“As regards my own Mastership in 1910-1911. It was through no fault of my own that we had (up till then) a record season and killed 13½ brace of hares in 36 hunting days. The three whips, L. C. Gibbs, W. P. Browne, now Master of Lord Portman’s Foxhounds, and W. Holland-Hibbert, were all experts and just as capable, and probably more so, of killing a hare as I was. The previous Masters, Menzies and Barclay, had between them bred from the best hunting strains and moulded a good working pack, all of which were workers, and this is a great asset in a pack of beagles. No word of praise can be too high for Champion for what he has done for the E.C.H. His position is probably unique, as all past and present Etonian members of the E.C.H. must know, and yet, though he always had his hounds fit and well, and despite the fact that he practically lived with them, he was always able to ‘put hounds on’ to the Master and to render valuable assistance in whipping in and getting some very useful ‘views.’ This is a hard accomplishment to achieve when a kennel huntsman has to feed and exercise hounds, and when the Master and huntsman has very little time to get his hounds to know him well and properly, or to supervise kennel management himself. It was a rare occurrence to have a sick hound in kennel during the hunting season, and the kennels themselves were always spick and span and clean. He was good company always, and I have spent many Sunday and other afternoons in listening to his yarns of hounds and hunts gone by. I recall well one afternoon during an Ascot week when I went up to the kennels. Champion had talked more than usual, and the subject was so absorbing that I quite forgot about Absence, and had to chase Mr. Booker down Keate’s Lane to try and explain my absence. The explanation was accepted. Perhaps Mr. Booker had forgotten that we made rather a mess in his garden where I killed my first hare with the E.C.H.! The kennels at Datchet still must be the best beagle kennels in England. “There is one point I would like to bring up, though it is no concern of mine. That is the breeding of hounds at Eton. Far too little breeding seems to have taken place always. It is much more interesting and better to breed your own hounds from approved working strains than to be compelled to buy hounds whose hunting qualifications and those of their sires and dams are usually unknown. There is naturally no great incentive for a Master, who can only look forward to hunting hounds one season, to breed a lot of puppies when he may never see them hunt a hare.