HUNTING IN GRASS COUNTRIES 317 



resents the defect common to all English society, 

 which has been defined as caused by " the superior 

 manners of inferior people and the inferior manners 

 of superior people." 



But is there no hostility to hunting ? I think 

 there is some, though it is kept in check by the 

 genuine popularity of the sport. It exists, how- 

 ever, and is sufficient to be a danger. There are 

 those who conscientiously believe all sport to be 

 morally wrong. There are a few people who dis- 

 like everything that gives pleasure to others ; some 

 who cannot see why people should like what they 

 themselves do not care for. There are some again 

 who really think that the passage of the hunt over 

 their farms does more damage than can possibly 

 be recompensed to them by anything that the hunt 

 can do for them. There are the owners of prize- 

 bred fowls who put down every loss to the foxes. 

 Many of these people are mistaken, but if they do 

 not think so and cannot be brought to see it, the 

 danger is the same. Then there is a class of 

 politicians who believe that English love of sport 

 is a real hindrance to the spread of liberal opinions. 



So long as public opinion and the common interest 

 keep these in check — well. But if ever hunting 

 people give them a really taking cry, such as that 

 hunting is " the sport of the rich," and if the mal- 

 contents are strengthened by the resentment of 

 those who have been driven from the hunting field 

 when they believe, and perhaps with justice, that 

 they have as much right as any one else and can rally 

 to themselves the class jealousies which seethe under 

 the surface of our rural life, it will be all over with 

 hunting, and indeed with sport of all kind in Eng- 

 land. I do not say that the danger is now imminent, 



