So are some gamekeepers. I am credibly informed about the
details of a recent dispute between hunters of the fox and shooters of the pheasant. The dispute arose over an unfortu. nate coincidence. Certain coverts were drawn on the morning that the big shoot had been arranged. When subsequent expostulations and replies and rejoinders rather accentuated than solved the quarrel, the owner of the shoot gave per- mission for the destruction of foxes. Over four-score were killed within a short period. I quote the incident solely to indicate how rapidly foxes may multiply. If such industries as poultry-keeping are to flourish, or if game preserving is to be accepted as an institution, the foxes must be reduced in number. Huntsmen recognize this, and indeed a great number of foxes is bad for the hunting itself. The question is : What is the best method ? Digging out, with its accom- paniments, is perhaps the worst ; and incidentally the smearing of the cheek is a fragment of barbarous ritual. We should all realize that the future of sport in Britain will depend on the care sportsmen take to purge it of adventitious cruelties and uglinesses. We all know why hunting is the supreme English sport. The music of the pack, " matched in mouths like bells," the skill of the chase, the zest of the leap and gallop, the English scenes, the gay comradeship with man and horse, the touch of danger, the call upon nerve and fitness—in these things lie the true virtue and delight, and you find none of them in cold blooded slaughter of a hind or the chill eviction of a hunted fox by the slow labour of a draining spade.
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