256 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



the evidence that hospitality was offered to the Hunt 

 servants in the servants' hall of the M.F.H. it has 

 been alleged that the M.F.H. encouraged them to 

 drink. 



Now it is inconceivable that if there were any 

 truth in the allegation we should not possess circum- 

 stantial evidence to prove it. It is generally asserted 

 that the nobility and gentry of the period drank 

 harder than they do now, and that the men must 

 have imitated their example. I doubt whether on 

 the whole the nobility and gentry did drink more 

 than they do now. At all events, their favourite 

 drinks were home-brewed ale and sound port, and, 

 though they might have had occasional bouts, hard 

 drinking was not the rule. I agree that the relations 

 between master and man were more intimate than 

 they are now, since the fox-hunting squires chiefly 

 lived on their own estates. There were no railways, 

 and the majority of the roads were in such a con- 

 dition as to render quick driving dangerous, if not 

 utterly impossible. The squire was, therefore, bound 

 to see more of his dependents than he does now. 

 But it does not follow that the intimacy was allowed 

 to descend into familiarity. On the contrary, these 

 squires were excessively proud of their lineage, and 

 it was long before their descendants would admit 

 into their society the commercial element of the 

 hunting field, whose ambition it was "to belong to 

 the county." It is in the highest degree improbable 

 that such men, who regarded trade as a social stigma, 



