MR. HUBERT F. BRUNSKILL 275 



fights shy of a region which he thinks to be devoid of 

 foxes, so owners of coverts will not preserve foxes in 

 a country rarely visited by hounds. Had the matter 

 stopped there, it would have been capable of adjust- 

 ment. Unfortunately, it is to be feared that a few 

 individuals, for reasons of their own, were ready to 

 seize the opportunity of trying to oust the master, 

 who, on his side, failed to locate the masked battery, 

 and conceived the idea that the attack came from the 

 committee. In this he was quite mistaken. From 

 the first, the committee refused to be a party to any 

 unhandsome treatment of him and acted throughout 

 with all fairness, though some of the master's 

 supporters displayed more loyalty than tact. Letters 

 and reports of meetings appeared in the local papers 

 under such headings as " Friction in the Hunt " and 

 " Hunting men at loggerheads." The farmers of the 

 hunt, good and honest fellows averse from any 

 intrigue, stood by Mr. Brunskill to a man. Ultimately, 

 owing in a great measure to the judicious action and 

 conciliatory attitude of the committee, harmony was 

 once more restored ; Mr. Brunskill's resignation was 

 withdrawn, and he consented to continue in office. 



Much of the difficulty experienced in settling these 

 unfortunate differences arose from the lack of proper 

 constitutions defining the membership of the hunt 

 and determining the respective powers of members 

 and committee. Certain isolated rules had been 

 passed from time to time, but they had no relation to 

 one another, were sometimes inconsistent and had 

 become practically a dead letter. An attempt at a 

 remedy was made by Mr. F. C. Simpson of Maypool, 

 Churston Ferrers, one of the most enthusiastic 

 members of the hunt, as is also his daughter 

 Miss Simpson. He proposed a resolution, designed to 



