i6o THE MASTER OF HOUNDS 



"We die and are forgotten : 'tis Heaven's decree; 

 Thus the fate of others will be the fate of me." 



" I am one who finds constant refreshment from 

 reading a few pages of this healthy and vivid author, 

 half sportsman and half poet, who has produced a 

 number of volumes, which, in their way, are master- 

 pieces, and will never be surpassed." Such was the 

 tribute which Lord Rosebery publicly paid to the 

 literary merits of Henry Hall Dixon, known to all 

 sporting readers as " The Druid." Everybody will 

 agree with the justice of the tribute, who has read the 

 writings of " The Druid." During the last century he 

 was facile princeps in sporting literature. But he rarely 

 criticised the horsemanship, or conduct in the field, 

 of Masters of Hounds, though in the character of 

 biographer he recounted the criticisms of that extra- 

 ordinary man, Dick Christian, who for fifty years held 

 a unique position in the hunting-field as a rough-rider. 

 These criticisms, however, most of which were adverse, 

 hardly concern modern Masters of Hounds. Like the 

 writings of Mr. Charles James Apperley, they merely 

 possess an interest for the students of foxhunting 

 history. I wonder what a Master of Hounds would 

 say if it were intimated to him that a twentieth-century 

 ** Nimrod " was coming down to hunt with him on a 

 certain day, and to inspect his hunting establishment. 

 Mr. Jorrocks certainly invited Pomponius Ego, for 

 whose portrait Mr. Apperley unconsciously sat before 

 Mr. vSurtees, to "come here and take a look at our 

 most provincial pack. Entre nous, as we say in France, 

 I want to be famous, and you know how to do it. In 



