2 i8 The Pytchley Hunt, Past and Present. 



this to come from? for the mere canal, as a commercial 

 specuhition, coax never pay the original outlay. The whole 

 place is a French colony. There are four or five villages, 

 two of which are becoming towns rapidly, with fine houses, 

 hotels, &c. This alone is marvellous, considering the 

 whole isthmus is in mid- desert, without a drop of fresh 

 water or blade of green grass near it. The administration 

 is perfect, and made me admire the French immensely. 

 It has become a question of the greatest international 

 importance. The French are doing a world of good, but 

 are they to remain ? No politician outside France can 

 allow that, but if they would hold and irrigate the desert 

 they pass through, the speculation might eventually prove 

 remunerative one. We sailed the whole way from Suez 

 to the Mediterranean, a notable achievement in the 

 teeth of the great Stephenson, who declared that ib was 

 an impossibility. The fresh-water canal, necessary for 

 supplying the staff on the maritime one with drinkable 

 water, and for the transport of materials, brings the 

 Nile water to Ismaila in a stream six feet deep by 

 twenty wide.'' 



That the climate of Egypt did all that was expected of 

 it for the ex-Master of the " P.H.'^ — was proved by a 

 P.S. to the above letter, which contains the statement : 

 *' We are all well ; I never so strong since I remember 

 anything,'^ Ten years after this the writer of the above 

 letter was again Master of the Pytchley Hounds ; the 

 interregnum of Mastership, 1864 — 1874, having been 

 filled up by Messrs. K. Thomson, Craven, and Naylor, re- 

 spectively. During this time, Lord Spencer had passed 

 through the ordeal of an Irish Viceroyalty — a period 

 during which, though the clouds were gathering which 



