98 CHASING AND RACING 



some time before Irwin's fury went off the boil and 

 gradually simmered down to a plaintive sibilation. 

 Then ominous growlings and grousings became 

 audible throughout the country ; because all sub- 

 scribers had not been warned of the by-day. A 

 committee meeting was held, and I was solemnly 

 cursed by bell and book ; but like the " Jackdaw of 

 Rheims/' I felt not a penny the worse ! Of course 

 there was reason in the complaint ; but it was urged 

 by the neglected ones, for the most part, in a spirit 

 of mere captiousness. These were they who would 

 never have dreamed of attending such a cutting-out 

 expedition, and even had they done so would never 

 have gone two fields from the common. They heard 

 of the great run with envy, hatred, malice, and all 

 uncharitableness ; but one thing is certain, if these 

 slackers and shirkers had assembled in force there 

 would have been no such a run. It was only con- 

 trived by strategy and tactics of the most meticulous 

 order. 



Nevertheless, rebellion was in the air, and the 

 conspirators — chiefly members of the aristocratic com- 

 mittee itself — worked steadily behind my back, with a 

 view to my displacement by a professional huntsman ; 

 though I was to be permitted to retain the mastership 

 and to provide the odd ;^4000 per annum (over and 

 above the ;/^i2oo subscription) which it cost me to run 

 the show. I soon gave them to understand that under 

 no circumstances would I give up the horn, quoting 



