300 FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES 



matches for the household. Reasonably or unreason- 

 ably, the customer fancied these particular matches, 

 but if a few packets came, as it were under protest, 

 from the grocer, the unspeakable foreign matches 

 were sure to reappear. As it manifestly is not worth 

 while to send to London for matches only, the result 

 may be imagined. I think that this unwillingness 

 to supply what is wanted is a survival from the old 

 days when the country tradesman expected his 

 customers to help him to clear off his stock, and they 

 took as a matter of course what he had to sell. In 

 a certain small town dialogues like the following 

 were not unknown. " I do not like this cheese, Mr. 



Mr. ." "Well, m'm, I'm sorry, but I can't cut 



another till that is finished," and he didn't, though 

 his customer was housekeeper to a large family. But 

 then there were no stores, no great shops, no parcel 

 post, and London was much farther off then from 

 the Midlands than it is now. 



Yet I think that visitors to a hunting district are 

 morally bound to deal where they hunt. How can 

 we expect people to appreciate the benefits of the 

 expenditure on hunting if none of it comes their way ? 

 Indirect benefits may be very considerable, but they 

 do not affect the imagination. It must also be re- 

 collected that in various ways the farmers are directly 

 affected by the expenditure in the towns. They have 

 relations with the business people and often have 

 relatives engaged in the trade of a market town. Yet 

 it cannot be denied that country tradespeople might 

 do more to attract their customers, and especially 

 those smaller residents to be found in the Midlands, 

 who spend from £500 to £1000 a year, are obliged 

 to consider economy and are sometimes alienated 

 by want of consideration and a tendency, which has 



