SOME MASTERS OF HOUNDS 261 



** Master I have known " (unless, indeed, the fact that 

 I have been present at one of her Drawing-rooms, 

 in attendance on ladies of my family, can be so in- 

 terpreted). What interest she took in the buck- 

 hounds I have never been able to ascertain — indeed 

 I am unable to state that she was ever present at a 

 meet. It is amongst my memories that it was on the 

 way home from hunting that I found the flag at the 

 Curragh half- masted on account of her death, as 

 mentioned in another chapter. 



To return to Masters of Fox-hounds, I think few 

 who knew him would omit from their list of the most 

 popular the eighth Duke of Beaufort. To speak of 

 him as a Master would be indeed supererogatory, for 

 he has left his own mark on the sport — one little 

 inferior to Warde's or Meynells. To recall even 

 what one person can know of his many acts of kind- 

 ness would fill the space allotted to this article. 

 Personally, among many others, I may mention that 

 he was good enough to allow me to dedicate my first 

 book, Gun, Eifle, and Hound, to him, and I treasure 

 the letter which he wrote to me after reading the 

 book, though modesty forbids quotation. 



Although he was personally little known to me, I 

 have always had the most vivid recollection of the 

 late Lord Spencer as a Master ; but here I have been 

 forestalled by Whyte-Melville. I can never think 

 without laughing of an absurd little scene between 

 the Earl and some galloping snob, whom he certainly 

 (and of right as Master) rather hustled in a gateway. 

 " Snob" hotly maintained the correctness of his posi- 

 tion, and Lord Spencer's profuseness of apology was 

 so irresistibly comic that tears of laughter ran down 

 the cheeks of a Pytchley field. It has since occurred 



