LORD LONSDALE 3 



foolish manner. As we had to hunt, and hated getting into 

 debt, we Brisked our necks for two seasons mostly on green 

 and spoiled horses, from the backs of which, as long as they 

 kept going and stood up, we saw that there is only one sport 

 in the world, and that is hunting in Leicestershire. The 

 hunting people always seemed glad to see us out, and we 

 had many a pleasant look and friendly word in passing. 

 Whenever my wife got crumpled up by the innocent young 

 one or hardened reprobate she was riding, chancing a "cut 

 and laid " or stiff posts and rails, ladies of the hunt always 

 sent to inquire how she was getting on. If we ever happen 

 to amass a few thousand pounds, we'll return to Melton. I 

 only hope that we'll then have such good masters and 

 huntsmen as Lord Lonsdale and Tom Firr of the Quorn, 

 Lord Edward Manners and Frank Gillard of the Belvoir, 

 and Mr. " Willie " Baird and Gillson of the Cottesmore. As 

 a master of a largely attended and very hard riding hunt, 

 Lord Lonsdale was unapproachable ; for he was not only the 

 finest and best mounted welter weight in England, but he 

 also had the faculty of enforcing the strictest discipline, even 

 in a record Kirby Gate field. Without discipline, fox- 

 hunting is skittles of the vilest kind. By hunting discipline 

 I mean such obedience that the master, aided by his hunt 

 servants, can marshal in close array every man and lady of 

 a field of five or six hundred in a corner of a field or in a lane, 

 like that outside Cream Gorse, while the pack is drawing an 

 adjacent cover, and that no one will dare to move before the 

 signal is given by the horn of the huntsman, and before the 

 master has got off first, and then the " thrusters " may catch 

 him if they can. Of course, unless a master is, like Lord 

 Lonsdale, capable of taking a lead and keeping it, the field, 

 on receiving the metaphorical drop of the flag from the 

 huntsman, can't be expected to accord precedence to mere 

 official position. The huntsman, as we all know, is the 



