CHASING AND RACING 103 



the best of them during what proved to be my last 

 season, which was only conspicuous by reason of the 

 great physical merit of the young entry, and the con- 

 sequent raising of the whole pack to a quite high-class 

 level, from a purely show -point of view. Otherwise 

 there was a lamentable fizzle. We were short of foxes, 

 and the hounds, being unable to serve two masters, 

 became bewildered, and lacking in the dash and per- 

 severance which had erstwhile distinguished them. It 

 was a sorry business. 



I wonder how many earnest and striving M.F.H.*s 

 have had their hearts and spirits broken as I had, by 

 the lack of sympathy, understanding, and true sports- 

 manship on the part of their committees ; their name 

 is legion, I trow. Of course, there were one or two of 

 the right sort who were members of mine, but they 

 were in a marked minority and quite overshadowed by 

 the ** Big Noises " who held their position by the 

 virtue of their social status in the country, but who 

 seldom, if ever, deigned to attend a meet, or if they 

 did so, drifted away after, say, the first adjacent covert 

 had been drawn. And yet they constituted themselves 

 arbiters of my efficiency, or the want of it, and never 

 hesitated to advance their academic theories whenever 

 occasion gave them the opportunity. But one striking 

 exception was the Hon. Secretary, to whom I owed a 

 great debt of gratitude. His post was almost as 

 thankless a one as my own, but he cheerily carried on 

 and weathered all storms by his tact and amiability. I 



