264 HISTOKY OF THE EOYAL BUCKHOUNDS AND ASCOT EACES. 



sums of 100 guineas annually, to be run for on different 

 courses throughout the Three Kingdoms. It is bootless to 

 inquire why he did not fill up the office of Master of the 

 Buckhounds ; perhaps he did not understand what it meant. 

 His belief was that as every general should lead his own forces 

 to battle, so also every sportsman should be his own huntsman ; 

 and if we cannot gainsay it, wherefore complain ? 



Turning from the royal and noble celebrities associated with 

 the Buckhounds in those days, we must pay a brief tribute 

 to " the common people," who, according to the old chronicler, 

 were steadfast followers of the pack almost from time imme- 

 morial. During the reigns of George I. and George II. these 

 " common people " — the merchant princes of the city, the 

 lawyers, the doctors, the clergy, and the rich though humble 

 bagman, mounted on the now obsolete "nag," on which he 

 travelled, on business thoughts intent, throughout the land- 

 rarely missed a favourable opportunity of hunting with the 

 Royal Buckhounds. Among, and at the head of, the metro- 

 politan patrons of the Hunt was Humphrey Parsons, twice 

 Lord Mayor of London. His prowess in the saddle, and his 

 ability in the hunting-field, was not only notorious among 

 the followers of the pack ; it was recognised on the Continent, 

 and, in fact, his reputation as an intrepid rider extended to 

 every part of Europe wherever hunting men might chance 

 to congregate. Towards the end of the reign of George I. 

 Humphrey Parsons became very conspicuous through an 

 incident which took place when he was hunting with the 

 staghounds of Louis XV. in the forest of Fontainebleau, in 

 the month of September 1725. On this occasion we are told 

 that Alderman Parsons, " being mounted on a spirited English 

 horse, contrary to the etiquette of the French Court, out- 

 stripped the rest of the field, and was first in at the death. 

 The King inquiring who the gentleman was, one of his adula- 

 tory attendants indignantly answered that he was Un Ghevalier 

 de Malte. The King, however, entering into conversation 

 with Alderman Parsons, asked the price of his horse, which 

 the Ghevalier, with true politeness, answered that it was 



