73 



Unless a man has won such fame as a huntsman 

 that his position is unassailable by ignorant critics, 

 there will always be some who will find fault with his 

 methods of hunting a fox. Fashionable hunts are 

 supported more or less by the subscribers, and they 

 naturally want a gallop, which, of course, a huntsman 

 is desirous of giving them. Let him, however, beware 

 of allowing his mind to dwell too much on the wishes 

 of the field to the exclusion of his business in hunting 

 a fox. 



Although they over-ride hounds and do many other 

 things to irritate the master, the majority of men who 

 go a-hunting are good sportsmen and quick to appreciate 

 -seeing a fox fairly hunted to death, when a deficiency 

 in scent has robbed them of getting a gallop. 



There may be some people of active mind who are 

 ■capable of thinking of and doing two things at the same 

 time, but the man who starts out to hunt a fox and allows 

 his v/its to wander from the subject for a second, is 

 •doomed to failure. If a man starting in this profession 

 ^sked my advice I should say " Play the game, care not 

 what the field say or think, and concentrate your whole 

 attention on hunting the fox. Your reward will come 

 eventually, and when it comes it will be lasting." 



The ideal a huntsman should hold alwaj^s before his 

 eyes, is not his own reputation, but that of his pack. 

 He will bask in their reflected glory which will not dim 

 with time as his own skill easily might do. 



The M.F.H. has many calls on his purse, but when 

 lie employs a professional to hunt his pack he might 

 incur still further expense by giving a fixed sum for 

 each fox killed or run to ground. The stipulation to 

 be made that entering another covert without a distinct 

 line in there was equivalent to losing the fox, and to be 



