230 THE TRINITY FOOT BEAGLES 



Close, Walker, aud my humble self being all in various ways 

 amphibians, gives me to think why we are so scarce, and why boating 

 men who are country bred do not join the beagles, or, if they can 

 afford it, go with the drag or foxhounds from time to time ; as was 

 the case in earlier days, when, for example, P. Burges was a Third 

 Trinity oar. I once propounded the question to a mounted Blue on 

 the tow-path, and he could give no reason except that nobody ever 

 thought of it. So far as hunting was concerned, he had never been 

 across a horse in his life till his tow-path duties compelled him, but 

 beagling was sport that he greatly appreciated, yet it had never 

 occurred to him to go out for a bye day with T.F.B. ; and rowing 

 men, though their Hfe, as he said, is almost slavery, do get a certain 

 number of days off in the hunting terms. When one came to think 

 of it, he supposed that complete preoccupation with one sport was 

 rather narrow-minded. 



The following extract from Mr. H. S. Gladstone's diary marks 

 the occasion of Mr. N. 0. Walker's resignation : — 



" No eulogistic effort of mine can truly tell the sorrow that we 

 feel on the occasion of our Master's (N. 0. Walker) retirement. 

 Baffled only by an exam, and a paltry want of £ s. d., he has 

 thought it his duty to resign a position which has been practically 

 made by him. . . ." 



The language of the above is perhaps a leetle flowery, and may 

 make Mr. Walker blush ; but it is none the less substantially and 

 positively true. The comparison is another matter, fol- there were 

 Masters in previous ages who did great things in their day. For 

 example, Mr. Nigel Walker himself says : " The present state of the 

 pack is in a very great measure due to my brother (K. Walker), 

 and I had only to carry on his work." The truth is that all 

 institutions which are governed by tradition tend to settle down 

 into easy-going ways, and that energetic and zealous men are needed 

 from time to time to infuse fresh life into the good old ways. And 

 it is evident that from this point of view the two Walkers deserve 

 a place beside Currey, Mother Hunt, and others, who were restorers 

 of paths to dwell in. So that, as I have said, the eulogistic remarks 

 in the Gladstone diary are substantially and positively true. 



