THE DOUBTFUL DAY 275 



that the life is a pretty hazardous one. Take the case 

 of the huntsman and his aides on this doubtful day, 

 when the bone is still in the ground, when the take-oif 

 is slippery, the landing adamantine. Once hounds 

 are away he must ride after them, to stop them, 

 perhaps, if ordered, to keep in touch with them some- 

 how or other, at all events if he can ; and in trying 

 his best to do so he undoubtedly runs great risk of 

 serious accident. The result has often been a crushing 

 fall and a broken limb. 



It is not a politic thing for a Master of Hounds to 

 mount his men badly ; and yet how badly a great many 

 of them are mounted ! How often have I seen the 

 pitiful spectacle of hard-working, gallant men trying 

 day after day to smuggle over dangerous fences brutes 

 that were only fit to send to the kennels ! How 

 particular most of us are about what we ride, though ! 

 " If a horse gives us more than three falls in a season, 

 I must pass him on," a friend of mine used to say. 

 " This beggar never lets me off with less than three 

 a day if hounds run, sir ! " said a Hunt servant to me 

 of the uncertain brute he was riding ; yet he said it 

 in no complaining spirit, but as if it were all in the 

 day's work. 



The charge of intemperance is often brought against 

 Hunt servants as a class ; and it may be at once con- 

 ceded that many of them succumb to the temptations 

 which surround their calling, and I verily believe that 

 no other class of men are so tempted. In the first 

 place, there is the " treating " system. The Hunt 

 servant is always a bit of a hero in his own neigh- 

 bourhood, and never finds himself in a village in the 



