396 rosTSCRiPT. 



similar information relating to the pack, which no doubt run on on a 

 similar line throughout the whole series, and are presumably embodied 

 in the annual accounts of the Master of the Horse. And if we are 

 deprived of the foundation, how is it possible to compile the super- 

 structure? It is simply impossible to do justice to this subject 

 except one has access to all the records of the different departments 

 relating to the official annals of the Pack. 



The interesting archives of the Lord Chamberlain's Department, 

 which are deposited in the Public Record Office, having been placed, 

 without reserve, at the perusal of the Compiler for purpose of this 

 work, he takes this opportunity to again acknowledge, with thanks, 

 the favour accorded to him by the Lord Chamberlain, per the Hon. 

 Sir S. Ponsonby Fane, and for which he is very much obHged. 



The Compiler has likewise to return his best thanks to Colonel 

 Sir Nigel Kingscote, for allowing him to consult the official papers 

 and plans which are preserved in the Department of Woods, etc., 

 relating to the History of the Royal Buckhounds. 



With reference to the agitation instigated last year under the 

 auspices of the now defunct " Humanitarian League " on the subject 

 of alleged cruelty perpetrated by and incidental to the Royal Buck- 

 hounds hunting " tame deer," it will be sufficient here merely to 

 mention that not one of those allegations has been substantiated 

 or proved in point of fact. On the other hand we have the evidence 

 of Mr. Tattersall as a follower of the Royal Hunt going back to 

 some fifty years, and the tradition of his family for three genera- 

 tions, to prove, beyond controversion, that no such " cruelty " was 

 known to have occurred in those days. And Mr. Bowen May, the 

 doyen of the Pack — a gentleman of irreproachable veracity, who has 

 actually hunted with the Royal Buckhovinds for sixty consecutive 

 seasons — solemnly asserts in the public press that he had never seen 

 a single instance of cruelty to stag or hind in the hunting field. As 

 the positive statements of these gentlemen, and of other followers 

 of the Pack, have not been challenged or contradicted, the un- 

 substantiated allegations of the late Humanitarian Leaguers (who 

 probably could not tell a hound from a hunter) necessai'ily fall to 



