THE ANCIEN REGIME 



77 



selves ; in either case I think the £25 could easily be raised. Please 

 let me have your opinion as soon as possible, and believe me, yours 

 very sincerely, j p MuGG bridge. 



P.S.—l hear that the Cambridge Harriers have been given up. Is 

 this true ? 



The expectation of an increased body of subscribers shows plainly 

 that the Lovers of True Sport were indeed forgathering, and, as 

 subsequent events prove, that Currey's work of founding a permanent 

 tradition was fully accomplished. For many years to come, to be 

 precise, until Lord Milton's Mastership in 1892, the hounds continued 

 to be the property of the Master, who, having bought them from his 

 predecessor, could do what he liked with them, and Mr. Harry 

 Howard, on going down, took his hounds home 

 with him, so that a new pack had to be raised ; ^ 

 but raised it was, and since then the unwritten 

 law grew up that the outgoing Master should 

 hand the pack over at a fair price. Ownership 

 still continues, and the Master can breed, buy, 

 sell, and put down as he pleases, and can keep 

 surplus puppies to form the nucleus of a pri- 

 vate pack ; but he receives the hounds free, 

 and must hand on to his successor as many 

 hounds as he receives, as has been already said. 



In the days with which we are concerned 

 the pack had not settled down to what may be 

 called " strict " beagling. There was no uniform 

 for Master and Whips except a soft green cloth 

 cap, and the Master often rode a cob, which 

 made it hard work for Whips afoot to turn 

 hounds to him. Also, there were no proper 

 kennels, but hounds were boarded out in hen- 

 yards, and unsystematically fed on College 

 scraps. P. Burgess tells us in one place that 



1 Whether he took them all away is a little obscure, as 

 will be seen later. 



A Whippeimn under the 

 A\CIEX RiGIilB. 



