The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-03-01 00:00:00

THE DECLINE OF FOX HUNTING.

IT is doubtless somewhat of a relief to turn
from high politics at home and wars abroad.
to one of the oldest, sturdiest, and healthiest
of our English sports. Public attention has
indeed been draw.o lately to an unfortunate
succession of hunting accidents. The death
of Major Whyte-Melville has not yet been
forgottor; and besidM this fatal casualty
collar bones have been broken, thigh bones
fractured, horses have rolled over their
riders, and various other mishaps have oc-
curred of a more or less serious character.

The weather may be responsible for some of
these casualties; for the ground is never so

heavy as 'then after it ha; been broken up
by the frost, it has become saturated with
snow or rain. Heavy falls can scarcely help
occurring when the ground is in this coudi-
• tion, and the oliroatic claanges of the past
few weeks have rendereti anything approach-
ing to good hunting difficult, if not impos-
sible. The season which is now drawing to
a close has been singularly trnfortnnate, and
the enthusiastic sportsman has been driven
well nigh to despair. There have been no
long runs worthy of a plsce in the chronicles
of hunting record ; day after day has proted
barren of results ; the weather has been
unpropitious, and unhappily, the proportion
of serious accidents has turned (mitt() be ex-

ceptionally large. Of this .season certainly
very few fox-hunters will be able to say that
"There's dearer dust in memory's land than
in the mines of rich Peru." '

The subject is, however, a wider one than
can be affected by changes of weather. Fox-
hunters tell us that they have had practically
no spgrt at' all, and that the accidents have
been more than usually numerous. Would
it be too much tci express a fear that fox-
hunting has seen its beet clays ? In the good
old times, which are so often quoted by en-
_ _

thusiasts for the customs of a -former gener-
ation, the country was practically open land.
There were no scientific methods of draining,

no high farming; the hedges, ditches, and
fences were not difficult to cross. If we

contrast this state of things with the wire-
fencing and the subsoil draining of to day,
one reason for the comparative shadow cast
over fox-hunting will be apparent at a glance.
The country itself was easier to cross, and
the meets were smaller; thus the amount of
damage done in the course of the run was
frilling. But since the introduction of rail-
ways the old state of things has passed away.
The meets are uow generally crowded by
chance carders from a distance who know
nothing of the neighbourhood and take no
interest in the hunt as such. Formerly the
chief proprietor of a district kept a pack of
hounds partlyforhis own pleasure and partly
for that of his neighbours and tenants. The
affair was more or less.a private matter, but
this is so no longer. The strangers who now
often crowd the meets are sometimes in-
different to the feelings of the farmer over
whose land they make their way, and who
in many cases has become to regard fox-
hunting with anything but kindly views. It
is not pleasant for him to find his wheat cut
up by a body of strangers in this way. In-
deed the modern conditions under which
fox-hunting is sometimes carried on, so far
from being conducive to the ;establishment
of amicable relations between landlords and
tenants, too often have unfortunately the
reverse effect. -
There can be no' question that the neces-
sities of• agriculture and the competition
which the farmer like other people has to
face, account to's very considerable degree
for the obstacles to that successful fox-hunt-
ing which was the delight of our forefathers.
The accidents of the present day do not
arise from tlie fact that our young men are
less bold and safer than wore their ancestors.
The breed of horses has at the same time
greatly improved. But hunting has become
more dangerous because the exigences press-
ing upon the farmer have involved the clos-
ing up of some parts of the country with
fences of wire and wood, and other fearful
and wonderful devices. In one of those
peaces which were patched uibetween Eng,
land and France in the days of the great
Napoleon, a distinguished party of noblemen
and gentlemen paid a visit to Paris, and
these included Lord Erskine, the eminent
lawyer, and Mr. Assheton Smith, the mighty
hunter of that day."' Napoleon was all eager.
ness to meet " that famous horseman Smith,"
as he called him, and hastened to see him be-
fore giving audience to the great lawyer.
But Assheton Smith was accustomed to hunt
a country very different from that of existing
times. Wire-fencing now extends itself mile
by .mile and month by month; and practical
men need not be told that this renders fox-
hunting virtually impossible. The time
when the only boundary between field awl
field was a thickset hedge or a broad ditch
has passed sway. As high farming increases
so will hunting become more and more
hazardous. As fences are made larger,
dykes wider, wire becomes more frequent,
and posts and rails more substantial, so will
serious accidents in the hunting field increase
-"Aseheton Smith was a bold and reckless
rider, bat he would not find his way across
country interceptedby drains, fences, hedges,
dykes, rails, posts, and wires which half a
century ago were utterly unknown. It may
be a, melancholy reflection to the lovers of
fox-hunting to think that the time will come
when their favourite sport will follow the
fate of falconry. Small fields settled the
'fate of falebnry ; for when the,conntry was
no longer open the falconer was unable to
follow his hawk through the whole of her
flight. The, intervention of hedges rendered
it impoieible. =2Lud it looks very--much as
though the timewere coming when wire-
fencing arid all other attendants of scientific
agriculture would extinguish a fine. old Eng-
lish sport, to the great regret of all who have
enjoyed the exhilerating spectacle of a meet,
and have followed the hounds to the cry of
"Tally-ho