THE FOOT DRAG 39 



probably that best suited to that place. A bird in the hand is worth 

 two in the bush, and a live dog is better than a dead lion, or for 

 that matter than one which may some day be begotten and born. 

 So also a system in actual existence is in spito of its drawbacks better 

 than an imaginary replica of one without those drawbacks, which you 

 see in working elsewhere : it is an ill business to swap horses in the 

 midst of a stream. The incorporation of love of sport into College 

 life is a most enviable trait of Oxford life, but it would be absurd for 

 us to attempt to imitate it. Our own tradition of independence and 

 self-support should never be sacrificed. Moreover at Oxford, as has 

 been said, they have no " Jesus Lane." 



Here then is beagling at Cambridge as a going concern, free and 

 independent, well appointed and well organised on a basis of tradition 

 without red tape. We have a good pack of hounds well suited to the 

 country, well-built kennels, good strenuous sport, and Bob Floate as a 

 perpetual retainer, and a most agreeable network of dining societies. 

 How did it all begin ? 



The actual origin of the Trinity Foot Beagles, like that of the 

 Universities themselves and the British Constitution, is "wrop in 

 mystery." This must be so, because all institutions that, like T.F.B., 

 are sound and permanent have started from small and tentative 

 beginnings, and have so been able to grow to the actual conditions 

 by which they are surrounded. There is no flourish of trumpets, 

 and no records are kept, because those who are concerned with 

 humble beginnings have no idea that they are " making history." 

 Natural growth, moreover, allows for mistakes which can be turned 

 to profit as valuable experience. Those ventures, on the other hand, 

 which spring into being ready-made in an atmosphere of puff and 

 paragraphs are in great danger of coming to nothing. They are 

 much too " well thought out " to be adaptable. Trinity Foot Beagles, 

 therefore, being of the order of things that have " kinder growed," all 

 we can do is to observe the first visible signs of growth as recorded 

 in chance saved letters and the confused memories of " oldest 

 inhabitants," and from these, with the help of analogy and well- 

 tempered imagination, to reconstruct the past. Where shall we 

 begin ? With the first actual record ? With the evolution of 



