1 68 The Pytchley Httnt, Past and Present. 



if not^ you have to feel your way. From what I see, I am 

 sure that if you care to take our country you will be well 

 supported. I am iiot_, however, writing under authority ; 

 only between ourselves. We have a capital pack of 

 hounds, although it is the fashion to abuse them. They 

 can hunt as well as race. I think that you would enjoy 

 riding over these grass fields, as much as the hunting in 

 the deep Woodlands on the Kettering side. 



'^ Don't tell Mrs. Thomson that I am trying to tempt you 

 here, or I shall be in disgrace with her; and of course if you 

 did come to us, no one in Fife would ever speak to me 

 again. I should much like to see you here, but that of 

 course is as much from private and ' mahogany ' motives 

 as from my good opinion of your ratcatching quaUties. 

 I should like it if it could come off. 



" Ever, my dear Jack, 



*^ Yours very truly, 



" Geoege Whtte Melville." 



Anxious to secure the big fish that he knew to be lying 

 in the Fifeshire waters, the angler threw his line with all 

 the skill of which he was capable, and after awhile fairly 

 landed the object of his desire. Well knowing his man, 

 Whyte Melville felt assured that in his friend Jack Thom- 

 son, not only would the country have as its Master a 

 gentleman to whom not only the science of hunting and the 

 minutige of kennel-management were as familiar as his 

 A. B. C, but also one who would reach the hearts of the 

 Farmers almost as much as George Payne himself had done. 

 An inexpressible charm of manner — a smile peculiarly 

 winning in its brightness — and a seat in the saddle denot- 

 ing the perfect horseman, almost immediately won for the 

 new Master the goodwill of all his latest constituents. 



