LETTER XXIV. 259 



of Northampton, some few years since, the establishment 

 bad been conducted on such a grand scale that no man 

 could be induced to take the country for some months ; 

 in fact, one of the best hunting countries in England was 

 really going begging for a master, and it was even so late 

 as the month of November before one could be found 

 bold enough for the undertaking. It is quite impossible 

 to form any correct estimate of the expenses which are 

 incident to different hunting establishments. We all 

 know that so many couples of hounds will require so 

 many tons of oatmeal in the year, and the horses so 

 many quarters of oats and tons of hay. We can compute 

 also wages, taxes, and other necessary expenses, but 

 when we come to the renting of coverts, feeing keepers 

 and earth-stoppers for litters of cubs bred, or foxes found, 

 poultry lost by farmers, &;c. &c., we are all at sea. These 

 items alone, in some countries, would suffice to keep 

 another pack of hounds, to hunt two days a week. 



Masters of hounds, taking to a country with what they 

 consider a good subscription, are often anything but 

 agreeably surprised, at the end of the season, with a long 

 list of these little items, which at the commencement 

 they thought little of. Were real sportsmen only, and 

 men of business, to undertake the management, these 

 excrescences would be lopped off, or reduced to their 

 proper level ; for, in fact, these extra expenses should 

 not be borne at all by a master of hounds ; they properly 

 belong to the owners of coverts and the gentlemen of the 

 country, and, if not agreed upon as to their peculiar 

 province, a separate fund at least should be provided to 

 meet such contingencies. I have known two guineas 

 paid for each litter of cubs, and a guinea per fox, for 



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