24 G THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



US back to the homely proverb with which 1 commenced 

 my notice of them. " What is everybody's business, is 

 nobody's." The master of the hounds is left precisely 

 in the situation of a county member, who is fain to 

 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 little on the south 

 side of the country, in the preceding season ; to pro- 

 mise 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 Uhitum, over his property, 

 in consideration of their zeal for Jus iDeculiar 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 little as 

 possible distracted from the multitude of concerns 

 which necessarily fall to his share, by being called to 

 the constant consideration of atiliirs which should 

 require no regulation on his part. There is q\iite 

 enough of by-play, quite enough of work behind the 



