300 "JOVIAL HUNTSMEN": 



" fined half a dozen of claret for appearing at a 

 meeting in a waistcoat without the H.H. button " ; 

 while in the Duhallow, one of the oldest Irish 

 Hunt Clubs, a similar fine was inflicted on the presi- 

 dent elected by the president of the last meeting 

 should he fail to take his place. 



The rules of the old Tarporley Club in Cheshire, 

 established in 1762 for hare-hunting, provide that 

 " three collar bumpers be drunk after dinner and the 

 same after supper " ; after that " any member might 

 do as he pleased in regard to drinking." But when, 

 in 1769, the club commenced fox-hunting it was 

 ordained "that instead of three collar bumpers only 

 one shall be drunk except a fox be killed above 

 ground, and then one other collar glass shall be 

 drunk to ' Fox-hunting.' " 



I must admit that my own stock of antiquarian lore 

 is unequal to the task of explaining the term " collar 

 bumper." A friend suggests that it may be "an 

 application of an old phrase 'to bring home to the 

 collar ' " : which means " to nearly finish a garment 

 in process of making — specifically a shirt." Inasmuch 

 as collar bumpers were drunk after dinner and 

 supper it seems to me that the term might mean 

 ' finishing bumpers ' ! " This suggestion seems to me 

 very likely to be correct. 



The club, it would seem, was at first opposed to 

 its members embarking in matrimony, for by one of 

 the old rules every member on his marriage was 

 required to present " to each member of the Hunt 

 a pair of well-stitched leather breeches" — perhaps a 

 wise provision for the inevitable ! 



