156 HORSES AND HOUNDS. 



non scripta. We have rules for Cricket Clubs, rules for the 

 Prize Ring, rules for the Jockey Club, and rules laid down for 

 every other national game or amusement ; but no written rules 

 for that most popular and national amusement — Fox-hunting. 

 Upon what basis, then, do the laws of fox-hunting rest, and by 

 whom are they recognised? They stand upon a. foundation 

 which is admitted even by the common law of England to be 

 good and valid — custom ; and that custom is considered suffi- 

 ciently binding and obligatory upon every master of fox- 

 hounds, who not merely calls himselj] but is virtuaUy a gentle- 

 man. The tenure upon which hunting countries are held, I 

 may set down as threefold. That occupied by individuals as 

 sole masters; secondly, by clubs or committees; and thirdly, 

 that held upon sufferance. 



I may here be met by some large game preservers, who will 

 say, " I repudiate your fox-hunting laws altogether, and will 

 have none of them. Vermin-killers, indeed, to dictate to me, 

 and parcel out my woods and lands as they please ! the old 

 feudal laws again." Not a bit of it, my friends of the trigger ; 

 wait a little, and you shall have a full hearing, and ample 

 justice done to your cause also. But to my subject now. 

 Countries held by individuals as sole masters have generally 

 been formed by themselves, at their own expense, and so con- 

 ducted with the approbation and consent of the owners of 

 coverts, and handed down often as almost entailed property 

 from father to son ; in other cases they have been made over to 

 a successor, appointed by the late master, who has a right to do 

 so, or to dispose of any portion of his country to a neighbouring 

 pack, either in perpetuity, or on sufferance, to draw certain 

 coverts for a limited time. The rights of clubs or committees, 

 with subscription packs, are of a similar nature, except that, in 

 some countries, these rights are delegated to the master of the 

 hounds for the time being. In others, the master of the hounds 

 is entirely restricted to the hunting department ; the manage- 

 ment of the country being retained in the hands of the club. 



The first and great rule of fox-hunting law, as recognised by 

 all masters of fox-hounds from time immemorial, and acted 

 upon by gentlemen, invariably, up to the present time, is this — 

 " That no master of hounds has a right to draw any coverts 

 belonging to another hunt or country, witliout his neighbour's 

 permission." We admit that landed proprietors have a right 

 (if they think proper) to kill foxes, and prevent their coverts 

 being hunted at all by any fox -hounds, by the law of the land, 

 or game laws; but, by the law of fox-hunting, they cannot 

 take their coverts away from one hunt and give them to another, 



