ETIQUETTE 21 



other direction, chuckling to himself how cleverly 

 he had hoodwinked a portion of his field and 

 got rid of them, as he loved to do. It was 

 scarcely surprising that a pretty sharp lesson 

 was administered to him, in that he received 

 notice by the next morning's post that the 

 hitherto annual large subscription would in 

 future be withdrawn ; and that until further 

 notice he would not be permitted to draw that 

 subscriber's coverts again. 



The same M.F.H. was scarcely well advised on 

 another occasion when, having advertised during 

 a frost that on the first day possible for hunting 

 there would be a meet at the kennels at 11 a.m., 

 he was found some miles away, by a sportsman 

 going to the meet, hurrying with the pack to a far 

 distant covert at the very time he should have 

 been at the fixture. His predilection for hunting 

 by himself, that had again obtained ascendancy 

 over him, was scarcely calculated to soothe the 

 tempers of those left in the lurch, and was a 

 grave abuse of the privileges of his position as 

 head of affairs in the hunting-field. 



Once also, but in a different manner, he 

 strained the cordial relations that should exist 

 between the M.F.H. and the owner of a very 

 important estate, for having run a fox to ground 

 in a field drain into which two or three hounds 

 had forced their way, he thereupon decided to 

 have that drain opened, cost what it might — the 

 cost of relaying it, of course, being left for the 

 owner to pay. Men and spades were sent for, 

 and the task of opening up the drain was begun, 

 while those out hunting, wearying of the under- 

 taking, gradually, and with much grumbling at 

 the loss of their day, departed to their homes. 



