[11] I can speak from a fairly extensive acquaintance with keepers in various districts; and (to quote impartial opinion) a pheasant-shooting friend lately observed to me, while discussing the absurd destruction of kestrels: “The English gamekeeper is a fool: there’s nothing to be said for him.” And Mr. J. G. Millais, another sportsman, in his great work on “British Mammals,” remarks that “gamekeepers are often among the most unobservant of men” (vol. ii., 1905). _Cf._ also, _e.g._, Seebohm’s “British Birds” (Falconidæ, _passim_). [12] W. H. Hudson, “The Land’s End,” 1908. [13] See, _e.g._, Sir A. Pease, “The Badger,” 1896. [14] Similarly, one of the reasons often given for otter-hunting is that otters eat trout and salmon, and so lessen the angler’s chance of killing more of them. [15] “Adventures among Birds,” 1912. [16] Ninth edition, 1907. [17] “Adventures among Birds,” 1912. [18] W. H. Hudson, “Birds and Man,” 1901. [19] Here is one instance selected from many. “During a yachting cruise in the summer of 1902, the suite accompanying ‘very distinguished persons’ gleefully took advantage of their proximity to little frequented Scotch islands, to shoot and leave, to kill uselessly without excuse, quite a large number of the seals which still remain in Scottish waters” (Sir H. H. Johnston, _op. cit._). [20] Perhaps from similar causes to those which lead Sir Alfred Pease, in defending his hunting habits, to inform us, “I hunt, paradoxical as it seems, because I love the animals” (see “The Badger,” 1896). THE CALLOUSNESS OF FOX-HUNTING[21] BY H. B. MARRIOTT WATSON Undoubtedly we are a complacent and unimaginative nation, which defects probably explain and excuse certain indictments brought against us by foreigners. Complacency and practicality may have raised us commercially and politically, but they do not breed the finer graces, and they are apt to misrepresent us. No one, for example, would say that the English or British race was callous or cruel in comparison with other races. On the contrary, its reputation for kind-heartedness stands higher than that of its compeers and rivals. Yet this same race is engaged to-day in the practice and pursuit of the most brutal sport conceivable. Of bull-baiting, of cock-fighting, of various barbarous pastimes of our fathers we know nothing now save by hearsay; but it is safe to say that whereas bull-baiting and cock-mains have long been prohibited by law, the most cruel sport remains unpenalised and undiscouraged; nay, even protected by the law. I can only attribute the continued existence of fox-hunting to that lack of imagination to which I have referred.