SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 257 



CHAPTER XXXT. 



Subdivision of overgro^\'ii countries conducive to sport — Leadenhall 

 foxes — Rights of country — " Mos pro lege" — Foxhunting the 

 fashion — The king of sportsmen — The late Sir Wheeler Cufle and 

 clipping — Neutral coverts. 



The lavish expenditure upon foxhunting establish- 

 ments in the present day has induced us to point 

 out how these may be curtailed, and by so doing 

 we have reason to think that we are doing good 

 service to the noble science. The magnitude of 

 many establishments must deter men of moderate 

 means from embarking in such hazardous enter- 

 prises, and although hitherto rich masters have 

 been found wilHng to undertake the management, 

 rather from love of notoriety than love of sport, 

 yet when the novelty of the thing wears off they 

 are not sorry to retire from a situation involving 

 more trouble than pleasure. So much is sacrificed 

 now to pomp and parade, everything must be in 

 apple-pie order, and not onl}^ so, for of the lucidus 

 ordo we complain not, but in more than apple-pie 

 order in excess of all necessary order — a super- 

 abundance of hounds, whose numbers militate 

 against their performances, and so little worked that 

 their good or bad qualities cannot fairly be tested. 

 Masters and huntsmen, with their second and third 

 horses in the field, serving only as an excuse for 



