MASTER OF THE OAKLEY 73 



peace and pleasure, and needing good fellowship among all to 

 raise him a subscription ; but, nevertheless, my heart was set on 

 a fox-hunting country. I liked what I heard of the lands of 

 Bedfordshire, and, as spring was approaching, I applied to take 

 it, and in the first place communicated with Lord Tavistock. 

 The reply I received from him then was, that all he could give 

 me, under existing circumstances, was full permission to hunt 

 the Duke of Bedford's woods. I accepted that as a beginning, 

 and then applied to Lord Ludlow, the Duke of Manchester, 

 Lord St. John, Mr. Orlebar, and all the rest of the proprietors. 

 The generality of the replies were satisfactory, and I then was 

 put into communication with the secretary of the Oakley Club, 

 Mr. Samuel Whitbread. With him I entered into negotiations 

 for a subscription of an annual thousand pounds for two 

 seasons; but on referring that sum to Colonel Berkeley, he 

 thought it too little for four days a week, and I applied to Mr. 

 Whitbread for more. He met this application by an assertion, 

 " that the Club paid the earth-stopping and feed the keepers " ; 

 and on re-consulting Colonel Berkeley, and from my own know- 

 ledge of his country, I deemed that, in all probability, the 

 earth-stopping would amount to three or four hundred a year 

 more, so, on that supposition, I took the country. There was 

 but one earth in the country, that I could find, that needed an 

 earth-stopper, and I should say that the sum of five shillings, 

 and a dinner to sundry gamekeepers, was all that the Club was 

 called on to disburse : that earth at Chillington I effectually 

 effaced. The foxes throughout the country were stump-bred, 

 and all the better for it. 



I was scarce thirty years of age when I succeeded to the 

 Bedfordshire country, and the hunting the fox, as a huntsman, 

 was so novel to me, and the distance from London, fifty miles, 

 so delightful, that like a man who had been confined to a crowded 

 city, I longed for wilder scenes and a wilder game, and rejoiced 

 in my first visit to the shire. The good Swan Inn, then kept 

 by that able functionary, Mr. Higgins, a name with which that 

 vicinity abounds, probably the same as all others, received me, 



