CHAPTER IV 



FIELD MASTERS AND HUNTSMEN, AMATEUR AND 

 PROFESSIONAL 



There is no possible reason why certain rules for 

 the conduct of a field should not be observed as 

 strictly as the regulations or the unwritten laws 

 governing all other field sports. Why should not 

 people stand still and remain silent at a check ? Why 

 should they not keep a little quiet when hounds 

 have found their fox in a gorse covert? They 

 ought, as a matter of course, to do so, and to con- 

 sider so doing as much part of the business of hunt- 

 ing as riding over the fences after hounds when they 

 are running. That they omit to do so can surely 

 only be from ignorance, and were these complaints 

 of huntsmen more thoroughly ventilated I cannot 

 help thinking that the grounds for their lamentations 

 would soon almost disappear. 



"The cackling evil is a great one," writes a hunts- 

 man, who is certainly one of the keenest and most 

 successful of young amateurs. " It's really awful 

 sometimes when hounds check ! Sounds like a pack 

 of wild geese overhead, disturbs hounds, and I am 

 sure it frightens foxes from breaking from gorses. 



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