AND THEIR CAUSES 71 



hunting folk turned their thoughts that way ? Why 

 not meet at ten o'clock instead of an hour later ? 

 Why not wear brown cords and 'hogany boots, as 

 our fathers often did, and let the fashions for the 

 hunting-field emanate from the country, and not from 

 the neighbourhood of New Bond Street? If the kit 

 and accoutrements of the fox-hunter cost no more 

 thought in these days than they did seventy years ago, 

 I am very sure that hunting would lose much of its 

 interest for a great many. I am speaking generally, 

 of course, for there have always been some double- 

 distilled dandies in the hunting-field, and there always 

 will be. 



The great crowds might possibly diminish under a 

 ten o'clock regime and the lack of display and ostenta- 

 tion ; the country in consequence might be easier to 

 keep, and the general expenses of a Hunt establishment 

 might be somewhat decreased. 



To economise, however, where hounds as well as 

 horses are in the case, can only be done by one 

 who has great experience of all country matters, and 

 is pretty well acquainted with farming operations. 

 Such an one with leisure to undertake the duties 

 of M.F.H. is very hard to find in these days, though 

 really not quite such a vara avis as might be sup- 

 posed. 



For some reason or another, as a rule, the joint 

 Mastership has but a short life. The ordinary idea of 

 this combination seems happy — that one M.F.H. shall 

 find the experience and the other the expenses — but in 

 practice it does not last very long, any more than the 

 hunting of a country by a committee. 



