HER MAJESTY'S STAG-HOUNDS. 275 



often to be seen at a meet of the royal hounds, though I believe 

 she has honoured them with her presence. The Prince Consort, 

 also, preferred his harriers to the stag. The Prince of Wales, 

 who received many valuable hints on riding from Davis, has 

 often been out with the buck-hounds, and gone right well, in 

 spite of being of late years what may be termed a welter-weight, 

 as has the Princess. 



To return to Charles Davis, as the Queen's huntsman he was 

 pre-eminently the right man in the right place ; and one who 

 knew him well, and has written his biography, said, "The 

 responsibilities of the office, which Charles Davis was called 

 upon to fill from the year 1821 to 1866, were much greater 

 than those which devolve upon other persons in a like situa- 

 tion. If an unruly field be any clog to the honest efforts of a 

 huntsman, no man was more severely tried ; and as it frequently 

 happened that no master but himself was in the field, it required 

 an amount of self-control which is not always consistent with 

 vigorous action or language. Other men have the influence of 

 their master, or the good feeling of the squirearchy to fall back 

 upon, and have every excuse made for them, should an unfortu- 

 nate outbreak of temper exceed just bounds. Conventuality 

 does not hedge in the hard-riding huntsman of a pack of 

 provincial fox-hounds. But the Queen's servant, in himself a 

 master, too frequently dealing with unruly spirits, whose love 

 of sport consisted in over-riding hounds on a cold scent, and 

 riding to the stag on a good one, had to consider his position as 

 well as the sport of his legitimate followers. He was not 

 naturally a good-tempered man, and his delicacy of constitution, 

 or rather digestion, made him irritable ; but he performed this 

 difficult part of his mission with marvellous tact. Years ago, 

 I remember his fields consisted of the elite of society, when 

 Sir Francis Grant's picture was a true representation of her 

 Majesty's buck-hounds, and when the hard-riding cornets and 

 captains of the household regiments (cavalry and infantry) from 

 Windsor were his most unruly customers. Since that time, 



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