MASTERSHIP OF STAGHOUNDS 225 



understand the humanitarian opinions of Mr. Stratton ; 

 but surely it is more humane to put a dumb animal 

 out of its lingering torture than to allow it to remain 

 in unspeakable anguish for hours ! Let me quote one 

 more statement from the extraordinary pamphlet of 

 this misguided individual. He writes : " What about 

 the Berks and Bucks farmers ? Are they in favour of 

 the Hunt ? Certainly not. Yet they were exhorted by 

 the landowners' daughters, scouring the country in 

 their pony-carts, to sign the petition of our opponents, 

 and, if they had not complied, they would have been 

 marked men, and have suffered." When our present 

 King abolished the Royal Buckhounds, why were 

 the Berks and Bucks Staghounds started by Sir Robert 

 Wilmot ? They were started at the instigation of the 

 farmers. The allusion to ladies in their pony-carts is 

 merely a vulgar canard. 



" The good of other times let others state, 

 I think it lucky I was born so late." 



I must leave it to my readers to study the ancient 

 history of the Royal Buckhounds, should the subject 

 interest them. There was the Hereditary or Manorial 

 Pack, founded in the reign of Edward III., under what 

 may be termed the hereditary Mastership of the Brocas 

 family, though some historians consider that Buck- 

 hunting was a branch of the Royal Chase in the reign 

 of Henry II. Be that as it may be, it is not till the 

 reign of Edward III. that the pack is specifically men- 

 tioned : Caniiui nostrarum clamoriun vocatwn buck 

 hounde's. Henry VIII. founded the Household or 



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