Charles Davis writes “from The Daily Telegraph: The National Trust’s ban on staghunting on its land has cost it the ownership of one of Britain’s finest collections of books on country houses. The £500,000 collection of more than 2,000 books, which belonged to the country sports enthusiast David Clegg, will be auctioned rather than left to the Trust, which owns many of Britain’s stately homes…. [The donor] was so angered by the Trust’s ban on
staghunting on its land, which was imposed in 1997, that he changed his will.”
Various U.K. Hunting Bills have created some very feisty arguments.
Sheesh!
It’s not like they banned staghunting everywhere. Seems to me that Davie has an anger management problem.
Re:Sheesh!
Good point. I’m sure there’s plenty of places left in downtown London where you can go stag. 🙂
Because he didn’t agree with a social movement and expressed his disaffection by changing his will? Stuff and nonsense. Now, maybe if he’d gone postal and started taking potshots inside the House of Lords. . . .
Re:Sheesh!
I’d disagree that he is reactionary here. His stuff….his decision. He is making a personal statement by this change of heart to counter a growing trend against hunting. He believes (whether correct or not is up to you) that this form of hunting should be allowed.
Potential benefactors have withdrawn funding for much more minor reasons, even to protest donations made by other benefactors.
Hunting in the UK (as it is here in parts of the US) is a part of life for some people (it is for me). Sometimes only as a social function, other times as a means of food, but never just for the sport of killing – the game goes to someone as dinner. I understand that non-hunters do not understand hunting, often seeing it as unnecessary or barbaric, but it’s more natural form of obtaining food than chicken/turkeys/cows locked in cages their whole lives.
Just like Vegans, etc., I’d rather eat something I ‘harvested’ than processed. David Clegg probably sees it that way too.
Re:Sheesh!
Well, good for you. It would be great if every hunter was a concientous as you, but they aren’t.
It seems from my past experience urbanites that hunt aren’t going out there for a source of food, but a chance to get away from their work lives and wives to shoot guns, drink beer, and if they are lucky kill something. My Uncles are are all avid hunters and I have nothing against them. On the other hand I had a boss that like to go out with the rest of managment and fool around with guns because they could. The two groups, the Uncles v. my managment team, came at it from comletely different angles. The Uncles were all farmers or ranchers while the managers were all telecom people. The first group was tied to the land and had a kind of respect for it while the latter lacked any such traits. Clegg may be a great patron of wildlife and nature, I don’t know. He might be one of those guys that drives an ATV through national parks and leaves a trashed campsite.
Re:Sheesh!
Just as with internet access in public libraries, we do not eliminate or limit the rights of the just/honest to stop the bad people (porn, etc.) from their deeds. Laws are already in place to stop such poor sports when they cross the line.
Just my 5 cents.
National Socialist Trust
Please….no need for tears.
Sir William Proby and his greenshirts (with matching derbys) can still get their coveted Time-Life series of UK Country Home and Castle Living by invoking their statutory power to seize “inalienable” land.
(ring ring) “House Of Lords, Nigel speaking”. “Ah yes, Nigel o’boy, Proby here at the National Trust”. “Would you be so kind at to set a match to the old Clegg place?” “Oh, and take a lorry to fetch those old books in his study before striking”. “Carry on”.