50 HUNTING TOURS. 



ill good favour — a most important point, not 

 only at regards the preservation of foxes, but 

 for their very valuable co-operation in walk- 

 ing young hounds. The services of keepers 

 have not only to be paid for — and in many 

 hunts they are paid at an exorbitant rate 

 — but their actions require to be pretty care- 

 fully regarded. Little items, insignificant in 

 detail, which present themselves daily, amount 

 to a considerable aggregate throughout the 

 year, creating anxieties to which a master of 

 hounds is at all times subservient. In the 

 field there is daily much anxious responsi- 

 bility in the endeavours to show sport, and 

 the " suaviter in modo, fortitur in re,"' is an 

 accomplishment of the utmost value. The 

 power of overcoming these difliculties was 

 most happily combined in Mr. Duffield, and 

 the unanimity of good feeling expressed to- 

 wards him in the hunting field affords the 

 surest testimony how highly his exertions 

 were appreciated. 



My first day with these hounds was most 

 unfortunate as regards weather; a more in- 

 auspicious condition of the elements could 

 scarcely be exceeded. They met at Milton 

 Hill, the seat of Mr. Bowles, an excellent 



