74 THE HUNTING FIELD 



"If," says he, "your Whipper-in be bold and 

 active, be a good and careful horseman, have a good 

 ear and a clear voice if, as I said, he be a very 

 Mungo, here there and everywhere, having at the 

 same time judgment to distinguish where he can be 

 of most use ; if, joined to these, he be above the 

 foolish conceit of killing a fox without the Huntsman, 

 but, on the contrary, be disposed to assist him all he 

 can, he then is a perfect Whipper-in." 



Some people fancy because a man is a first-rate 

 Whipper-in, that he must necessarily make a good 

 Huntsman; such is far from the case, at least far 

 from being a necessary consequence. Indeed, on 

 this point, none are more sensible than servants 

 themselves. We have known several first-rate Whips 

 who have declined Huntsmen's places, fearing they 

 might not succeed, and have to retrograde in life, a 

 proceeding that is always disagreeable. The observa- 

 tion of most sportsmen will supply them with instances 

 of first-rate Whips making first-rate failures as Hunts- 

 men ; again they will be able to point to Whippers-in, 

 who have shone far more with the horn than they did 

 with the couples. 



Still it is a good principle of Mr. Beckford's, who 

 says : 



"Your first Whipper-in being able to hunt the 

 hounds occasionally, will answer a good purpose ; it 

 will keep your Huntsman in order : they are very apt 

 to be impertinent when they think you cannot do 

 without them." 



A Whip may come up on an emergency, and do a 

 brilliant thing; but as one swallow does not make 

 a summer, so does not one dashing act make a 

 Huntsman. Some men, doubtless, are born to be 

 Whips, others to be Huntsmen. Upon this point we 

 may vouch the authority of Mr. Delme Radcliffe, an 

 ex-Master of Foxhounds, and an author to boot : 



"No one," says he, "could ever have seen old 



