THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 243 



the hazard of such an undertaking, were it more feasi- 

 ble than it is), I must be acquitted of any other motive 

 than that of arousing the attention of those whom it 

 may concern, to the importance of the subject. It is 

 money which forms the sinews of war — it is the 

 " money makes the mare to go." Without money, 

 hunting must fail ; and if there be in all countries more 

 or less difficulty in the provision of adequate funds for 

 its support, it is so much the more necessary to guard 

 against the entail of any unnecessary expenditure. Of 

 the two principal evils of the present system, to which 

 I allude, the one is the natural consequence of the 

 other. In the first place, I condemn the fixed price set 

 upon each day's amusem.ent, the extravagance of the 

 terms upon which hounds leave their kennel, as likely to 

 operate, at some time or other, seriously against bye 

 days ; and as an increase of contingent expense, which, 

 might well be spared. Secondly, I assert that, with all 

 the good-will and support of the nobility, squirearchy, and 

 yeomanry, which is nowhere more liberally bestowed 

 than in Herts,''' the master of hounds in this, or any 

 other country similarly circumstanced, is virtually 

 at the mercy of gamekeepers and earth-stoppers. 

 For every fox that is found, from one end of the country 

 to the other, the sum of one sovereign is booked, 



* The Marquis of Salisbury, who never hunts, munificently gives .£200 ; 

 and Lord Verulani, who is also content to leave the representation of his 

 former prowess in the field to his sons, £100 to the hounds ; besides the 

 utmost exertion of all the patronage and support which their extensive 

 possessions afford. 



IG— 2 



