 

 hunting has been improved by the planting of arti- 

 ficial coverts until it is an arena laid out for the pur- 

 pose of sport. Indeed, large sums are paid every year 

 for the rent and upkeep of coverts and for the fencing 

 of some districts and the taking down of wire in nearly 

 all. But although wire is a danger to those who hunt, 

 and is, indeed, a great hindrance to sport where it 

 exists, yet its appearance is not, save in a very few 

 cases, to be attributed to hostility to fox-hunting, but 

 simply to economic reasons. Wire is used because it 

 is thought to be cheaper, more durable, and more 

 effective than rails or hedges. 



There is little hostiUty to hunting in Leicestershire ; 

 indeed, why should there be ? There, at all events, 

 its benefits are plain to all. The grass countries of the 

 Midlands, though as a rule, not without a charm of 

 their own, yet have not the attractions of many other 

 parts of England. The climate, though healthy, is 

 cold, and the white fogs which veil the land for days 



