THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 263 



receive some votes, as favours yielded to his personal 

 influence. He has to propitiate and allay the hastily 

 imbibed prejudices of one man ; to conciliate and soothe 

 the wounded dignity of another; to admit, without 

 reference to the realities of the case, that he was too 

 much on the north, and too httle on the south 

 side of the country, in the preceding season ; to 

 promise hecatombs of heads and brushes, as trophies 

 in revenge for peafowls, and all other birds, wild or 

 domestic, taken from house or tree-tops ; to grant to 

 Mr. Boreham the privilege of coursing ; and to Mr. 

 Doubtful, that of shooting, ad llhitum, over his property, 

 in consideration of their zeal for his peculiar sport, 

 towards the furtherance of which no private sacrifices, 

 on his part, must be spared. To a certain extent, this 

 is all very well. The manager of the hounds must be, 

 ostensibly, the manager of the country. He alone 

 must be responsible for all errors of omission, or com- 

 mission ; for the whole conduct and proceedings of the 

 hunt; but still his attention should be as httle as 

 possible distracted from the multitude of concerns 

 which necessarily fall to his share, by being called to 

 the constant consideration of affairs which should 

 require no regulation on his part. There is quite 

 enough of bye play, quite enough of work behind the 

 scenes, little dreamed of by those who, upon the close 

 of one season, await only its results in the next. If a 



