THE MASTERS. 47 



re-elected Master, but here llie iniiuite book of the club comes to an end, 

 and no further record of the proceedings is extant. Tradition, however, 

 says, that at the annual meetings the wortliy Secretary, J. 1). Morgan, 

 was wont to say, " Our next business is the election of Master," when 

 " Ould King" would burst in with : " Hold your blather ; I'm master liere." 

 All that is definitely known is. that the oldest of the present beaglcrs 

 found \'. A. King the Master, and Master he remained to the day of his 

 death. 



During one of the periodical visits of the hounds to Llanfyllyn, at the 

 invitation of Scjuire Dugdale, which visits were always of a merry and 

 somewhat larky order, the members present took upon themselves to depose 

 the Master, ^'. A. King, and elected our old and popular member. John 

 (iibbons, in his place. The next day at the meet, Gibbons was invested by 

 one of the young ladies with a toy tin horn, and he remained Master for a 

 period of one hour, when lie subsided into his proper place, and V. A. King 

 resumed his duties with acclamation. 



When King was made a member of the Committee he caused a careful 

 record of runs to be kept by the Secretary in the Sport Book, and when he 

 was api^ointed Chairman he kept the record in his own handwriting up to 

 the end of 1856, with a break of two seasons when absent in India. It is 

 characteristic of the man, that the first mention of himself in the Sport Book 

 reads, " V. A. King was the only member out, in consequence of the rain." 

 He was always noted for his indifference to the inclemency of the weather, 

 and once at a meet at Llanfyllyn when, just as we were starting from the 

 hotel, the rain came down in torrents, a luckless member said, " I say, 

 '• Master, surely you're not going to start in this rain !" The Master looked 

 him over from head to foot and slowly back again for a moment or two, then 

 in a withering tone, but with a friendly twinkle in his eye, retorted, " I'm not 

 ■■ aware, sir, that the hounds can't hunt when it's raining." As a matter of 

 fact the hounds this time did not hunt, as the weather was so infernal, that 

 we all went home wet to the skin, and without even finding a hare. 



In the early days of the R.R.B., Woodchurch was a very frequent and 

 favourite meet. Here V. A. King's uncle was Rector, and invariably 

 welcomed the beaglers most hospitably, providing a capital lunch, and a 

 sure find afterwards. On these occasions, during V. A. King's absence in 

 Bombay, he was always remembered by the toast of his "health and success." 

 The first meet at AN'oodchurch after his return was cancelled, on account of 

 the death of Mrs. King, wife of the Rector. V. A. King records, 6th 

 October, 1849 : — 



Woodchurch, 2 p.m. No meet, in consequence of the niuch-lamcntcd death 

 of Mrs. King. This is a kind sympathy on the part of the members, which here 

 I cannot refrain from gratefully acknowledging. 



