SIR - In response to Mr Burgess' tirade against me regarding hunting and the countryside, I am sorry to disabuse him, but I was born and bred in the deepest countryside and lived in close proximity to the hunting and farming fraternity. Of course the hunt did not use cages or fertility pills, all they did was to leave a spinney or part of a wood undisturbed during the breeding season. Then, surprise, surprise they knew where to go when they wanted their cub hunting sport.' They did not wander aimlessly around the countryside looking for cubs, did they? As Mr Burgess well knows, but possibly chooses to ignore, evidence has been found of artificial earths to encourage the fox to breed.

In response to Mr Burgess' second point, has he not travelled in the countryside lately and seen the massive hedging and ditching programme which is under way?

HELEN SMART, Worcester.