148 THE MASTER OF HOUNDS 



foxes are not trained to run along the hard high-roads. 

 Grooms, coachmen, and second horsemen form a large 

 percentage of the crowd. There are the foot-people, 

 many of whom are good sportsmen or sportswomen, 

 but have been reduced to the use of " Shanks' pony." 

 But who are these loud-talking people, who are jostling 

 us at gates ? Apparently they have hired any quad- 

 ruped with any pretensions to be called a horse, in 

 order to join "the glad throng as they canter along," 

 and to do as much damage to the land as it is within 

 the power of equine humanity to cause. They do not 

 cause this damage wittingly, but merely in the exuber- 

 ance of their animal spirits. Still, they do not sub- 

 scribe, and would not be present, if it were not for 

 their ambition to take an active part in the pageant. 

 Moreover, as a rule they are cantankerous individuals, 

 who, if they were invited to dine in the realms below, 

 would come back and declare that the dinner was 

 underdone and served up lukewarm. Their complaints 

 in the smoking-room of a London club or a country 

 house are as loud as the bellowings of the Bull of 

 Bashan, till they dwindle down into the more sober 

 language of Balaam's ass beneath the question, " How 

 much do you subscribe to Hounds ? " Briefly, they 

 may be described as peripatetic fox-poachers, more 

 guilty of dishonesty than the yokel who snares a hare 

 on a moonlight night. 



Much has been written and spoken in reference to 

 the duties of a Master of Hounds. Now, it is as abso- 

 lutely impossible to find a perfect Master of Hounds, 

 as it is to find a perfect man or perfect woman. The 



