The Master and the Deputy-Master. 87 



followers shall enjoy the sport which they go out 

 for to seek, when and wherever they do so. 



One first and principal thing is required of a 

 Master of Otter-hounds : that he shall ^how sport. 

 If he does this, and does it, moreover, at the time 

 and in the places most convenient and agreeable to 

 the various classes of his subscribers, and to those 

 owners and lessees of land and water by whose 

 courtesy alone he is enabled to hunt at all, nothing 

 else matters very much. Territorial magnate-ism, 

 social position, and the possession of a stake in the 

 county are not of the importance in a Master of 

 Otter-hounds that they are to him who would aspire 

 to master a pack of staghounds, foxhounds, or even 

 harriers. Neither, fortunately, is the possession of 

 a long purse. As I shall show later on, the average 

 cost of keeping and hunting a pack of hounds fifteen 

 couples strong works out at ^300 a year ; and it is 

 a very poor country that should not be able to pro- 

 vide subscribers of sufficient money to cover this 

 expenditure for any Master who shows them sport, 

 without requiring ihim to put his hand in his pocket 

 for more than his personal expenses. Nevertheless, 

 if that class described somewhat indefinitely as '' the 

 right sort of people" is to support the Hunt and 

 be seen in the field, the Master must be a man of 

 some family, influence, and position. Where it is 

 otherwise, and someone vaguely spoken of as '^ the 



