CHAPTER X 

 The Eighth Duke 



WHEN the Duke handed over the duties of 

 huntsman to Tom Clark, he did so with 

 regret. To a man who has once hunted hounds, 

 the sport can never be quite the same when he 

 no longer carries the horn. The interest in the 

 working of the pack as a whole, and in the individual 

 hounds which compose it, is so absorbing to the 

 huntsman, that were it not for his responsibilities to 

 his field, there would be but little difference to him 

 between a so-called bad day, and a good one. In- 

 deed it may well be that a day which to many hard- 

 riding followers seems dull, is for the man who 

 hunts hounds a period of absorbing interest and 

 delight. 



To see Chanticleer, one of this season's entry, 

 rush to the head of the pack at a difficulty and 

 put them all right ; to see old Woldsman take the 

 line down a road for nearly a quarter of a mile ; 

 or to watch Rarity pick up the scent alongside a 

 hedge, and hear her shrill but true notes as she drops 

 her stern and scuttles away, while the rest stream to 



211 



