ARE you old enough to remember the present Leader of the House of Commons when, in his youth, he stood, long-haired and be-duffled, earnestly protecting the rights of a minority group?

It is he who is now threatening to introduce the Parliament Act in order to put a stop to hunting, a perfectly legal, but minority, interest.

I have hunted, but no longer have the time. I have never really shot or fished, but I believe each is an essential part of the proper conservation of the countryside. It is all about balance, something clearly not understood by the vast majority of people.

As I left the North Yorkshire Show recently, I was accosted by a hostile and abusive group who took exception to the commentary I had done for the Hurworth Foxhounds when we had about 100 children in the ring playing with, and racing, the hounds.

This little group represented the true face of most objectors, for they had no intention of listening to any explanation and were concerned only with "snobs and nobs" and cruelty.

If any cruelty involving animals is seen, I believe, as a farmer, that it must be stamped out. When I am going round the farm I am always accompanied by my hunting pack - three sheepdogs and a whippet - and, when not working the sheep or cattle, we hunt. This gives us pleasure and disposes of about 500 rabbits annually, plus some rats.

When I return to my desk, frequently the cat brings a rabbit or mouse on to the lawn outside to show me and to perform a typical feline ritual killing.

I have to admit I hate rats but, as for the rest of our quarry, I enjoy them being around, providing they are in balance. We also have deer and foxes living round us and, as neither has a natural predator, they, too, have to kept in check. While a good stalker can kill a roe instantaneously, nobody can be so accurate with the wily old fox; gun, gas or wire are cruel and invariably cause only damage or a lingering death.

The hunting hound has been bred over hundreds of years to find, pursue and kill a single species. He has remarkable scenting ability and stamina but, even so, his rate of kill is low against the fox or hare in its natural territory. No hunted animal is ever damaged, for the contest is about life or death and, as such, is fairly selective, picking the older or less healthy of the species and thus maintaining a healthy, balanced population.

People at shows often come into the ring and get among hounds for the first time and it would be so easy to go away thinking that, if hunting were banned, hounds could be taken into "care". A hound spends its early life living with a family but, by the time he or she is a year old, the call of the pack is flowing in the blood and they have to return to their peers. They will never be pets; they are bred to be natural and do a specific job and have no desire to be cosseted under human influences.

To my objecting friends, hunting was also cruel to the horses. We have three hunting horses on the farm. When they see my wife or daughter even considering a day's hunting, they come alight; if they hear the horn across the valley or the retired mare sees hounds on the farm, they want to be with them to get the magic of hot flanks, the enjoyment of the herd.

Listen to Banks, Kaufman or Mowlem putting their urban prejudice and brain between an animal's ears once the next performance starts on about people in ridiculously-coloured coats vandalising the countryside. They do not understand balance and have no concept of animal welfare.

Go to your local hunt and watch and, most importantly, talk, for you will not find the upper echelons of society but a very ordinary group of folk from every walk of life who see the community that is hunting as an activity providing an insight into the real countryside, a social life and giving a genuine feeling of caring for an asset so obviously in decline.

Men and women do delayed drops; dive into the depths and cling to precarious vertical slopes, all on a fix of adrenalin, killing fright and fear and replacing them with instincts to fight and take flight. My hunted rats and rabbits know nothing of their departure for they, too, are on the same fix.

Charlie Fox on a December afternoon slips cover as he hears hounds and horn; his fantastic fieldcraft kicks in. If you follow, you will see him emerge from the wood, ears up, bright, alert and ready for the business of beating the dogs at their own game.

Hunting is an ancient country craft which maintains balance, but the hunt itself is also the traditional disposer, for the farms over which it goes, of fallen and dead stock. There is no social grouping more caring of all living creatures than hunting folk, of that I am sure for they are realistic , knowledgeable, but not stupidly sentimental.

Government talks of sustainability, conservation and the environment while talking about taking yet another hit at this minority group. It supports shooting and has a moorland policy to assist it on its way. It will introduce new species, talking of beavers and wolves once removed because of their river-blocking and killing habits. It will sanction agricultural policies which will surely damage the environment and, as we now know, it will stop a minority interest just because of a misinfomed and ignorant pressure group.

Since I was a boy, the build-up of suburbia has put paid to a number of hunts and, in the end, concrete will kill hunting over most of England. Another thing of which I am certain is that, if it is taken away, the demise of our landscape will be all the quicker because those who hunt preserve it, whether they come from town or country.

If you are a committed "anti", you will never change, but don't turn on the TV and watch polar bears and sealions; lions and wildebeest, or leopards and a Thompson's gazelle. Thats natural balance too.

To Peter Hain, I say don't interfere with legal minorities; get on with the real problems of our society. A lot of us could help put you back in power, but if you continue to use us as cover for other things or, worse, use us as a sacrifice, you will have made one very big mistake.

I should perhaps close by saying that I represent no special interest group. I simply speak on behalf of a lot of people who understand the ways of nature.