Lord Spencer'' s Mastership. 2 1 7 



go out, as they miglit, to spite me, make an eflfort to 

 stop it." 



In tlie year 1864, Lord Spencer completed his first 

 term of service as Master of the P.H., to be succeeded 

 by Captain Anstruther Thomson, whose reputation as a 

 scientist in hunting-matters was at that time second to 

 none. Compelled by warnings which brooked no delay, 

 he successfully sought in Egypt the health which was 

 denied him at home ; the wear and tear connected with 

 hounds having sapped a constitution at no time equal to 

 continuous physical exertion. Always full of hunting 

 thoughts, he thus writes from Suez in the spring of 1864 : 

 " Not having for some time received Charles Payne's 

 reports, your hunting-news was most acceptable. The 

 details you give of hunting-incidents and county-life 

 made me somewhat sad and home-sick ; but the sadness 

 was only that which we all feel on hearing of things one 

 loves so well, and which one hopes to see and enjoy 

 again. •'■' A striking notice of the Suez Canal, at that 

 time in its earliest stage of existence, then follows : " I 

 have just completed one of the most instructive journeys 

 I have ever made, having gone from Suez to Port Said 

 by the far-famed French canal. I am immensely 

 struck by the gigantic scale of the work, and by the 

 marvellous energy and power shown by the French 

 engineers. I travelled with the English Consul at Cairo 

 and a party of scientifics and visitors for six days, and 

 we ate and drank Suez Canal mentally and physi- 

 cally. 



" The enthusiasm and energy of these men would alone 

 convince any one that the work can be carried out, and 

 money seems to be the only real difficulty. Where is 



