76 SHORT MASTERSHIPS 



so, instead of wishing to retire from the overburden 

 of work, the burden should have become hght and 

 easy, and the pleasure of seeing the good results of 

 his labour should begin. 



No doubt the M.F.H. is the proper person to organise 

 where organisation is wanted. Who else is to do it ? 

 And to organise well, it follows that he must have a 

 good knowledge of all details of the matter he is 

 taking in hand. Where the new M.F.H. is a local 

 man, we will suppose that he must possess some 

 knowledge at least that will be of great use to him in 

 his career, and, speaking generally, a local man of 

 position and influence is of all others the most 

 desirable for a Master of Hounds, though such men, 

 willing to undertake the work, are not now so plenti- 

 ful as they were at the beginning of the last century. 

 " Get a sports7nan to hunt your country," was the 

 advice given by a well-known magnate of the hunt- 

 ing world after a long dispute had caused a vacancy ; 

 " everything wants putting into order — the country, 

 and the people in it," The sportsman was found, and 

 it was done ; but money alone could never have healed 

 the breaches and effected the much-desired change, 

 nor will money too freely expended be conducive to 

 the proper management of a country. With subscrip- 

 tion packs I hold that the money for the manage- 

 ment should come from the men of the country, and 

 not from the Master. It was Mr. Delme Radcliffe who 

 said that a Master of Hounds would always find his 

 hand in his pocket, and must always find a guinea 

 there. Squire Delme Radcliffe was an M.F.H. in the 

 thirties. Had he kept hounds in the reign of 



