第17章 THE MASTER OF HOUNDS(2)

His tenants joined him,and by degrees men came to his hunt from greater distances around him.As the necessity for space increased,increasing from increase of hunting ambition,the richer and more ambitious squires began to undertake the management of wider areas,and so our hunting districts were formed.But with such extension of area there came,of course,necessity of extended expenditure,and so the fashion of subion lists arose.There have remained some few great Nimrods who have chosen to be magnanimous and to pay for everything,despising the contributions of their followers.Such a one was the late Earl Fitzhardinge,and after such manner in,as I believe,the Berkeley hunt still conducted.But it need hardly be explained,that as hunting is now conducted in England,such a system is neither fair nor palatable.It is not fair that so great a cost for the amusement of other men should fall upon any one man's pocket;nor is it palatable to others that such unlimited power should be placed in any one man's hands.The ordinary master of subion hounds is no doubt autocratic,but he is not autocratic with all the power of tyranny which belongs to the despot who rules without taxation.I doubt whether any master of a subion pack would advertise his meets for eleven,with an understanding that the hounds were never to move till twelve,when he intended to be present in person.Such was the case with Lord Fitzhardinge,and I do not know that it was generally thought that he carried his power too far.And I think,too,that gentlemen feel that they ride with more pleasure when they themselves contribute to the cost of their own amusement.

Our master of hounds shall be a country gentleman who takes a subion,and who therefore,on becoming autocratic,makes himself answerable to certain general rules for the management of his autocracy.He shall hunt not less,let us say,than three days a week;but though not less,it will be expected probably that he will hunt oftener.That is,he will advertise three days and throw a byeday in for the benefit of his own immediate neighbourhood;and these byedays,it must be known,are the cream of hunting,for there is no crowd,and the foxes break sooner and run straighter.And he will be punctual to his time,giving quarter to none and asking none himself.He will draw fairly through the day,and indulge no caprices as to coverts.The laws,indeed,are never written,but they exist and are understood;and when they be too recklessly disobeyed,the master of hounds falls from his high place and retires into private life,generally with a broken heart.In the hunting field,as in all other communities,republics,and governments,the power of the purse is everything.As long as that be retained,the despotism of the master is tempered and his rule will be beneficent.

Five hundred pounds a day is about the sum which a master should demand for hunting an average country,that is,so many times five hundred pounds a year as he may hunt days in the week.If four days a week be required of him,two thousand a year will be little enough.But as a rule,I think masters are generally supposed to charge only for the advertised days,and to give the byedays out of their own pocket.Nor must it be thought that the money so subscribed will leave the master free of expense.As Ihave said before,he should be a rich man.Whatever be the subion paid to him,he must go beyond it,very much beyond it,or there will grow up against him a feeling that he is mean,and that feeling will rob him of all his comfort.Hunting men in England wish to pay for their own amusement;but they desire that more shall be spent than they pay.And in this there is a rough justice,that roughness of justice which pervades our English institutions.To a master of hounds is given a place of great influence,and into his hands is confided an authority the possession of which among his fellow-sportsmen is very pleasant to him.For this he is expected to pay,and he does pay for it.ALord Mayor is,I take it,much in the same category.He has a salary as Lord Mayor,but if he do not spend more than that on his office he becomes a byword for stinginess among Lord Mayors To be Lord Mayor is his whistle,and he pays for it.