i8o TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



promise. At any rate, it is a case of choice between 

 a brief luxurious imprisonment with guaranteed 

 protection, and summary execution. 



I have used plain words about foxes, but there is 

 continually cropping up ample evidence to prove 

 that they are not to be allowed much longer to go 

 their own sweet way. Yet I am certain that keepers 

 collectively would be among the first to deplore 

 the prospect of a cessation of hunting not because 

 of the occasional pieces of gold which they may 

 receive from hunt funds, but because of their 

 genuine love for the blood-tingling sport. There 

 is a less worthy but weightier reason why the 

 extinction of foxes would be deplored by keepers 

 the same reason, I believe, that is used by those 

 who extol the benefits conferred on game interests, 

 by hunting, in the same breath that they say foxes 

 do practically no harm to game : that if it were not 

 for the existence of foxes only half the present 

 number of keepers would be required to preserve 

 game. This is true, but it cuts two ways ; for 

 might not many more people find it so much easier 

 and more profitable to preserve game without the 

 assistance of foxes that they would do so to twice 

 the present extent ? 



One has heard often enough of the seven and a 

 half millions said to be circulated each year by 

 hunting. Of course, any institution which circulates 

 money must be more or less of benefit to the 



