If there is one detail that supremely illustrates the divergence
of present opinion in rural England from Victorian days it is the general attitude to the fox. Foxes are shot freely and without concealment. One very large landowner sent out his keepers—as the custom now is—in late summer to an organized fox shoot ; and I believe that over forty are killed each year on this occasion. The local hunts protest in vain ; and sometimes it is a question where the general sympathy lies. In most places the Hunt carries the suffrages ; and never, I think, since hunting became an organized sport have the Hunts won so much popularity with farmers. A number of Masters have issued a three-lined whip to their supporters urging them to buy only English fodder for their horses. The example is excellent. A very great deal may be done for British agriculture by such sympathetic preference, which is as good for consumer as producer. If our jam-makers would do for small fruit what the Hunts are doing for oats, they would doubly benefit the community.
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