For myself,if I found myself called upon to pay for one whistle or the other,I would sooner be a master of hounds than a Lord Mayor.The power is certainly more perfect,and the situation,Ithink,more splendid.The master of hounds has no aldermen,no common council,no liverymen.As long as he fairly performs his part of the compact,he is altogether without control.He is not unlike the captain of a man-of-war;but,unlike the captain of a man-of-war,he carries no sailing orders.He is free to go where he lists,and is hardly expected to tell any one whither he goeth.He is enveloped in a mystery which,to the young,adds greatly to his grandeur;and he is one of those who,in spite of the democratic tenderness of the age,may still be said to go about as a king among men.No one contradicts him.No one speaks evil of him to his face;and men tremble when they have whispered anything of some half-drawn covert,of some unstopped earth,some fox that should not have escaped,and,looking round,see that the master is within earshot.He is flattered,too,if that be of any avail to him.How he is flattered !What may be done in this way to Lord Mayors by common councilmen who like Mansion-house crumbs,I do not know;but kennel crumbs must be very sweet to a large class of sportsmen.Indeed,they are so sweet that almost every man will condescend to flatter the master of hounds.And ladies too,all the pretty girls delight to be spoken to by the master !He needs no introduction,but is free to sip all the sweets that come.Who will not kiss the toe of his boots,or refuse to be blessed by the sunshine of his smile ?
But there are heavy duties,deep responsibilities,and much true heart-felt anxiety to stand as makeweight against all these sweets.The master of hounds,even though he take no part in the actual work of hunting his own pack,has always his hands full of work.He is always learning,and always called upon to act on his knowledge suddenly.A Lord Mayor may sit at the Mansionhouse,Ithink,without knowing much of the law.He may do so without discovery of his ignorance.But the master of hounds who does not know his business is seen through at once.To say what that business is would take a paper longer than this,and the precept writer by no means considers himself equal to such a task.But it is multifarious,and demands a special intellect for itself.The master should have an eye like an eagle's,an ear like a thief's,and a heart like a dog's that can be either soft or ruthless as occasion may require.How he should love his foxes,and with what pertinacity he should kill them!How he should rejoice when his skill has assisted in giving the choice men of his hunt a run that they can remember for the next six years !And how heavy should be his heart within him when he trudges home with them,weary after a blank day,to the misery of which his incompetency has,perhaps,contributed !A master of hounds should be an anxious man;so anxious that the privilege of talking to pretty girls should be of little service to him.
One word I will say as to the manners of a master of hounds,and then I will have done.He should be an urbane man,but not too urbane;and he should certainly be capable of great austerity.It used to be said that no captain of a man-of-war could hold his own without swearing.I will not quite say the same of a master of hounds,or the old ladies who think hunting to be wicked will have a handle against me.But I will declare that if any man could be justified in swearing,it would be a master of hounds.
The troubles of the captain are as nothing to his.The captain has the ultimate power of the sword,or at any rate of the fetter,in his hands,while the master has but his own tongue to trust,his tongue and a certain influence which his position gives him.The master who can make that influence suffice without swearing is indeed a great man.Now-a-days swearing is so distasteful to the world at large,that great efforts are made to rule without it,and some such efforts are successful;but any man who has hunted for the last twenty years will bear me out in saying that hard words in a master's mouth used to be considered indispensable.Now and then a little irony is tried."I wonder,sir,how much you'd take to go home ?"I once heard a master ask of a red-coated stranger who was certainly more often among the hounds than he need have been."Nothing on earth,sir,while you carry on as you are doing just at present,"said the stranger.
The master accepted the compliment,and the stranger sinned no more.
There are some positions among mankind which are so peculiarly blessed that the owners of them seem to have been specially selected by Providence for happiness on earth in a degree sufficient to raise the malice and envy of all the world around.
An English country gentleman with ten thousand a year must have been so selected.Members of Parliament with seats for counties have been exalted after the same unjust fashion.Popular masters of old-established hunts sin against their fellows in the same way.But when it comes to a man to fill up all these positions in England,envy and malice must be dead in the land if he be left alive to enjoy their fruition.