320 MANAGEMENT OF HOUNDS. 



gone a little wide of the mark, in endeavouring to tax 

 fox-hunters with illiherality and nastiness. These gentle 

 appellations properly belong to fox-killing game-pre- 

 servers, and to them only. We plead not guilty to this 

 soft impeachment. The very spirit of fox-hunting is 

 antagonistic to illiherality. We follow a pursuit in 

 which all alike may join without let or hindrance, and 

 the more amusement we can afford to the many, or the 

 million, if you like it, the greater our gratification. 

 Selfishness forms no part of our profession. A master 

 of foxhounds does not say, " Odi profanum vulgus et 

 arceOf^ but welcome all alike, from the peer to the 

 peasant. He does not ask game-preservers to spare foxes 

 for his own gratification, but for the amusement of the 

 country generally. 



A master of foxhounds is a public servant, and as such 

 it is incumbent upon him to conciliate, as much as pos- 

 sible, those with whom conciliation will avail ; but it is 

 no proof of illiherality on his part, if, after fair remon- 

 strances have failed, he is obliged to denounce some who 

 are selfishly endeavouring to mar the very object it is 

 his business constantly to keep in view — the sport of the 

 community at large. All large game-preservers are not 

 necessarily fox destroyers ; but, on the contrary, many 

 of them are our best friends and supporters, and we are 

 neither unmindful of, nor ungrateful for, their generous 

 assistance to our cause. To this fact the experience of 

 every master of hounds in every country will bear testi- 

 mony. 



In my own country, when I kept foxhounds, one of 

 our very best friends was a large game-preserver. He 

 was no fox-hunter himself, seldom mounting a horse ; but 



