THE NOBLE SCIENCE. ^55 



one competitor, if not of both. Something after the 

 manner of racing rules, as matter of reference, might be 

 advantageous to those called upon to arbitrate in such 

 cases. Possession is said to comprise nine points of the 

 law ; but this will not hold good in fox-hunting, unless 

 a better title to the occupation of the country is suffi- 

 ciently manifest. Our Hertfordshire country is, in all 

 conscience, large enough, and as much as any hounds 

 could hunt fairly, in four days per week ; but till the 

 year 1835, it had, for upwards of twenty years, been 

 enriched by a considerable shce of Bedfordshire, of 

 which we had remained dming the whole of that period 

 in undisturbed possession, and of which we should natu- 

 rally have been most tenacious. As soon, however, as 

 this portion became needful to the Oakley Hunt, it was 

 reclaimed by them upon the due advance of proof, that 

 our right had been never otherwise estabhshed than as a 

 right on sufferance; the grant having been originally 

 made under cover of a distinct stipulation, that it might, 

 at any time, be resumed at pleasure. The validity of 

 this claim was beyond dispute ; and much that is dis- 

 agi'eeable would probably be spared, if all concessions 

 were guarded by such restrictions, or formally and 

 finally consigned by a deed of gift, wherever there is 

 the remotest possibility of any misunderstanding of the 

 wide distinction between " meum et tmim." There can 

 be no harm, but, on the contrary, much good, in the 



