14 THE MASTER OF HOUNDS 



the majority of cases, they do not spend in their native 

 country. If the real owner continued to reside in the 

 country after letting his shooting, then Mr. Herbert's 

 theory could be carried into practice : but suppose 

 that the owner is spending the rents at Monte Carlo 

 or anywhere else abroad ! Moreover, the farmers 

 complain that they reap no benefit from the shooting- 

 tenants and not even the courtesy which, in the case of 

 landowners, assumes the practical shape of a present 

 of game and often an invitation for a day's sport. 



I can, however, suggest one way by which Mr. 

 Herbert's scheme of getting at the real owner might 

 be executed. Why should there not be a combination 

 of the landowners in any particular country in which 

 shooting-tenancies are prevalent, in order that they 

 might agree amongst themselves to insert a clause in 

 the leases of all shooting-tenancies, under which the 

 tenant should be liable to a fine whenever his coverts 

 failed to hold a fox, provided that hounds did not visit 

 them more than a specified number of times at speci- 

 fied intervals during the season ? There are, how- 

 ever, two objections to my suggestion. The one is, 

 that coverts, which are considered sure finds, are 

 sometimes drawn blank through no fault of either the 

 owner or tenant. The other is, that it would be easy 

 to turn down a bagged fox on the morning of the 

 fixture. 



That the gamekeepers have their complaints against 

 hunting-men I do not deny. I have, within only a 

 week of writing these lines, received a complaint to the 

 effect that hunting-men cannot, or will not, find some 



