The South Wold. 19 



vidual vested with temporary authority often, it may 

 be brilliant for a time — for a generation, perliaps. 

 But as a Mastersbip lapses, radical changes of 

 management naturally follow. No traditional and 

 well tried code survives. The newcomer inherits 

 none of the interests of his predecessor ; has no 

 object in carrying out his half- completed reforms, 

 follows not his aims, and possibly disagrees in toto 

 with his ideas. In all probability he has never been 

 brought up to, or even initiated into, hound- work or 

 the mysteries of kennel ; the management of a country 

 is a book into whose pages he has never been called 

 upon to dip (if its very existence ever occurred to 

 him before) ; while as to the tact and diplomacy 

 required at the hands of an M.F.H., he has at starting 

 neither conception nor natural aptitude. For the 

 Master of a Subscription Pack is, more often than 

 not, one who, by accident of birth or virtue of 

 acquirement, has already wealth (most likely county 

 property) to recommend him to his neighbours, and 

 to whom the further advantage of being looked up 

 to as the Master of their Hounds has an irresisti- 

 ble charm. The distinction is well worth the few 

 hundreds, which a liberal subscription leaves as a 

 yearly deficit ; and so, not necessarily with any single 

 better recommendation, he becomes, as opportunity 

 offers. Master of an old-established pack of Fox 

 Hounds. It does not take him a year or two to find 

 that the rosy-looking bed into which he has cast him- 

 seK is not without thorns many and sharp — while the 

 buzz of disturbed prejudices and the sting of local 

 jealousies show him that there are mosquitoes round 



