16 HUNTING . 



seem to have been quite as much political as they were 

 sporting. To give a history of the rise of subscription 

 packs would involve a history of English country 

 society ; but the rapidity of their growth may be seen 

 by the fact that in 1874 there were only twelve non- 

 subscription packs out of 137 packs of foxhounds in 

 England and Scotland. It is worth our while to men- 

 tion these twelve packs : — Belvoir (Duke of Eutland) ; 

 Brocklesby (Earl of Yarborough) ; Badminton (Duke of 

 Beaufort, Marquis of Worcester, M.F.H.); Berkeley (Lord 

 Fitzhardinge) ; Duke of Grafton's ; Earl of Fitzwilliam's ; 

 Earl of Coventry's ; Cottesmore (3rd Earl of Lonsdale) ; 

 Lord Leconfi eld's; Earl of Portsmouth's ; Lord Tredegar's; 

 Sir Watkin William Wynn's. But it may be remarked 

 of the gentlemen who hunted these packs that they 

 not only maintained their own hounds but also bred 

 their tenant farmers. It would be impossible for a 

 man to hunt and maintain his own hounds unless he 

 were a popular landowner. 



If Hugo Meynell and his pupils founded the present 

 system of fox-hunting, it was not till after the defeat of 

 Napoleon at Waterloo that it showed signs of healthy 

 development. Soldiers are always to be found in the 

 van of every branch of sport, so now that our young 

 officers were no longer engaged in pursuing the French, 

 they devoted themselves to pursuing the fox. Con- 

 tinental experience had done much to enlarge their 

 minds, and they were no longer content to stagnate in 

 the old-fashioned grooves. The members of the old 

 hunt clubs might grumble, as no doubt they did, but 

 they had to recognise the truth of the proverb that " the 

 old order changeth," or pay the hunting expenses of 

 their younger relations with those packs which had 

 adopted the new system. Hitherto fox-hunting could 



