THE MASTER 3 



shallowness nor its depth ; the top that looks as if it cares not 

 for bullfinch or briar, and whose soles are of sufficient strength 

 to command the respect of the kickable portion of the com- 

 munity. For any one, save parhaps our late respected friend 

 the living skeleton, there is no costume equal to boots and 

 breeches — boots and breeches well made, and well put on, 

 indispensable accompaniments for the well-looking of both. 

 We could write a chapter on boots, but as we purpose passing 

 the field in review, we will glance at their various characters 

 as the wearers come before us. Spurs, too, are an eloquent 

 subject for dissertation. If any one would collect the hats, 

 gloves, whips, boots, and spurs of a field, placing each set by 

 themselves, we would undertake to appropriate them to the 

 station in life of the respective parties. These, too, however, 

 for the present, we shall " pass," as the auctioneers say, simply 

 observing that our Master's gloves are doe-skin, his whip a 

 lapped whalebone one, with a hammer head, his persuaders of 

 the Jersey pattern, with silver studs and buckles. The well 

 polished strap-ends come well over the buckles, and the boots 

 altogether wear a sort of air that says no common mud shall 

 stick to us. 



A Master of Hounds is one of the most difficult characters 

 in life to fill ; hence it is not surprising that there are but two 

 sorts — the best fellows under the sun — and the nastiest brutes 

 going. Fortunately for society, the " nastiest brutes " going 

 are so select and so self-convicting a set as not to require 

 much description from us ; they are generally waffling, 

 fretting, fussing, fuming, vapouring bodies, who soon make 

 way for one of the " best fellows under the sun." Now the 

 best fellows under the sun, like the "best horse going," are a 

 numerous breed, but, as applied to masters of hounds, they 

 must, to a certain extent, have the same qualities, though they 

 may have very different ways of showing them. First and 

 foremost they must be keen. About this there must be "no 



