6 FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES 



in the winter time, to say nothing of the keen east 

 winds, are trying to delicate folk, Leicestershire, then, 

 without hunting would be left to itself, to the making 

 of shoes and stockings and the fatting of beasts. But 

 the hunting season fills it with a gay crowd, who rent 

 the houses, help to pay the rates, buy the produce of 

 the land, and give employment in one way or another 

 to some thousands of people. They fill, too, the whole 

 country-side with life and interest. 



Nor is hunting the amusement only of the rich. A 

 few, very few, unwise people of wealth wish that it 

 was, for foxes would not then be so often headed and 

 there would be more room at the fences. But these 

 are mistaken, for the backbone of hunting is in the 

 hundreds of men who have a day with the hounds 

 now and then, in the professional and business men 

 from the towns, in the sprinkling of well-mounted 

 farmers, and in those who see what they can of the 

 sport on a bicycle, on foot, or in a cart. 



No one with eyes to see, who watches hunting and its 

 followers, can doubt for a moment that in Leicester- 

 shire, at least, it is not only a rich man's sport. The 

 rich man, of course, will have the best of it, but that 

 is the way of the world ; and no one would ever grudge 

 a man a good horse if he could ride it worthily and well 

 for twenty minutes over a grass country. 



Hunting in the Midlands is everybody's sport accord- 

 ing to their means ; therefore there is no likelihood 

 that there will be hostility to it, nor will wire increase. 

 On the contrary, as we ride about, we think we see 

 signs that it will, in the future, become less necessary. 

 Every year more fences are being cut and laid, 

 and the work is being better done. A good 

 blackthorn hedge, with the top binders twisted, will 

 stop most bullocks, as it will certainly turn a horse 



