250 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



fees, or feasts, are unheard of; and blank days equally 

 unknown ? Nothing is so difficult to uproot, or set 

 aside, as long-standing abuse. Nothing more incontro- 

 vertible than the answer, that such always has been the 

 case. There is an old and true story of some fine old 

 English gentleman, who, having long borne with the 

 caprice and misbehaviour of an old andT long-favoured 

 domestic, on finding his patience quite exhausted (the 

 good servant being transformed into a hard master), 

 informed him that the time had arrived when it was 

 desirable to part. " Part !" cried the knight of the nap- 

 kin, " and pray where may your honour be going then ?" 

 Such would be the feeling of our out-of-door ministers, 

 upon any hint as to the abolition of rights sanctified, in 

 their eyes, by custom. " Where then," would they say, 

 " where then might we be going to hunt V Rash, 

 indeed, would be the attempt of any man to stem the 

 tide of long-indulged venality ; to pull a hornet's nest 

 about his ears ; and bitterly might he feel the stings 

 which vindictive malice might inflict upon him. Nothing 

 but the combined energy of the whole county, — a deter- 

 mined resolution to shake off the incubus of such a 

 thraldom, — could place a hunt in a proper position, in 

 relation to its dependencies ; and, even then, some time 

 might be required for a reaction from the staggering 

 efiects of a suspension of the stipendiary system. 

 Where such rules have been estabhshed, all that 

 remains for a master of hounds, subjected to their 

 dominion, is to guard against their increase ; to consider 



