Lord Spencer s Mastership, 2 1 5 



disappoint a great many if we don^t do something ; and 

 we slian^t liurt the cover by running the hounds through 

 it/' '^ If we do find, they won't be able to run a yard/' 

 said the Master^ ^' but I don't mind having a try^ so 

 move on at once." A fox was soon afoot and quickly 

 ^' away," and such a forty minutes followed as will not 

 soon be forgotten by those who saw it. The more it 

 blew, the more hounds flew, and it seemed as if the scent 

 could be almost cut with a knife. Of course it was ^' up 

 wind,'^ which points to the fact that foxes, like men, 

 must, as Carlyle cynically declared of his own country- 

 men, be mostly fools ! Tons of ink may be shed, reams 

 of foolscap used in writing disquisitions upon scent ; but 

 the outcome of it all will be that ^^ it is a thing that no 

 fellow can understand." 



With the single exception of Sir Francis Head, who 

 will be spoken of at length elsewhere, and in whom the 

 love of hunting continued in his eighty-fourth as strong 

 as it was in his eighteenth year, it may be affirmed that 

 no man has ever looked forward to the next day's hunting 

 with greater eagerness than the noble Lord, who possibly 

 will not care to deny that the most halcyon days of a 

 somewhat troublous life have been connected with the 

 chase. A series of beautiful pictures by Charlton serves 

 to illustrate the period when, with his own pack, and 

 Tom Goddard as first Whip, he thought it no drudgery 

 to hunt the Woodland country. In an engraving from 

 one of these, mounted on " Misrule," with Lady Spencer 

 by his side, he is represented as surrounded by the pack 

 just loosed from their Althorp kennels, and is passing 

 the keeper's house on his way to rouse some too inactive 

 cubs, and give his young hounds a lesson. The grey 



