THE MASTER 33 



resort to them, will breed there, and you can preserve 

 them with little trouble." 



We have heard various opinions as to the best 

 man to hunt a country, some advocating native 

 Masters, others contending that strangers are the best. 

 It is a point on which much may be said on both 

 sides, though the great question hinges on the style of 

 man himself. Perhaps it may not be an unfair pro- 

 position to lay down, that a popular resident gentle- 

 man is most likely to be agreeable to the farmers, 

 while a sportsman of established reputation and 

 station may unite the whole foxhunting force, and 

 prevent the petty jealousies that sometimes arise when 

 a Master is drawn from the "body of the county," as 

 they say of a jury. Farmers will put up with a great 

 deal from a man they know. It is " stranger damage " 

 they object to townsmen's particularly, not one in 

 ten knowing what they are riding over. " A lord," we 

 may add, is a trump card anywhere. 



If we thought a Mastership and the duties of hunts- 

 man too much for one man, what shall we say to the 

 triplicate character of a Master supported by subscrip- 

 tion and hunting the hounds ? We think we may say 

 that a successful one is little short of a miracle, an 

 eighth wonder of the world, at all events. We all 

 know the ease and readiness with which people find 

 fault. Hunting critics, like Lord Byron's reviewing 

 ones, "are ready made ;" and some think it necessary 

 to censure, just as others think it right to halloo, 

 according to the amount of their subscriptions. Nay, 

 we have heard of men censuring to escape subscribing, 

 just as skinflint travellers used to pick holes with 

 guards and coachmen, to escape paying them. The 

 " hallooing and hunting tariff" was thus laid down by 

 Nimrod some years ago, and as no mention has been 

 made of it in any of Sir Robert Peel's new ones, we 

 suppose it remains the same, viz., the man who sub- 

 scribes twenty-five pounds a-year may halloo once, 

 3 



