The Master and the Deputy- Master. 105 



ruo on economical lines as well as those more ex- 

 travagantly conducted. 



I think this very cleverly-made summary and 

 analysis will be of considerable service to intending 

 Masters of Otter-hounds, and therefore print it in 

 full on page 104. It will be seen that the average 

 cost for keep of hounds works out at less than half- 

 a-crown per couple per week, that wages are just 

 under ;£i a week per man, and that hunting 

 expenses and sundries average just over ^100 a year ; 

 so that the total cost for a 15 -couple pack is exactly 

 ;£3oo per annum, or ^20 per couple per annum. 

 These figures, taken from actual balance-sheets by 

 a skilled professional accountant, may be confidently 

 relied upon, confirmed as they are by the sum per 

 hunting-day estimate previously given. It is inter- 

 esting in this connection to compare '' Stonehenge's " 

 (1878) estimate for the maintenance of Otter-hounds, 

 which he gives at 3s. a couple for keep of hounds 

 and from 14s. to i8s. a week for huntsmen's wages. 

 Since then wages have risen, but hound-food is 

 cheaper, so that at the end of thirty years,, thanks 

 to various factors, our sport need cost us neither 

 less nor more. 



The Master has only one duty in the field, namely, 

 to hunt hounds; and that part of his work will be 

 more fitly dealt with in the chapter on " The 

 Science of Hunting the Otter." But there is one 



