260 THE IMAGE OF WAR 



To return to Mr Garth. Although his feelings, and 

 his love for his hounds, must have been frequently 

 hurt by the " goings on " of a field composed largely 

 of hard-riding subalterns, I have hardly ever heard 

 his voice raised in reproof — never in bad language, of 

 which I feel sure he was incapable. On the other 

 hand, his kindliness was only equalled by his keen- 

 ness, and I have known him to ride for a long time 

 with a youngster, describing in full details the sport 

 of a previous Friday, when the boy had not been 

 present. Mr Garth, too, had the royal gift of not 

 forgetting a face, and I have several times been ad- 

 dressed by him with " Back again ! " after an absence 

 of several seasons from the neighbourhood of the 

 Long Valley. 



When the Royal Buck-hounds came to an end I, 

 and I daresay many others, hoped that arrangements 

 might have been made to convert the establishment' 

 into that of Boyal Fox-hounds. I daresay if Mr Garth 

 had then been approached he would have been willing 

 to consider a retirement in favour of his Sovereign ; 

 and after all, as things turned out, it would have 

 made very little difference in point of time, as his own 

 Mastership ended one season later. I cannot help 

 thinking this would have been an ideal arrangement, 

 especially as a Boyal Deput3^-Master was to hand in 

 the form of Prince Christian — so regular a follower of 

 this pack. However, it was not to be, and the next 

 best thing happened when the Hunt took in perpetuity 

 the name of the Master who had ruled its fortunes for 

 half a century. It is wonderful to think what changes 

 he must have seen in his country in that time ! 



Of the royal lady in whose demesne Mr Garth 

 hunted, I am, I fear, nob privileged to write as a 



