258 MANAGEMENT OF HOUNDS. 



express it, to be efficiently and permanently conducted), 

 are deterred, by the ruinous expenditure of their un- 

 sophisticated predecessor, to attempt the reduction of 

 things to their proper level, with the inevitable result of 

 those unfair comparisons v^^hich will be drawn between 

 his management and the splended and lavish expenditure 

 of the late master. It has been truly said, that what is 

 worth doing at all is worth doing well. This is particu- 

 larly applicable to a fox-hunting establishment, but I 

 should be doing little service to the cause of the noble 

 science were I to withhold my decided disapprobation of 

 the extravagant manner in which many hunting establish- 

 ments are conducted, and I feel assured that every true 

 sportsman and ardent lover of this our national sport 

 will agree with me in these remarks. 



About twenty years ago I made a tour with a friend 

 through the grass countries, and visited all the great 

 establishments of that day. The Duke of Rutland's, 

 Duke of Grafton's, Lords Lonsdale's and Fitzwilliams's, 

 and the Quorn kennels ; there was no appearance in any 

 of them of ostentatious display or unnecessary expen- 

 diture. The kennels of the Duke of Grafton and Lord 

 Fitzwilliam struck me as absolutely deficient in due 

 accommodation for the fine packs of hounds they con- 

 tained, the lodging houses being little better than those 

 I have seen occupied by a pack of harriers ; but the studs 

 of horses were magnificent, such animals as are rarely 

 seen in the provincial countries. From these kennels, 

 however, and a very few others have sprung the numerous 

 packs of foxhounds which now extend through the length 

 and breadth of the land. 



I can well remember that, in the neighbouring county 



