Introductory 



ground no doubt contributed to this drawback. On the 

 other hand, it may be urged with some truth that an earth 

 unturned by surface drains carried a better scent than after 

 it was disturbed. But if we put into the scale the pain and 

 grief of riding an unchpped horse over undrained land 

 against the exquisite sensation of riding a clean-skinned horse 

 over sound pasture, the balance must surely be in favour of 

 the latter, even though scent may not have served so con- 

 sistently as in former times. This sensation may perhaps 

 be enhanced by the fact that the hairs and the sweat of a 

 curly-coated smoking steed are disastrous to the comfort and 

 personal appearance of the rider. John Gilpin must have 

 been in a nice mess long before he got to Ware. 



We may claim, then, that the soundness of the pastures, 

 and the general advance in the science of horse-mastership, 

 made riding over the country more delightful than ever. 

 Add to these things the glorious thought that barbed wire 

 and patent manures were only in their infancy, and you 

 have an environment for Fox-hunting that no other age has 

 equalled. And who were the exponents of the art of the 

 Chase in those days ? Many of them were men of marked 

 talent and renown. The sixties and seventies and the early 

 eighties enjoyed the last ten years of the ripe experience of 

 Lord Henry Bentinck, perhaps the greatest master of Fox- 

 hounds of the nineteenth century. They witnessed the 

 early part of the career of Tom Firr, perhaps the greatest 

 professional huntsman of all time. The Lord Worcester of 

 the day, then in the prime of his health and strength, was 



15 



