The Hon. Secretary, Treasurer, and Committee. 149 



or guaranteed a sum proportionate to the extra cost 

 of doing so. He can then breed, draft, exchange, 

 buy, or sell hounds as he likes, his only duty to the 

 Committee and the subscribers whom they represent 

 being to " show sport." Even where a new Master 

 finds that hounds and kennels are the property of 

 the Committee he will be wise if he insist that they 

 pass for all practical purposes into his possession 

 while he remains Master : paying, it may be, a 

 nominal rent for the latter and having the pack 

 properly valued before taking it over on loan, at the 

 same time entering into an agreement to hand over 

 the same number of hounds of an equal value on 

 relinquishing the Mastership. This plan invariably 

 works in a manner satisfactory to all concerned. 

 Subscriptions to packs of Otter-hounds do not 

 amount to very large sums : the work is hard and 

 onerous : and many men, beyond the actual sport 

 (of which the Field often gets and sees more than 

 the Master), would find little recompense were it not 

 for the interest (and occasional profit) of breeding, 

 exhibiting, and selling hounds : for which purpose 

 they must be to all intents and purposes his own. 

 No M.O.H. could well be a *'bouman"* to his 

 Committee. 



For the rest the Committee of an Otter Hunt 



* Under the patriarchal system in the Highlands a bouman was one 

 who took stock from his chief and shared the increase with him. 



