xvi THE COMPLETE FOXHUNTER 



amongst hunting men, Colonel Cook is only appre- 

 ciated by a few enthusiasts. Extracts from the Diary 

 of a Huntsman, by Thos. Smith (1838), at one time 

 master of the Craven — and actually master of the 

 Pytchley when his book was published — has also much 

 useful information on hounds and their work ; and this 

 was followed, only a year later, by The Noble Science, 

 by F. P. Delme Radcliffe, who for several seasons was 

 master of the Hertfordshire. Then, after a lapse of 

 eight years, came Notitia Venatica, by R. T. Vyner, 

 the founder of the North Warwickshire country, and 

 this work almost at once became a classic. It deals 

 largely with hounds, and contained what is now the 

 first volume of the Fox Hound Kennel Stud Book. 

 Within the last few years new editions of all the 

 above — with the exception of Colonel Cook's work — 

 have been published, and a careful perusal of the lot 

 should attune the mind of any aspiring foxhunter to a 

 sense of the great importance of the sport. In more 

 recent times two famous masters wrote on the science 

 of hunting, viz. the late Colonel Anstruther Thomson 

 and the late Lord Willoughby de Broke. The first- 

 named began with a tiny pamphlet, which contained a 

 lot of useful hints, but towards the close of his life he 

 wrote his own biography, and therein is contained 

 much useful information on hunting. Lord Willoughby 

 de Broke's Advice on Fox Hunting is almost entirely 

 concerned with the science of the sport, and contains 

 the best and most condensed practical advice that has 

 ever been given to huntsmen and whippers-in. The 

 papers were first published in the Badminton Magazine, 

 but three of them were recently issued in book-form by 



