154 THE MASTER OF HOUNDS 



and female snobs, who, by their insolence, cause the 

 farmers to become enemies to our great winter sport. 

 It is the duty of the professional hunting journalist to 

 place the curb upon the utterances and noisy attacks of 

 bigoted sentimentalists, and to argue in regard to the 

 political economy of hunting ; but it is certainly not 

 his duty to place snobs on the " black list," unless he 

 does so at the request of the Master, or of the Hunt 

 Secretary. Now, all the fashionable Hunts possess a 

 hunting journalist, who duly records in the weekly 

 papers accounts of the sport which the Hunt has 

 enjoyed. The history of some of these accounts may 

 be both instructive and amusing to Masters of Hounds 

 and their followers. 



In the first instance, which I wish to recount, the 

 scribe was the village postmaster. The post-office 

 was within a quarter of a mile of the kennels, and both 

 these public establishments were within a comfortable 

 walking distance of a comfortable hostelry, which 

 always reminded me of "The Maypole" immortalised 

 by Charles Dickens in " Barnaby Rudge." The post- 

 office keeper, who was also a general chandler, bore a 

 resemblance to short Tom Cobb, and the huntsman 

 might have been the original of long Phil Parker, the 

 ranger. As I listened to these cronies discussing the 

 hunting news of the week, I expected to see the modern 

 prototype of Sir John Chester in an iron-grey periwig 

 and pigtail ride up to the door to sit for an equestrian 

 portrait for the benefit of the local caricaturist. It was 

 impossible for the most modest individual not to over- 

 hear the conversation of these cronies, or to be oblivious 



