284 HUNTING. 



another station, have travelled on wheels at least a dozen miles. 

 After the day's sport, the same toil has been necessary to bring me 

 home to dinner at eight. This has been work for a young man 

 and a rich man, but I have done it as an old man and compara- 

 tively a poor man. 



In giving his preference to ' the Baron ' over Mr. Lowndes, 

 Trollope, it is to be presumed, meant only to signify that to one 

 hunting after this fashion the certainty of a gallop of some sort 

 was the cardinal point to be aimed at. He was too good a 

 sportsman to wilfully prefer riding after the uncarted deer to the 

 real hunting of the fox. But the fox is an uncertain beast. You 

 may not find him at home ; and when you do you may not pre- 

 vail on him to leave it, or at any rate to leave it in such a way 

 as will conduce most to your pleasure. A blank day, or a dav 

 spent in pottering about from covert to covert with a cold scent, 

 or in splashing up and down knee-deep in muddy woodlands, 

 are clearly things to be avoided if possible by one who has 

 travelled far for his fun and has not many hours to spare for it. 

 By agreeing to satisfy yourself with such imitation of hunting, as 

 the pursuit of the paddock-fed deer provides, you do avoid such 

 things. You are sure of your game at any rate, and sure of a 

 gallop of some sort. For many years the Royal Buckhounds 

 had a natural prominence among packs which pursued the 

 carted deer, and their history has been admirably written by 

 Lord Ribblesdale, one of the various notable sportsmen who 

 have held the office of Master, which included the control of the 

 Royal Enclosure at Ascot. The ' Buckhounds,' however, did 

 not survive into the present reign, though the actual pack was 

 hunted for some years by Sir Robert ^^'ilmot, and now does 

 duty on Tuesdays and Fridays under the title of the Berks 

 and Bucks FaTmers'. Messrs. F. W. and A. H. Headington 

 are in control at the time of writing (January 1908). Maiden- 

 head, Twyford and Slough are the stations. Lord Rothschild's 

 hunt on ^Mondays and Thursdays over the country round about 

 Leighton Buzzard and Aylesbury, the latter a famous early 

 home of steeplechasing. Alaidstone, Tunbridge and Ashford 



