THE MASTER OF HOUNDS 63 



Other masters we have known who never rode over 

 the smallest flattened gap in a fence, and others again 

 who appeared to decline jumping, and who were yet 

 always there or thereabouts when hounds checked. 

 But as the fields are constantly very large, and 

 there are often many strangers out, the master's 

 duties in the Shires must be different from those of the 

 master of the provincial pack, where the following is 

 the same from day to day, and never of unmanageable 

 size. On the whole, tact is perhaps the most essential 

 requisite for the outfit of a master of hounds. Some 

 men are so easily offended, and a hasty master who 

 has not his temper under control may in the heat of 

 the moment say something which may give offence to 

 one of his field. 



Too strong a point cannot be made of the unwritten 

 law which forbids any member of the field to argue 

 with the master, or indeed to retort if he is found fault 

 with. The master may be right, or he may be wrong, 

 but if he is well up in all the duties of his office it is 

 good odds that he knows what he is talking about, and 

 anyhow it is the stern duty of any one who is found 

 fault with to apologise, or say nothing at all, but on no 

 account to " answer back." 



Discipline is absolutely necessary in any hunting 

 field, and discipline can only be enforced by the 

 master, or by a deputy who is acting as an authorised 

 field master. There are in many hunts certain men 

 who are constantly doing something to rub the master 

 the wrong way. Such men will get too far forward 

 when a covert is being drawn, will press on hounds at 

 a check, and if the master is timid, too easy-going, or 

 too indifferent, will follow the huntsman when he is 

 casting hounds, so that they may not lose an inch of 



