THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 53 



only say, therefore, that they are as essential in a 

 whipper-in as in all others. It is desirable that your 

 first whipper-in should not only be active and intelligent 

 in rating and turning hounds, but he should be always 

 looking forward to the day when he may himself be- 

 come a huntsman, and endeavour to qualify himself to 

 take the first fiddle when occasion may require. It 

 is a difficult task for a whipper-in to hunt the pack 

 accustomed to his rate ; they do not willingly accept the 

 subsequent apology of his cheer, and they follow him 

 like boys 



" Creeping like snail unwillingly to school : " 



but it is well if the guard can drive the mail, should the 

 coachman be disabled on the journey ; and, in the event 

 of any accident to the huntsman, the first whipper-in 

 should be capable of hunting them upon scientific prin- 

 ciples ; to enable him to do which, he must be born with 

 a head upon his shoulders. His knowledge of all locali- 

 ties, his acquaintance with all earths, coverts, their 

 relative distances, and everything else belonging to 

 knowledge of country, can, perhaps, be, if anything, 

 less dispensed with in him than in a huntsman. His 

 place, in line of march, is at the head, the huntsman 

 in the centre, and the second whipper-in in rear of 

 the pack. He should know the shortest and best way 

 for hounds to every part of the country, from any 



