CHAPTER IV 



THE A NCI EN REGIME 



Now from the Merton Arms drew out 

 Their chequered bauds, the joyous rout. 



Adapted from Sir JF. Scott. 



HE present chapter opens naturally 

 with a letter from J. F. jVIuggeridge, 

 the "Henchman," to H. Duberly, 

 written in September 1869. It is 

 of interest not only for the matter 

 which it contains, but also as one 

 of our very few original documents. 

 The proposal to buy the hounds was 

 abortive, as Currey carried on for 

 another season, but it shows that 

 the pack was founded, and that 

 there was a determination that 

 beagling should be continued under 

 less precarious conditions than heretofore. The seed of permanency 

 was most certainly sown by Currey. His success is probably due 

 both to his seniority and his genial, attractive personality. Beag- 

 ling, like all other hunting, "brings folks together as would not 

 otherwise meet," and in such cases it is by no means certain that 

 they will "mix." Undergraduates under such circumstances are 

 peculiarly shy, and a kind, genial Irishman, who by age and position 

 was above their lines of cleavage, was just the man to weld them into 

 a permanent though informal society, and his greater experience must 



