FOX-HUNTING
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, My attention has been drawn to a letter in a recent issue of your paper in which the writer decries the drag-hunt as a substitute for hunting the animal. The writer dates his communication from Chelsea, and his point of view is certainly more of town than country, or he would know more about the possibilities of the drag. ' He evidently 'has -never read an article which appeared not so very long since in a West Country journal describing a drag-hunt across Exmoor in which the celebrated Parson Jack Russell took part. Russell, without knowing it was a drag, said at the end, it was the forest run he-had ever taken part in. ' I have hunted for forty years and know all that belongp to -fine hound work, wood craft, &c.,- mentioned in your cone' spondent's letter, and I unhesitatingly say that drag-hunting properly organized can bring out the best hound work and can give a glorious gallop across an unfailing good line of country. We should be saved all blank days, bad scenting days, and runs across a hopeless bit of country, and what is best of all, we should be spared the knowledge that we were hunting to death one of God's creatures ; undoubtedly the last part of a run, varying according to the pace and time, is a terrible ordeal to the hunted animal, whether fox, stag, or hare : their strength gradually failing, their eyes distorted by fear, their heart and lungs at bursting-point from over-exertion. This is no fancy picture, but one which, as an old hunting man, I have too often witnessed in hunted animals.
It is now some years since I came to the conclusion that I could no longer ride to hounds owing to the cruelty involved, but I still love the grand exercise and the cheery cry of the eager pack, the thrill of the note of the horn, and the exhilara- tion of the gallop on a good mount ; so I advocate the drag.
May I in conclusion refer to another of your correspondents, who writes about the danger of shooting deer on Exmoor ? I am a native of that lovely country, and am positive the deer could be preserved in limited numbers and shot under proper regulation on Exmoor. Their numbers should be reduced as they do much damage, but the barbarous custom of hunting them to death and cutting their throats should be stopped. If the deer were shot at certain well-defined times the public could be easily warned and no danger could ensue to visitors
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