CHAPTER XII. 



THE HON. SECRETARY. TREASURER, 

 AND COMMITTEE. 



The Secretary occupies perhaps the most onerous, 

 and certainly the least pleasant, of all the offices 

 connected with a hunt. Not only does all the 

 literary work fall to his share, but most of the 

 dirty work of every sort. He has to dun careless 

 or reluctant subscribers when their subscriptions 

 have fallen in arrear, and must possess tact in 

 order to know precisely how to deal with each 

 individual. If any unauthorised person venture 

 to wear the uniform it is the Secretary who must 

 write and point out the solecism to the offender. 

 Even in the field, if the Field-Master be absent 

 or unavailable, or if the Master request him to do 

 so, he must check the misplaced exuberance of 

 some follower, or admonish some other to close the 

 farmers' gates as ** last man through," or take a 

 message from the Master to one of the whippers-in, 

 to the sportsmen forming a stickle, or to the " look- 

 out below," to the miller whose hatches it is desir- 



