38 THE TRINITY FOOT BEAGLES 



Here there is scope for reasonable comparison. The difference 

 lies in the relationship of field sports to College life, a difference 

 which cuts both ways ; also there are symptoms that at Oxford 

 more deference is paid to lectures. 



At Exeter ^ almost every member of the College supports the 

 pack. To do so is as necessary a piece of College loyalty as to support 

 the Boat Club. At Christ Church the Beagles are on the " Amalga- 

 mation," and take rank among the College games. New College 

 maintains a pack at its own cost, and charges for five years, and then 

 admits Magdalen as a high contracting party to join forces with 

 them. I have further a dim idea that other colleges have from time 

 to time maintained packs of beagles, and especially that there was a 

 pack at Oriel in the seventies and early eighties. 



That colleges should take a corporate interest in sport, which is 

 maintained for its own sake, as there can be no competitive tests 

 between colleges, is a fact to be envied : the weak point would seem 

 to be that it puts the sportsmen at other colleges who cannot afford 

 fox-hunting at a disadvantage, as two of the packs but grudgingly 

 admit out-college men to share their sport, and Christ Church excludes 

 them altogether : it would seem better for such to be able to hunt 

 with a pack which has no connection with any college than to mix 

 up in the affairs of a foundation other than their own. Again, the 

 maintenance of a pack of beagles in whose doings only a minority 

 will even take an active and understanding part, is an effort for so 

 small a community as an average-sized college, and available resources 

 are not used to the best advantage, that is, in the most economical 

 manner, in keeping up three separate establishments, when a single 

 institution able to put two alternate packs into the field and hunting 

 four days a week would provide as much sport for all who wanted to 

 see it. I note also that all three packs seem to gravitate towards 

 South Oxfordshire country, which may mean the inconvenience of 

 overlapping.^ 



However, the system which grows up naturally in any place is 



^ E.xeter, as I since hear, is joining; forces witli Balliol. 



^ A second letter from Mr. Coruwallis informs me that there is some overlapping 

 of country between the Christ Church and New College packs, but that the Exeter 

 country is quite isolated. 



