n is necessary to him. Grant
him that the bishops and old ladies are wrong and that he is right in
principle, and still he will not be justified. Whatever may be our walk
in life, no man can walk well who does not walk with the esteem of his
fellows. Now those little walks by the covert sides, those pleasant
little walks of which I am writing, are not, unfortunately, held to be
estimable, or good for themselves, by English clergymen in general.

THE MASTER OF HOUNDS.

The master of hounds best known by modern description is the master of
the Jorrocks type. Now, as I take it, this is not the type best known
by English sportsmen, nor do the Jorrocks ana, good though they be, give
any fair picture of such a master of hounds as ordinarily presides over
the hunt in English counties. Mr. Jorrocks comes into a hunt when no
one else can be found to undertake the work; when, in want of any one
better, the subscribers hire his services as those of an upper
servant; when, in fact, the hunt is at a low ebb, and is struggling for
existence. Mr. Jorrocks with his carpet-bag then makes his appearance,
driving the hardest bargain that he can, purposing to do the country
at the lowest possible figure, followed by a short train of most
undesirable nags, with reference to which the wonder is that Mr.
Jorrocks should be able to induce any hunting servant to trust his neck
to their custody. Mr. Jorrocks knows his work, and is generally a most
laborious man. Hunting is his profession, but it is one by which he can
barely exist. He hopes to sell a horse or two during the season, and in
this way adds something of the trade of a dealer to his other trade. But
his office is thankless, ill-paid, closely watched, and subject to all
manner of indignities. Men suspect him, and the best of those who ride
with him will hardly treat him as their equal. He is accepted as a
disagreeable necessity, and is dismissed as soon as the country can do
better for itself. Any hunt that has subjected itself to Mr. Jorrocks
knows that it is in disgrace, and will pass its itinerant master on to
some other district as soon as it can suit itself with a proper master
of the good old English sort.

It is of such a master as this, a master of the good old English sort,
and not of an itinerant contractor for hunting, that I here intend to
speak. Such a master is usually an old resident in the county which he
hunts; one of those country noblemen or gentlemen whose p