MR. R. VICARY & MR. W. M. G. SINGER 233 



management would have to be undertaken by the 

 committee. 



At that time, Mr. Vicary was the mainspring of the 

 large tannery business at Ne^\i:on Abbot of Messrs. 

 John Vicary & Sons. This, with other calls upon his 

 time entailed by his position as a member of various 

 public bodies and a Justice of the Peace for the 

 County, left him little leisure to devote to the onerous 

 duties of a modern master of hounds. Mr. Singer, 

 too, though a free man, had many other interests, 

 some of which took him frequently from home. When 

 therefore he and I\Ii'. Vicary, prompted solely by the 

 desire to promote sport and to help the hunt out of 

 a difficulty, volunteered to become its joint-masters, 

 their offer came quite unexpectedly and was appreci- 

 ated at its true value. They were formally appointed 

 masters at a general meeting held on the 28th July, 

 1897, on the terms that they should receive a sub- 

 scription of £600 a year, on which a reduction 

 of £100 was agreed to for their second season in 

 consequence of the low state of the exchequer. At 

 that time, the hunt accounts shewed an adverse 

 balance of £327 odd, part of which had been incurred 

 in respect of the season prior to the new mastership. 

 Despite a special effort, generously responded to by 

 the usual dozen or score of members, the accounts at 

 the end of the season 1898-9 still shewed a deficit, 

 amounting to £282 12s. 2d. Towards this Mi*. Singer 

 himself contributed the generous, if quaint, sum of 

 £153 15s. 7d. conditionally upon the balance being 

 raised, as was done, by special subscription. Never- 

 theless, when the agreed term of the joint-masters 

 expired at the end of the season 1900-1, there was 

 again a deficit, this time of some £450. It apparently 

 is often the case, though it should not be so, that the 



