MR. THOMAS THORN HILL MORLAND 151 



You would likewise make me consent to the 

 greatest mischief that could be aimed at in fox- 

 hunting generally, by subscribing to the doctrine 

 that owners or occupiers of coverts could take those 

 coverts from one hunt and add them to another 

 at their own will and pleasure; so that no master 

 would know from one season's end to another what 

 did or did not belong to his country. You may 

 drive, by the course you are pursuing, the masters of 

 coverts to destroy foxes, or to warn me off; that is 

 an affair between them and myself ; but if any other 

 master of hounds attempts to draw those coverts, 

 which I conceive to belong to my country, I shall 

 consider it as personally offensive to myself. 



I remain, yours truly, 



GiFFORD. 



P.S. — To save all further controversy, I will con- 

 sent to no other except that which has been already 

 offered, and which in foxhunting matters has always 

 been considered the most desirable, namely, a refe- 

 rence of our dispute to Masters of foxhounds. 



Sheepstead, June 26th, 1844. 

 Dear Lord Gifford, — I did not write to you 

 immediately on receipt of your letter last week, as I 

 was desirous, before doing so, of consulting some of 

 my friends, for I cannot treat the question as if a 

 personal question between yourself and me. If we 

 could so treat it, I have no doubt everything could 

 be easily arranged to our mutual satisfaction. With 

 respect to a reference to Masters of hounds, I quite 

 agree with Mr. Button that such a reference, in 

 ordinary cases, may be considered by some the most 

 sportsmanlike mode of arranging matters ; but I 

 cannot find any precedent for referring a question 

 like the one in dispute. I have in my former letters 



