Sir Allan Ramsey. Substitute instead, a group of men, dressed in camouflage jackets and armed with shotguns, accompanied by terriers, setting out on a Saturday morning to shoot foxes. Which is likely to disturb Mrs Smith, in the country for a quiet weekend of walking, the more? Perhaps, to make her discomfiture complete one should whisper in her ear that the time to kill foxes is when the vixen is carrying cubs, or by stopping the earth and gassing them new born, when the primroses are out. Close season? Come, come Mrs Smith: this is business. We have our contract quota to fulfil: the fox observes none where your Christmas turkey is concerned.

Rory Knight Bruce.