AND STIRLINGSHIEE HUNT 



vided, so that when the same line came to be taken 

 later, the huntsman was able to get to his hounds 

 at once, and the field were not subjected to the 

 annoyance of having to make a detour. Whether 

 or not these efforts on the part of the masters were 

 fully appreciated by those who followed hounds at 

 that time is doubtful ; probably the field, like many 

 other fields, thought little about such matters, and 

 rested content, so long as they had their sport or 

 were able to gallop and jump. 



Mr Robert Usher and his brothers had hunted 

 with the pack since their boyhood, and having seen 

 much good sport in the country, entertained more 

 than a kindly feeling for the Hunt and its welfare. 

 But while all three brothers were able to hunt 

 regularly at this period, matters other than the 

 chase of the fox claimed the time and attention 

 of Mr Robert and Mr Frank Usher, and conse- 

 quently the management of the establishment and 

 all the ordinary arrangements connected with the 

 hunting of the country were undertaken by Mr 

 Fred Usher, who had rather more leisure at his 

 command. It would probably have been difiicult 

 to have found an acting-master more painstaking 

 or more thoroughly conscientious in the discharge 

 of his duties than he was. Ever ready to show 

 sport, he would draw for a fox so long as any one 

 wished him to do so, or as daylight served ; and 

 the hunting days upon which he did not go on 

 with his hounds in the morning and return with 

 them in the evening were few and far between. 



297 



