The Royal Buckhounds 173 



sat gracefully poised, skilfully tooling the splendid black road- 

 ster in the shafts. In this vehicle she was enabled to follow a 

 run with the buckhounds through the forest glades of 

 Merry Windsor, sometimes covering forty miles in a single 

 day. 



"Hunting predominated in every part of the Kingdom. 

 The example set by the Royal pack found emulation in all 

 quarters, hounds were ridden to by all classes, from lords and 

 ladies of high degree to the sturdy yeomen farmers. 



"Like many of her predecessors," concludes the author 

 above quoted, "Queen Anne delighted to see 'Common people' 

 hunt and be merry when riding to her hounds." 



So it has ever been and is to this day a cardinal virtue of the 

 English nobility to make room and give welcome to the com- 

 mon people who desire to join them in the chase of any game 

 afield. 



Queen Elizabeth, says the same author, "Kept Stag- 

 hounds, Harthounds, Harriers and Otterhounds." 



The church vied with the state in following the chase, from 

 the Bishop down to the poorer priest. 



Since the reformation, however, the pastime among the 

 "cloth" has been much curtailed, nevertheless, there is to-day 

 hardly a Hunt in Great Britain but has from one to half a 

 dozen hard riding parsons on its list of members, and very 

 welcome attaches they are to any hunt. 



Even to this day there are in England several packs of 

 hounds whose M. F. H's fight death in the saddle three days 

 of the week, and the devil from the pulpit on the seventh. 



"The latest recruit to the ranks of Master of Foxhounds in 

 England," says "Rider and Driver," "is the Rev. Sir William 

 Hyde of ^Melf ord Hall, Long Melf ord, Suffolk. Five years ago 

 Sir William established a capital pack of harriers to hunt the 

 country around Long Melf ord; but on hearing that the New- 

 market and Thurlow country was falling vacant, he allowed 



