HUNTING IN GRASS COUNTRIES 315 



wire and mange have failed to do in a score of years, 

 selfishness and pride of purse would succeed in doing 

 in a few months. 



The privilege of hunting with a pack in a man's 

 native or adopted country rests on precisely the 

 same basis as hunting itself — on long custom and 

 common consent. Who are the people whom per- 

 haps it is sought to exclude, and who certainly are 

 sometimes even now made to feel unwelcome ? They 

 are the smaller gentry, whom love for the land has 

 brought back to settle in the country, and the pro- 

 fessional men and business folk of the market towns. 

 All these are men of local importance. They have 

 business connections and sometimes ties of relation- 

 ship with the farmers. They will as a rule be liberal 

 according to their means, which are not large. But, 

 whether they are generous or the reverse, they are 

 most valuable supporters of hunting. A hunt which 

 has these people on its side is fortunate, for there 

 will be so many centres of influence working for it. 

 If they were indifferent or hostile, the effect would 

 be felt at once. The prospects of hunting are good 

 now ; never indeed were better ; and I have given 

 some reasons for thinking that the interests of the 

 farmers are inextricably bound up with those of 

 hunting. But the chief — I had almost written the 

 only — danger is from within. A hunt's worst enemies 

 are arrogance, pride of pocket, selfishness, want of 

 imagination or of sympathy in its rules and their 

 administration. Turn back to the history of the 

 past and note that when a master, or secretary, or 

 even a leading member of the hunt is unpopular 

 how foxes decrease and wire grows in length. What 

 can we suppose would happen if the unpopular 

 people in a hunt were multiplied by twenty ? It 



