NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



as possessing the necessary physical attributes, with a 

 positive genius for the chase of the fox. 



Among the i68 English foxhound packs alone, no 

 less than 74 huntsmen were last season found to be 

 amateurs. In Ireland there were 21 amateur huntsmen 

 out of 26 packs. Among harriers the amateur hunts- 

 men are in a considerable majority. Ladies not only 

 follow hounds more vigorously and more numerously 

 with each succeeding year, but are to be found master- 

 ing and even hunting packs themselves ! Lady Gifford, 

 for example, masters the pack of harriers known by her 

 name in Sussex, and herself carries the horn. In 

 South Wales Mrs. Pryse-Rice hunts her own harriers ; 

 Miss Isa McClintock is at the head of the Tynan and 

 Armagh, while in county Carlow Mrs. Brisco whips 

 a pack of hare hounds to her husband, Captain Brisco. 

 One other lady, Mrs. Cheape, is to be found mastering, 

 but not actually hunting, the Bentley harriers. Last 

 season, 1903-4, it was announced that Miss E. JE. 

 Somerville — joint-author of that mirth-provoking book, 

 Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. — was to be master 

 of the Carbery West Foxhounds, county Cork, a pack 

 for which she has for some seasons acted as honorary 

 secretary. It is among the curiosities of sport that three 

 packs of foxhounds at the present day are mastered by 

 clergymen. Of these one is the Coniston, a little 

 Lakeland pack of ten couples, which hunts the rough 

 upland districts of Ambleside, Windermere, Coniston, 

 and Grasmere, under the control of the Rev. E. M. 

 Reynolds. The Rev. E. A. Milne is master of the 

 Catt-is-tock, a pack hunting near Dorchester and 

 Weymouth. The Rev. Sir William Hyde-Parker, 

 who controls the Newmarket and Thurlow, is the other 

 clergyman now mastering a pack of foxhounds. 



Professional hunt servants, who form one of the most 



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