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CHAPTER XXYL 



SOME MASTERS OF HOUNDS.^ 



If I were asked to name the most thoroughly typical 

 and delightful of the many Masters of Fox-hounds 

 with whose hounds it has been my pleasure and 

 privilege to see sport, I should be in a considerable 

 difficulty ; but I am perfectly certain that if I had to 

 make a very small list of these, I should certainly not 

 omit that of the late Mr Garth, nor, I am sure, would 

 any soldier whose lines were laid at Aldershot during 

 the latter half of the nineteenth century. Wherever 

 hunting soldiers foregathered in other continents it 

 was hardly likely that the evening would pass with- 

 out a reference to the "dear old chap at Aldershot" 

 and his blue bird's-eye tie — this was never forgotten. 

 Indeed, it is an uncommon component of modern 

 hunting attire, and I think I have only once seen it 

 elsewhere — on Mr Scott-Plummer, then Master of 

 what is now the Lauderdale. As I am mentioning 

 that gentleman, I might add that, as far as I recollect, 

 he was the only Master I have known to hunt in 

 spectacles, though, by the way, Lord Eobert Manners, 

 the new joint-Master of the Belvoir, does so. 



1 Although this chapter was only written last year, death has been busy 

 with some of those mentioned therein ; amongst them my kind friends, 

 Lords Llangattock and Tredegar. 



