FOX HUNTING
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Snt,=In continuation of Mr. E. M. Russell's interesting letter in the Spectator of to-day, may I add a word ? I am an old hunting man, who as a boy rode with the Pytchley in the days of Anstruther Thompson, and perhaps have seen more of this sport than most people now alive. Hunting fifty or sixty years ago was a sport enjoyed and understood by the local people, who all knew each other and rode with consideration over each other's land. -A stranger in most hunts was a comparative rarity. No trouble arose with farmers : they were usually rather large men— graziers, we used to call them—and were the chief supporters of the hunt.
Modern hunting is not at all the same thing, and to call it ."..our oldest national sport," as some correspondents do, is a misnomer. What was formerly a national sport has been
converted into a modern nuisance. Fashionable packs nowa- days draw enormous fields-800, 1,000 and 1,2(0 people. I am afraid to say even more or I might not be believed. All strangers. A few taking furnished houses in the country for the season, mostly coming from goodness knows where on special trains, motor cars, &c., and bringing second horses, often two and three, knowing nothing and caring less abOut the country, armed with a map, out mostly for jumping and galloping, or shall we say to see a Royal Highness also from a distance. If you doubt me, go to the I'ytchley or Quom, or even to any second-rate pack in the west or north.
The damage these people do to the land is incalculable and not to be compensated by money. I have farms in Wiltshire, and it is my practice to have the gates propped open and the stock taken in the night before, but everybody cannot do this, and even then the land is very badly cut up by horsemen abOut three times a month.
Small men might make claims, but of course I cannot do that. I am unfortunately close to a covert. I say nothing about the feelings of the fox which interest _so many lady correspondents. Foxes are kept for hunting as bears were kept for baiting. If there were no hunting or baiting there would be neither foxes nor bears.—I am, Sir, &c., N.
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