32 THE HUNTING FIELD 



of established reputation and station may unite the whole fox- 

 hunting force, and prevent the petty jealousies that sometimes 

 arise when a Master is drawn from the " body of the county," 

 as they say of a jury. Farmers will put up with a great deal 

 from a man they know. It is "stranger damage" they object 

 to — townsmen's particularly, not one in ten knowing what 

 they are riding over. " A lord," we may add, is a trump card 

 an}- where. 



If we thought a Mastership and the duties of huntsman 

 too much for one man, what shall we say to the triplicate 

 character of a Master supported by subscription and hunting 

 the hounds ? We think we may say that a successful one is 

 little short of a miracle, an eighth wonder of the world, at all 

 events. We all know the ease and readiness with which people 

 find fault. Hunting critics, like Lord Byron's reviewing ones, 

 "are ready made;" and some think it necessary to censure, 

 just as others think it right to halloo, according to the amount 

 of their subscriptions. Nay, we have heard of men censuring 

 to escape subscribing, just as skinflint travellers used to pick 

 holes with guards and coachmen, to escape paying them. 

 The "hallooing and hunting tariff" was thus laid down by 

 Nimrod some years ago, and as no mention has been made of 

 it in an}' of Sir Robert Peel's new ones, we suppose it remains 

 the same, viz.. the man who subscribes twenty-five pounds 

 a-year ma\' halloo once, fifty twice ; but, if he give a hundred, 

 he may halloo all day long. 



Hunt subscriptions are as difficult to realize as the assets 

 of a bankrupt tommy shopkeeper. Unless there is a huge 

 nest egg to start with, it is weary up-hill work trying to keep 

 a pack of hounds by what the hospital people call "voluntary 

 contributions." Voluntary contributions, forsooth ! We read 

 ill the " Old Sporting Magazine," that, at a fashionable Spa, a 

 poor laundress had been mulct of her few shillings towards the 

 keep of what brought the white breeches to her tub. This is 



