56 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



mands from master or huntsman he must yield Wind 

 obedience. Prompt only in execution of orders, he must 

 think as little of stopping hounds, or taking them as it 

 may seem to him, from their fox, as a soldier would hesi- 

 tate to storm a fort, by order of his superior, which he 

 might know to be impregnable. There is a maxim in 

 the army that no one under the rank of a field officer 

 has a right to think, much less to express an opinion. 

 This, with some reservations, should be the creed of the 

 whipper-in,* but, at the same time, he may console him- 

 self with the reflection that he is no less necessary to 

 the sport than the highest in office ; moreover that the 

 success of the day, the getting well away with a fox, and 

 avoiding a change, or the triumphant finish, may very 

 frequently be attributed entirely to his exertions, and 

 that by attaining to excellence in his calling, he has 

 rendered himself one of the most useful and deserving 

 members of the community. 



No one could ever have seen old Tom Ball, formerly 

 whipper-in to Lord Tavistock, without feeling that he 

 must have been born a whipper-in. George Mountford 

 would readily admit that, but for Tom, many and many 



fox might have escaped his skill, which fell a victim to 

 old Ball's sagacity, his knowledge of the animal, and 

 his line. Patiently would he sit by a covert side, where, 

 by his own line, he had arrived about as soon as the 

 sulking fox ; there would he view, perhaps, a brace or 



* " 262/ XiyHv, i^w To\ix(iv " — It is yours to speak, it is mine to bear. 

 Such must be his motto. 



