ETIQUETTE 27 



earnest. Spurs are very seldom required for 

 use, and when they are very few riders can use 

 them with effect. For all general purposes, for 

 setting off a smart boot, and also for just a touch 

 in the horse's ribs as a reminder to make an 

 extra effort, spurs with blunt rowels or none at 

 all are fully as effective, and much safer than 

 sharp ones. The sluggish horse that requires the 

 latter is no mount for the ordinary rider. 



The last question, but certainly not the least, is 

 the amount of subscription that should be con- 

 sidered sufficient to qualify for the " membership " 

 of a hunt, and to wear the hunt button accord- 

 ingly. This is a very difficult matter to regulate, 

 for circumstances must vary much in almost every 

 case, and the subscription that is fixed for one 

 of the fashionable hunts in the Midlands would 

 be ludicrous for a small provincial pack, where 

 few of those hunting are rich men, and where 

 the fields that usually follow the hounds com- 

 prise, probably, never more than some two-score 

 followers. The old, well-established rule is a very 

 good one for ordinary hunts, that a person should 

 give what he can afford to his own hunt ; and 

 that each hunt should hospitably welcome the 

 members of their neighbouring hunts — other- 

 wise Paul is robbed to pay Peter. This worked 

 well in former days, when those who hunted 

 were residents in the district, and it still answers 

 with a very large proportion of provincial packs ; 

 but in the case of the fashionable hunts, and 

 those which have large manufacturing towns 

 within their borders, whose inhabitants belong 

 to no one pack, but hunt with all that meet 

 within reach, some other plan has to be adopted, 

 that aliens should not "get their fun for nothing," 



