THE MASTER 33 



not as it should be. Much as we desire to uphold hunting, yet 

 we must advocate its support on proper gentlemanly principles. 

 Better knock-off a day a-week than resort to such means. If 

 such expedients are had recourse to, at idle, money-spending 

 watering-places, what can we expect from the hard money- 

 getting penury of the country ? 



Some people may suppose that a Mastership of Hounds 

 is fulfilled with the mere home and field management, but 

 such is very far from being the case. A Master of Hounds 

 exercises no small influence on the manners, we might almost 

 say the morals of a countrjr, as well by his own example as 

 by the style of people his management brings about him. 

 Mankind are prone to imitation — young men, especially ; and 

 a Master of Hounds is of all others the most likely for them to 

 look up to. 



" He who excels in what we prize. 

 Appears a hero in our eyes." 



If the Master is what may be termed a show fox-hunter — 

 a dandified petit iiiaitre — he will have every chance of making 

 the field the same, for many will be glad to add what we may 

 call the " impotence of dress " to the general attractions of 

 the red coat. If the Master is a coarse, swearing, overbearing 

 fellow, his companions will be the same ; for there is no truer 

 saying, than that " birds of a feather flock together," and none 

 but blackguards will put up with one ; but if our Master is 

 what a Master ought to be — a high-minded, liberal, gentlemanly 

 man, affable with his equals, courteous to all, keen without 

 pedantry, neat without puppyism — he will not only raise the 

 character of fo.x-hunting generally, but will exercise a most 

 wholesome influence on the minds and manners of the rising 

 generation within his own peculiar sphere. And this leads us 

 to observe, that there is not, perhaps, in the whole range of 

 the duties of a Master, an act admitting of such graceful 

 compliments as the judicious presentation of the brush. It is 



D 



