But the Major,
knowing where his strength lay, had managed to get a party to
support him. The contract to hunt the country had been made with
him in last March, and was good for one year. Having the kennels
and the hounds under his command he did hunt the country; but he
did so amidst a storm of contumely and ill will.
At last it was decided that a general meeting of the members of
the hunt should be called together with the express object of
getting rid of the Major. The gentlemen of the neighbourhood felt
that the Major was not to be borne, and the farmers were very much
stronger against him than the gentlemen. It had now become a
settled belief among sporting men in England that the Major had
with his own hands driven the nail into the horse's foot. Was it
to be endured that the Runnymede farmers should ride to hounds
under a master who had been guilty of such an iniquity as that?
The Staines and Egham Gazette, which had always supported the
Runnymede hunt, declared in very plain terms that all who rode with
the Major were enjoying their sport out of the plunder which had
been extracted from Lord Silverbridge.
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