20 The Hunting Countries of England, 



his couch of which he never dreamed. So holding 

 up his head bravely, as if unconscious of disappoint- 

 ment, he fulfils his duties with much outward satis- 

 faction, till such time as he can advance a plausible 

 reason for relinquishing them ; then shifts his load 

 on to another^s shoulders, just as he had begun to 

 learn how it should be carried. The same process is 

 enacted in the person of his successor; and so a 

 Subscription Pack is bandied from hand to hand 

 every few years. Huntsmen seldom remain long to 

 serve a succession of masters ; and under the vicissi- 

 tudes of variety of regime and frequent change of 

 system, hounds can scarcely be expected to improve, 

 or even to maintain a fair standard once acquired — 

 still less can each of these short-lived Masterships 

 sustain a fresh pack, of respectable quality, where 

 the country possesses no hounds of its own. Fox- 

 hunting confessedly lives on its traditions and by 

 sufferance. But its traditions are a stronger power, 

 and offer a more solid foothold, where for generations 

 past they have been linked with the fortunes of a 

 leading family, whose name is indigenous to the soil. 

 In such case sufferance has been so long and so 

 unhesitatingly granted as to have become a fixed 

 principle, which it would be considered the rankest 

 heresy to call into question — much more to disturb. 

 But the opposite case is open to contingencies so 

 numerous and diversified, that they are beyond our 

 space and present object. Every Master of a Sub- 

 scription Hunt must have been brought into unplea- 

 sant contact with many of them, and will probably 

 find it no difficult task to amplify his list day by day. 



