LETTER XII. 123 



friends of the trigger ; wait a little, and you shall have 

 a full hearing, and ample justice done to your cause also. 

 But to my subject now. Countries held by individuals 

 as sole masters, have generally been formed by them- 

 selves, at their own expense, and so conducted with the 

 approbation and consent of the owners of coverts, and 

 handed down often as almost entailed property from 

 father to son ; in other cases they have been made over 

 to a successor, appointed by the late master, who has a 

 right to do so, or to dispose of any portion of his country 

 to a neighbouring pack, either in perpetuity, or on suf- 

 ferance, to draw certain coverts for a limited time. The 

 rights of clubs or committees, with subscription packs, 

 are of a similar nature, except that, in some countries, 

 these rights are delegated to the master of the hounds 

 for the time being. In others, the master of the hounds 

 is entirely restricted to the hunting department; the 

 management of the country being retained in the hands 

 of the club. 



The first and great rule of fox-hunting law, as recog- 

 nized by all masters of foxhounds from time immemorial, 

 and acted upon by gentlemen, invariably, up to the pre- 

 sent time, is this — " That no master of hounds has a 

 right to draw any coverts belonging to another hunt or 

 country, without his neighbour's permission." We admit 

 that landed proprietors have a right (if they think proper) 

 to kill foxes, and prevent their coverts being hunted at 

 all by any foxhounds, by the law of the land, or Game 

 Laws ; but by the law of fox-hunting they cannot take 

 their coverts away from one hunt, and give them to 

 another, except under peculiar circumstances, as the 

 following : — Coverts and countries may become lapsed 



