Lord Hop etotcn^s Mastership, 165 



intelligence of his deatli in the very prime of life created 

 a wide-spread feeling of sorrow and regret. 



By nature clever enough to fill a position requiring 

 abilities above the average, he had no taste for public 

 life, and lacking ambition and habits af hard work, he 

 took no part in politics, and rarely entered the House of 

 Lords. Possessing a retentive memory, he delighted to 

 recount the amusing things he had both seen and heard ; 

 and among those with whom he was intimate, he was 

 ever a most entertaining companion. Few things used 

 to amuse him more than the descriptions of runs given 

 in local newspapers, the climax of his enjoyment having 

 been reached when one day, during his Mastership of the 

 " P.H.,^' in one of the Northampton papers he read an 

 nccount of a Meet at Great Harrowden, ending- with, 

 ^^ after waiting for a considerable time for his lordship^s 

 appearance, the horn of the Huntsman was heard, and 

 the whole field was seen advancing to the place of 

 meeting at full cry.^' He would greatly have enjoyed 

 such deplorable announcements to sporting ears as are 

 now to be seen in the sporting contributions to our 

 county journals, where we read that ^^ ^ a red un ^ was 

 ^ discovered ' in Overstone Park, and that after a while 

 the Mittle beggar' seemed much ^fatigued.''' "That a 

 fine ^ redskin ' left his ^ city of refuge ' and * scampered 

 up ' the hill at a brisk pace before his pursuers. That 

 ^ puss rattled away ' for a considerable distance. That 

 Sywell Hayes was ^ scrutinized ' for a ^ sly un,^ but ^ pug ' 

 was else where.'' Snch are a few of the " gems " of 

 sporting contributions to country journals, whose hunting 

 literature ought to be entirely free from such cockneyfied 

 absurdities. 



