256 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



feeling of give and take, which may enable the master 

 of one country to offer, as an accommodation, or con- 

 cede to the request of another, the permission to draw 

 any particular covert upon certain occasions, attended 

 with advantage to the one, and devoid of prejudice to 

 the other ; but from such circumstances as these it will 

 not do to found a precedent. It is highly necessary 

 that the nature of such gi'ant should be rightly under- 

 stood at the time, or the lapse of a very few years may 

 convert such parts of territory into debateable ground ; 

 those which are de jure, will not be found de facto the 

 possessors ; — the memory of the oldest sportsman, who 

 remembers perfectly that such coverts were drawn by 

 such a pack, (without any knowledge on his part of the 

 contingencies), is cited as authority ; and they are 

 compelled either to abandon their claim, or, at best, 

 compound for a neutrality. All this might easily be 

 obviated, by a proper understanding of the rights of 

 country upon its first establishment, and by the pre- 

 servation of written testimony to this effect, amidst the 

 archives of the Hunt. 



I have said, that the master of hounds should be 

 held deeply responsible for the preservation of the rights 

 committed to him ; but more than that it is unfair to ex- 

 pect. It is too generally the case, that in addition to 

 all the materiel for hunting a country, he has also to 

 find the country to be hunted. The whole management 



