Coming Home from Hunting Lady Chiltern was probably right when she declared that her husband must have been made to be a Master of Hounds,--presuming it to be granted that somebody must be Master of Hounds.

Such necessity certainly does exist in this, the present condition of England.
Hunting prevails; hunting men increase in numbers; foxes are preserved; farmers do not rebel; owners of coverts, even when they are not hunting men themselves, acknowledge the fact, and do not dare to maintain their pheasants at the expense of the much better-loved four-footed animal.

Hounds are bred, and horses are trained specially to the work.

A master of fox hounds is a necessity of the period.
Allowing so much, we cannot but allow also that Lord Chiltern must have been made to fill the situation.

He understood hunting, and, perhaps, there was nothing else requiring acute intelligence that he did understand.