THE MASTER 31 



having their coverts disturbed, fearing a tame pheasant 

 may fly away to his neighbour's preserves. After all, 

 it is best to be firm, and never change the plan of 

 drawing which you have fixed upon and considered 

 to be the most probable one for sport. 



" A country ought to be regularly hunted, the good 

 and the bad alternately, to give general satisfaction, 

 and in the long run you will have a better chance of 

 sport. If you are continually disturbing your best 

 country you may have blank days, and the foxes will 

 be very shy ; where there are many earths they will 

 lay at ground. There can be no doubt but it must 

 be more agreeable to hunt a good country always, if 

 you have extent enough for an open season. Pro- 

 vided you cannot hunt the inferior one, so as to give 

 satisfaction, it is more liberal to give it up altogether 

 to some neighbouring pack, or even to some one 

 from a distance, who might be glad to hunt it 

 regularly. The keeping a country, or requiring 

 owners of covers to preserve, without hunting it, is 

 too much to expect, and gives people an oppor- 

 tunity of alluding to the story of the dog in the 

 manger." 



Mr. Pryse Pryse, an old Master, summed up the 

 relative duties of himself and field very ably, in the 

 following words, at a dinner given him by the Gog- 

 gerdan Hunt, some years since : " As a Master of 

 Hounds," said he, " I have many things to expect. 

 I have a right to expect a strict preservation of foxes 

 from every one. I have a right to expect old foxes, 

 and also a strict preservation of cubs ; for, without 

 young foxes, the stock cannot be kept up, and blank 

 days will be the result." [Mr. Pryse Pryse would 

 seem to have been hitting at some of the Cottonwool 

 tribe.] 



" On the other hand," continues he, " you have a 

 right to expect from me the most polite attention in 

 the field, and out of the field, to expect a correct 



