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CHAPTER V. 



1886—1899. 



This will of necessity be a short chapter, as I have received few 

 letters referring to the period. A terribly large number of those 

 who were officials of the pack served both in the South African 

 and in the late War, with the result that comparatively few are still 

 living. It was not a particularly successful period as regards sport. 

 Many fewer hares were killed than in the previous ten years, 

 owing chiefly to a deterioration in the pack. Probably this was 

 the fault of Lock. He was getting older and fatter, and began 

 to think more of saving himself trouble than of keeping up a 

 good pack of hounds. One of the Masters, A. M. Grenfell, 

 horrified him by making him feed the hounds on oatmeal. More- 

 over, there was a tendency to make the pack a dog pack and 

 exclude all bitches. In 1891 only four old bitches remained. As 

 A. M. Grenfell remarked : ''Of course this is the best plan for Lock, 

 as it saves him no end of trouble, but that does not mean that it 

 is the best plan for the hunt. There ought, in my opinion, to be 

 at least three couples of bitches to breed from." But there was 

 no uniformity of opinion, and, while one Master bred puppies 

 freely, another would say that he did not believe in breeding at 

 Eton. And so the pack really deteriorated and provided on the 

 whole less sport than during the ten years previous to this time. 

 We do not wish to run Lock down. In a way he was an 

 excellent kennelman. But, like many excellent men, he was old- 

 fashioned and a trifle pig-headed, and several Masters had 

 considerable difficulty in making him understand that he was 

 there to do what they told him. However, he was wonderful out 

 hunting, and, like old Mr. Mumford tc-day, always seemed to be 

 viewing the hunted hare. This is what an old follower says 

 about him : 



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