THE MASTER OF HOUNDS 59 



has an industrial as well as an agricultural popula- 

 tion, and where the hunting element is small in 

 comparison with the non-hunting portion of the com- 

 munity, there a mastership of hounds is thought less 

 of than the chairmanship of a parish council ; and 

 this was suggested to us not long ago by the secre- 

 tary of a country agricultural show. The gentleman 

 in question was a hunting man (secretary to the 

 local hunt), and the committee of the show were nearly 

 all tradesmen and business men from the country 

 town. Our friend canvassed the hunting people for 

 subscriptions towards the prize list, and obtained 

 such a goodly sum that he was able to promise the 

 money for all the hunter prizes, and in addition 

 to give half a dozen prizes to tenant farmers in the 

 farm stock classes. Yet when the committee pub- 

 lished their prize list it began with the names of a 

 dozen councillors, none of whom had given more 

 than a guinea, and the handsome sum collected by the 

 secretary was lumped together, with nothing written to 

 show that it had been subscribed by the hunting men 

 of the district. 



On the other hand we met a master lately who was 

 inclined to think that the high office he held was 

 thought more of than formerly. We naturally asked 

 why, and were told that Who's Who had applied 

 for particulars of this gentleman's career, and that, 

 in fact, all the masters in the kingdom had been 

 circularised. 



Whether the height of glory is reached when one's 

 name is included in the most curious of modern 

 directories is open to doubt, but the real fact is that the 

 country has undergone such manifold changes in the 

 last thirty years that it is practically impossible for 



