1892] ELECTION OF THE DEPUTY-MASTER. 193 



Puckeridge dispute ; nor was it a case of rather slighting the Master, as appears 

 to have been the case in East Kent ; it was simply a hunt meeting, at which 

 arrangements for the future hunting of the country were discussed, and of course 

 more than one theory of how this could best be accomplished was put forward. 

 Mr, Gerald Hardy played the part of the candid friend. He agreed with a 

 previous speaker as to the improvement of the hounds under Mr. Bass's rule ; but, 

 he argued, the Master had practically admitted his inability to carry on the hunt 

 as it should be done ; and he contended that the condition of the country was not 

 satisfactory, in proof of which he pointed to " tenantless fox coverts and hunting- 

 boxes." In accordance with the usual custom, the proposition was that Mr. 

 Hamar Bass and Mr. Fort should be elected for three years, and this, Mr. Hardy 

 thought, was inexpedient, inasmuch as it might mean embarking on another 

 period of three years, which might, in its main features, resemble that from which 

 they had just emerged. He proposed, therefore, that the appointment of Mr. 

 Hamar Bass as Master and of Mr. Fort as Deputy-Master should be limited to 

 one year instead of three, as suggested by the committee. The faith of the 

 meeting, however, was strong in Mr. Bass, and he was re-elected for a period of 

 three years, with Mr. Fort to assist him as Deputy-Master. 



Although the matters alluded to above have special reference to the Meynell 

 hunt, the moral appUes with equal force to the masters of other packs. At the 

 head of the old-established Derbyshire pack is a gentleman prepared, apparently, 

 to act with liberality, yet who, by reason of ill-health and calls on his time, 

 cannot be at the covert side so frequently as he would like, or, as in the best 

 interests of the hunt, it is expedient that he should be. With no one authorized 

 to fill the master's place in the field, the suggestion, as we understand it, is that 

 the aSairs of the hunt have gone down, and one knows full well that, when once 

 people begin to grumble, they are apt to go from one thing to another, and to find 

 fault with things which before satisfied them. There was an instance of this at 

 the Meynell meeting. There was, as we are told, a lengthy discussion as to the 

 efficiency of the Hunt servants, some of the company thinking that the first whipper- 

 in was not up to the mark, others questioning the capabilities of the huntsman — 

 Leedham — a member of a family which has been connected with the Meynell for 

 several generations ; not a word, so far as we know, has ever previously been said, 

 and the very idea of exception being taken to any member of this well-known family 

 is enough to make the old Meynell men turn in their graves. Leedham, however, 

 had a champion in the chairman, Lord Watei-park, who was supported by others, 

 and so the matter dropped. The whole tenor of the meeting shows to what 

 rigorous criticism a master of the hounds is subject, and those gentlemen who 

 are about to take ofBce for the first time would do well to realize the fact that 

 much of their labour and expenditure will be vain, unless they are prepared to 

 take the most active supervision of their Hunt and all that belongs to it. The 

 mere spending of money is not enough, as, unless there is an acknowledged head 

 in the field, neither hounds nor huntsmen can obtain anything approaching to a 

 fair chance, and, if the truth can be known, any alleged shortcomings on the part 

 of the first whipper-in would probably be found to arise from the fact that he was 

 infinitely handicapped by a state of things brought about by somebody else. 

 This much at least is tolerably clear. The Meynell hunt has not been in quite so 

 satisfactory a position as it once was, at least in the opinion of some of the 

 followers of that famous pack. This alleged decadence, call it what you will, is 

 variously attributed to several causes, and so there results a certain amount of 

 fault-finding all round — a state of things which cannot conduce to the welfare of 

 hunting. ..." 



VOL. 11, 



