18 THE TEINITY FOOT BEAGLES 



were officers in the Army, and these did not make a Hviug, so why 

 should they in the Navy ? Etc. etc. Money seems to come into the 

 estimate here, but the motive of the demand seems to be " Set some 

 one over us who is in no way ' on the make.' " 



I have further heard it rumoured that if the rank and file of 

 railway workers were officered by the class which naturally produces 

 " orficers," instead of by " non-coms.," who have climbed over their 

 shoulders to place and power, there would be less trouble. It 

 sounds as if there were " something in it." At any rate a whole- 

 some feudal relation between gentle and simple is one that need 

 not be confined to the Navy, the Army, and landed estates, or, if 

 you want a specific instance, the excellent relations which exist 

 between T.F.B. and Mr. Eobert Floate. A Barbarian of tliese parts, 

 F. Bagnall of Little Shelford — there is no reason for suppressing his 

 name — told me that he was talking to some local railway men, all 

 socialists, who were grumbling that the Services were not more 

 democratic — they wanted the men to elect their own officers — when 

 an old Eadical platelayer in the corner said, " Ah ! but you know 

 men will follow a gentleman anywhere." And being myself a 

 cleric with Barbarian traditions I am fain to hope that, as thank 

 God is the case with a good many old members of T.F.B., a fair 

 percentage will accept the burden of the cure of souls. It is fitting 

 that a iKidre should understand his people, and therefore that among 

 the sons of Esau the priest should himself be of the Tribe. 



What, you may ask, is the point of all this rambling discourse ? 

 I answer that we are concerned with the history of the Trinity Foot 

 Beagles, and tlmt a history is no mere chronicle of events, but is 

 concerned with their meaning. " T.F.B." is the central feature of 

 field sports in our unsympathetic University, and those who beagle 

 are representatives of the whole body of Barbarians who come 

 hither for their education, after which they are meant, equally with 

 the Philistines, to go out into the world and do something. Now I 

 grant that there are some life jobs which are best done by Philistines, 

 but am also convinced that there are others which call urgently for 

 Barbarians : a class who have proved themselves in after-life to have 

 been not altogether wasters. 



