vi INTRODUCTION 



pages show him a rigorous disciplinarian, they also show the necessity 

 for strict discipline ; and if he appear to counsel liberal use of the thong, 

 the least attentive reader will remember passages which prove him kinder 

 than his creed. 



Perhaps by very reason of the general applicability of the Thoughts to 

 fox-hunting, as we follow the sport, it is difficult to realize how widely the 

 circumstances under which Beckford and his contemporaries hunted differed 

 from those prevailing in the twentieth century. He had many and great 

 advantages ; of railways nobody had yet dreamed ; wire was in the womb of 

 a yet more distant future ; fields were small though not always small 

 enough nor knowledgeable enough in venery to please the Master; and 

 throughout the whole series of Letters we find no single reference to the 

 enormity of riding over wheat, seeds or roots. This last may be partly due 

 to the nature of Beckf ord's country ; it was part of that now known as the 

 South Dorset, but he hunted also in Cranbourne Chase, now included in Vis- 

 count Port man's country, over which he enjoyed certain rights in virtue 

 of his office as Ranger of the Bursey-stool Walk. 1 He says he hunted in 

 three countries, ' all as different as it is possible to be.' 



One other advantage enjoyed by some eighteenth-century masters at 

 least is unknown to the M.F.H. of our own day. ' The fixing a day or two 

 before-hand,' Beckford writes (Letter XIX),' upon the country in which 

 you intend to hunt, is a great hindrance to sport in fox-hunting.' Beckford, 

 it would seem, laboured under this disability, while the imaginary Master he 

 addresses had his whole country to himself and could order the operations 

 of the day as wind or weather might suggest without consultation with neigh- 

 bouring hunts. The follower of the latter would have to be up betimes and 

 meet hounds at the kennels. As Beckford had to settle a day or two in 

 advance where he intended to hunt, he no doubt let his followers know his 

 plans. His supporters, too, were not often required to be at the covertside 

 by sunrise. He approved such early hours for other people ; , but did not 

 follow his own prescription, preferring a later start unless his hounds were out 

 of blood ; in that case he went out early, in order to give them the several 

 advantages attaching to better scent, to tired and full-fed foxes. Whatever 

 time he went out, he did not prolong his day's sport into the afternoon ; he 

 would never draw after one o'clock. He took out a stronger pack than is 

 considered desirable nowadays : ' from twenty to thirty couple are as many, 

 I think, as you should ever take into the field ' 2 : a pack of twenty couple is 

 held large enough under any conditions to-day. 



There is reason to conclude that his country was poorly stocked with 

 foxes, at any rate by comparison with modern fashionable countries : 



1 Anecdotes respecting Cranbourn Chase ; 1818. Rev. W. Chafin. 



1 Forty years earlier the pack used was larger. The Duke of Richmond, on one occasion at 



least, took out as many as thirty-five couples. Records of the Old Charlton Hunt, 1910. 

 Earl of March, M.V.O., D.S.O. 



