The Field-Master and the Field. "9 



bank like a flock of sheep or a bevy of Board-school 

 boys whenever they hear a holloa or hounds giving 

 tongue — as is too often the case — it were wiser on 

 the Master's part to take hounds home forthwith 

 than to continue trying to show sport to a Field that 

 is doing its best, however unconsciously, to prevent 

 him from doing so. 



A great deal of the annoyance caused to the hunt 

 officials and genuine subscribers by a large propor- 

 tion of the members of many Fields is, I am con- 

 vinced, due to ignorance of what is really expected 

 of them. Most, if not all, followers of Otter- 

 hounds would be only too glad to know what they 

 ought to do during the progress of an Otter-hunt. 

 But how are they to learn ? The Master can hardly 

 hire a lecture-hall and hold classes for their educa- 

 tion, nor when he is actually hunting hounds has he 

 time or opportunity to instruct them in their duties. 

 The most he can do, then, is to ask one man to 

 stand here and another there, or to call for a stickle 

 and hope to Heaven that it has been properly 

 manned. 



In some few hunts, notably Mr. Courtenay 

 Tracy's, the large majority of members and followers 

 have learnt from long experience under the same 

 Mastership precisely what is expected of them 

 during the progress of a hunt, with the result that 

 each takes naturally his or her proper place at a 



