FRIENDS AND ENEMIES OF HUNTING 2S 



men who have made their piles, as the Americans say, 

 and allow their children to lead idle loafing lives. I 

 admit that the children are the victims of parental in- 

 dulgence, and might have been decent members of 

 society, if they had not been educated in the belief that 

 everybody must bow down before their wealth. We 

 have, however, to consider by what methods their 

 supercilious conduct towards the farmers should be 

 corrected. Sycophancy in the world of sport has 

 always been regarded as the most rotten ladder upon 

 which a man or woman can hope to climb into the 

 inner regions of county society. The sycophant, who 

 toadies his or her social superiors, and expects syco- 

 phancy from the farmers in the hunting-field, is re- 

 garded with contempt and tolerated for the sake of his 

 or her signature on the back of a bill. 



Strong language ! the reader may say ; but violent 

 diseases require strong remedies. Masters of Hounds 

 must consider how they can curb the supercilious 

 insolence of the swell snobs towards the farmers. In 

 another chapter of this volume, I have related the 

 opinions of a famous ex-huntsman in regard to the 

 duties of a Master of Hounds in the hunting-field. In 

 this chapter I do not wish to criticise these duties in 

 detail ; but I am convinced that if the Master made it 

 his business to see that the swell snob did not insult 

 the farmer, the latter would never trouble the hunting 

 world with his grievances. 



There is a further point, which I would wish to im- 

 press upon the minds of Masters of Hounds, who 

 undertake the Mastership of a country to which they 



