DEB ATE ABLE LAND 89 



is no doubt an alternative, and that is about as much as need 

 be said about it. But this last petition — signed by the Arch- 

 bishop—takes up fresh ground. It pegs out, as it were, a new 

 claim in the cause of the humanities. The horses ridden 

 by the hunt-servants and others after the Queen's Hounds 

 are now to be included in the area of organised cruelty.^ 

 It is not explained how the National Drag Hunt is to get on 

 without horses ; but w^e can hardly expect the Archbishop 

 to know all about drag-hunting as well as about stag-hunting. 

 When I took over the Queen's Hounds, the simpler form of 

 agitation was at its height. Under the leadership of Mr. 

 Stratton the horse argument had not been invented. 



I made up my mind to make the acquaintance of Mr. 

 Stratton as soon as possible. Somehow I felt persuaded of 

 his sincerity ; besides, the zeal and resolution of his attack 

 upon the scarlet and gold of our dj^iasty rather interested 

 me. I wished to hear for myself what he had to say 

 about it all. The opportunity soon came. Early in the 

 month of October we ran a hind out of the forest to 

 Wokingham. She ran into a little stream, and w^as safely 

 taken a few hundred yards from the many-gabled old red- 

 brick almshouse of which Mr. Stratton is the warden. He 

 takes admirable care of the old people, and is much esteemed 

 by them. ' There,' said Harvey, the Queen's huntsman, to 

 me in a stage whisper, ' is the Kev. Stratton ' ; and there 

 he was, watching our proceedings. I at once introduced 

 myself, and we had quite a nice talk. On that occasion Mr. 

 Stratton assured me that he was no enemy to fox-hunting. 

 Quite the contrary ; a Staffordshire man, he was brought up 

 to like it, one of his nearest and kindest relatives, as he told 

 me, being a great judge of a fighting cock or a foxhound. 

 After that we had some little correspondence of quite a 



' 'Merciless riding of horses in the effort to save the deer for another day,' 

 is the way it is put : see The Times, Nov. "28, 1896. 



