“When I was Master I had several letters from the Humanitarian Society, and anonymous ones, no doubt emanating from the same source. The former were replied to after good advice given by the Head Master, Dr. Lyttelton, and m’tutor, Mr. de Havilland. The anonymous ones were destroyed! If hare hunting or hunting of any form is to be stopped, I am sure Eton will be the last to give in. Its advantages are so many and so well known that it would be a waste of time to quote them, but I feel that the ‘kill-sports’ think they have an easy prey in attacking College and School packs, while they practically ignore the many other hundreds of packs of hounds in the United Kingdom. “The size of the hounds at Eton has always been a great source of discussion. You have only, say, two and a half hours on a short winter afternoon to find, hunt and kill your hare, and while 16 and 17-inch hounds do not allow many people to see them hunting, a 14-inch hound is a little too small to give the Master a fair chance to handle his hare in a short time with a large eager field behind him and maybe a moderate scent. “I would advocate a 15-inch hound as a standard size for the E.C.H. My father gave me leave to start a small pack at home in 1908. It consisted of two and a half couples kindly given me by Mr. George Miller, originally Master of the Spring Hill Beagles. It grew to seven or eight couples, and during the holidays of 1908, 1909, 1910 we had great fun in Essex, with two sporting farmers to whip in, and killed 27 hares in 65 hunting days. The E.C.H. came home one Christmas holidays, and we had the hound van, which was drawn by two grey carriage horses and looked most imposing. Old Mumford, who had a pub. near Windsor Bridge, and who was the keenest follower of all of the E.C.H., stayed with us these holidays, and was greatly liked by all. The above took place at Braxted in Essex. “We have still got a pack and hunt the New Forest in Hampshire. The pack belonged to the late Sir Frederick FitzWygram, himself an Old Etonian, and was known as the Leigh Park Beagles. They are a splendid lot. Last year we killed 17½ brace of hares in 44 days. The Forest hares are strong, and we hardly ever killed one under the hour, and it often took two hours.” One day from Dorney Gate the E.C.H. burst up four hares, none of which were actually chopped. This is a record, and is likely to remain one, at Eton. Some Masters used to take the hounds home with them in the holidays. Romer Williams, Gladstone and Gibbs did this, and hounds fairly raced in the Pytchley country where Romer Williams lived. Champion does not like taking the hounds away from Eton nowadays, but prefers to find someone in the district to hunt them. For the last two years they have been hunted by Mr. Judd, who lives close to Stoke Poges, and handles hounds with considerable ability.