THE GAME LAWS. 49 



and he replied, " Abolish gamekeepers." To this I 

 cordially assented, and said they were never con- 

 tented until they had set the landlord against the 

 tenants, making mischief between them in every way — 

 that this did not apply to all, but no tenant of gentle- 

 manly feeling would submit to the tyranny of these 

 generally ignorant men. He then said, " I have down 

 in the autumn my friends, Lords Derby, Exeter, and 

 Salisbury, and others, and they tell me they get as good 

 sport at Hughcnden as they do anywhere. My tenants 

 are my gamekeepers ; they vie with each other in keep- 

 ing up a good head of game ; my larder is generally 

 well filled, and it costs me nothing." 



I can fully endorse these opinions. When Mr. Cress- 

 well Baker owned the parish of Hulcot, near Aylesbury 

 — now the property of the Rothschild family — he acted 

 in the same manner by his tenants ; he came down with 

 his friends a little before Michaelmas, held his rent- 

 audit, and I have heard many a good-natured quarrel 

 over the dinner-table as to the number of coveys of birds 

 on each tenant's farm, and as to who could show most 

 hares and rabbits also. 



On one occasion, in conversation with Disraeli on 

 some of his speeches and opinions in Parliament, he 

 made a very curious but truthful remark, which should 

 be recorded. It may be thought too severe ; but I, who 

 knew how he had been shunted and traduced, with the 

 cold shoulder given to him on many occasions in his 

 early career by the county squires, was not surprised at 

 the sarcasm. 



1 was mentioning that he once made a speech some 



E 



