CHAPTER IX 



MODERN BEAGLING 



The running Imntsnien nieny. 



jrordsvo7ih. 



HEN once an institution, be 

 it Club, League, Hunt, or 

 Monastery, has established 

 its traditions, it settles down 

 into a routine and ceases to 

 have a history : hencefor- 

 ward the thing that has 

 been is the thing that shall 

 be, year in year out, and 

 there is little to record but 

 names and dates, and in 

 such a case as ours, runs. Go 

 over any number of Minute 

 Books of any number of societies, and you will find that nine times 

 out of ten everything worth reading is to be found on the first ten 

 pages, and after that : — 



" In the seventh month and on the six and twentieth day of the 

 month began Og to reign over Bashan, and he did good (or evil) ^ in 

 the sight of the Lord, and he reigned seventeen years in Zoar and 

 was gathered to his fathers, and Nimrod his son reigned in his stead, 

 twenty and three years reigned he in Zoar." And he also did good or 

 evil as the case may be, but good or evil of such humdrum sort that 



1 Probably both. 

 207 



