156 THE CREAM OF LEICESTEESHIRE. [Season 



put 3'ourself in turn in the place of the i^arties most interested, 

 and, as much as possible, to cloak your own sympathies. Let 

 us take the huntsman first — a zealous, hard-working individual 

 and ex-officio a natural enemy of foxes (this same ex-qfficio 

 thirst for blood extending equally and involuntarily to the 

 master and to each of the subordinates). He goes out to kill 

 his fox. He sleejDS better for having achieved it. He looks 

 upon a mask dangling at the saddle with as grateful a satis- 

 faction as an Indian brave uj)on a new-earned stalp-lock — 

 none the less precious, perhaps, that it was tomahawked from 

 a sleei)ing foe. He has toiled his utmost for the life-blood of 

 his victim, and what matters it to him, if the aid of pick and 

 shovel have brouglit that life-blood easier to hand in the end ? 

 Not a whit more than the ostrich hunter spares the ostrich, 

 because he seeks refuge bj-^ hiding his head in the sand. Then 

 he has his hounds to think of. Bad scent, ill-luck, or a suc- 

 cession of failures, may have kept them on plain kennel fare 

 for some days ; and surel^', he argues, they must be disap- 

 pomted and vexed when losing the choice morsel below gi'ound. 

 Then, agam, he bethinks himself, in noble disinterestedness 

 (for he pays none of them) of the poultry-bills ; he makes a 

 mental note to tell some truculent claimant that the robber is 

 now slain ; and finally — and more fatally for reynard and sport 

 than all — he triumphantly notches down one more to his 

 death score. 



The part of the Master we need not dwell on. In nine 

 cases out of ten he has become inoculated with the same sen- 

 timent as his lieutenant ; while, again, he seldom likes to 

 debar that functionary from the little treat in contemplation. 

 So, putting aside altogether the notion that a run, not a kill, 

 is the essential of what in a hunting sense is usually understood 

 by sport (to show sport, remember, being the object for which 

 he holds office), he will ofttimes look on while a good fox, 

 wanting only the chance to give him this desideratum, is 

 unearthed and torn to pieces before his eyes. Probably he 

 will murmur something apologetically about a *' had fox," or 



