[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I was very interested
in the letter of " Lover of Riding," which appeared in your issue of May 2nd. The League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports has always advocated drag- hunting as a humane substitute for animal hunting. Our opponents, however, contend that drag-hunting is not hunting at all, but simply a form of steeplechase.
Mr. Walker King, the President of our South Western Branch, who formerly hunted with the Devon and Somerset Staghoundi, also holds this view, but he has proposed a new firm' Of drag-hunting which, he contends, is a real substitute for stag-hunting on Exinoor. He says :-
" A proper drag shOuld be scientifically laid with at least four layers, two mounted and two on foot (the latter being necessary to take the drag through places where riding would be difficult). The scent would be raised for checks, and so varied that good hound. work would be forthcoming ; also skill in hunting hounds, and a splendid gallop would be ensured, as the best line of country could be chosen, and farmers' growing crops avoided. Blank days would also be eliminated. The keenness of hounds could be maintained by feeding them at the end of a run with the entrails of some animal which had been slightly scented with the trail they had been running. The scent would probably be laid by spraying. . The fun of the hunt would be the pitting of the skill of the layers against the huntsman and his hounds. the latter being entirely ignorant of the line of country taken by the former."
Mr. King tells me that he has urged his old stag-hunting friends to give the above proposal a trial, but they have refused • 101 Chandos Ilmise, Westminster, S.W. 1.
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