158 The Pytchley Hunt, Past a7id Present. 



" P.H/' Mastership, a youDg Scotch Earl stepped in to 

 fill the gap. 



Having only recently left Oxford, where he may be 

 said to have first acquired his hunticg tastes^ Lord 

 Hopetoun found himself at a very early age without any 

 experience of mankind or " dogkind/'' occupying the 

 responsible post of a Master of Fox Hounds in a crack 

 country. Naturally shy^ and dislikiug any society except 

 that of a few old college-friends,, the position did not 

 appear to be such an one as would adapt itself to the 

 idiosyncrasies of the youug Scotch nobleman ; but he 

 held it nevertheless for four seasons, much to the satis- 

 faction of the members of the Hunt. Whether not 

 being called upon for the usual subscription or not being 

 called to order in the hunting-field for transgressions 

 ever so great, in any way influenced the hearts and 

 minds of those who hunted with him, it is certain that 

 Lord Hopetoun earned for himself a popularity that any 

 Master might covet. This is the more remarkable from 

 bis never laying himself out to please — from his marked 

 coldness to strangers — and his dislike to making new 

 acquaintances. That things went as well as they did 

 may be attributed in a great measure to his having 

 for his Huntsman a man so universally liked and esteemed 

 as Charles Payn. 



From him he gladly picked up the rudiments of 

 hound-lore, and some knowledge of kennel-ways and 

 necessities, and so became in a measure to feel himself at 

 home in a position for which he was not naturally 

 adapted by habits or disposition. A natural judge of a 

 horse he required little assistance in the selection of his 

 own animals or those for the kennels : and probably at 



