264 THE SPORT OF KINGS 



them enjoying in their own way the sport of 

 kings. 1 



The sins of the Master of Hounds in question 

 are manifold. After calling in question his motives 

 in hunting a country his methods come in for 

 criticism. " The woods are drawn in a perfunctory 

 way, and the Master hardly takes the trouble to 

 do more than run the hounds through some of the 

 coverts, leaving many likely spots, etc., and then 

 trots five miles away, etc. The foxes which we 

 know haunt the country, and which we may have 

 viewed frequently . . . are left in undisturbed 

 possession, etc." The " may " — italics are mine 

 — liketh me well. This is really such an old 

 story that it is amusing. A Master of Hounds 

 comes to draw coverts where he is practically sure 

 foxes are scarce, even if they are there at all ; he 

 draws the most likely of them ; he sees no sign of 

 a fox, and he goes away for his afternoon draw to 

 where there is one to save a blank day, and to 

 give the coffee -housing, holiday -making crowd a 

 gallop. Methinks our critic doth protest too 

 much. If the object of the Master of Hounds be 

 to afford a holiday to a coffee-housing crowd it 

 would not matter how he spent his day, and he 

 might just as well spend his time in looking in 

 outlying spinneys for the fox which has been — I 

 beg pardon, which may have been — so frequently 

 viewed when hounds are not in the neighbour- 

 hood, but which is always conspicuous by his 

 absence when they are there. I know that fox 



1 Note. — It must be understood that with the special circumstances to 

 which the writer refers I have nothing to do. It is possible that in one 

 instance a country may be badly hunted. It is the general deduction of the 

 writer which I combat. No more pernicious doctrine can be enunciated than 

 that a shooting man shall tell a hunting man what is a hunting country 

 and what is not, which is what I have quoted practically amounts to. 



