THE MASTER OF HOUNDS 73 



whenever the master suggested meeting there there 

 was an outcry on the part of his field, and then, though 

 he was most anxious to hunt the whole of his country 

 fairly, his efforts were in a great measure checked. 



That hounds did not kill often when they did go 

 there was due to the fact that they always were a long 

 time in finding a fox, and that there was absolutely no 

 stopping done in the district. The upshot was that 

 nearly every fox they found slipped into an open drain, 

 or an earth, and of course the sport suffered, while the 

 reputation of the district became, from a hunting point 

 of view, worse than ever. This puppy luncheon speech, 

 however, put the master on his mettle. He at once 

 rode over, interviewed tenant farmers and gamekeepers 

 (the whole district was owned by a non-resident land- 

 lord, and the shooting was in the hands of the farmers, 

 or sublet by them in small lots), found out as far as he 

 could what foxes were on the ground, and then told 

 his field that he intended going there one day in every 

 three weeks. This he did for some time, finding im- 

 proved sport, and killing a fox or two — he had, of 

 course, attended to the stopping, which though still 

 indifferent had much improved — but still only a friend 

 or two went with him on hunting days. After a while 

 some of the field discovered that the master was in the 

 habit of drawing a place or two on the way home which 

 were in better country, and rumours of a fine afternoon 

 gallop were voiced about. The result was that the next 

 time hounds were advertised for the unpopular country 

 about half the usual field rode out in the afternoon, on 

 the chance of finding hounds in the better country. Many 

 of them arrived in the neighbourhood of the covert 

 from which the reported good run had taken place 

 about two o'clock, and waited there. They did not 



