8o THE COMPLETE FOXHUNTER 



trusted with all the arrangements which must be made 

 in order that a country may be satisfactorily hunted, 

 though if a master is unable to be present he can as a 

 rule entrust his huntsman with his plans and ideas for 

 the day. In that case he should request his man to 

 communicate with the field master (if there is one) at 

 the meet, and if there is no field master, with some 

 important member of the hunt, whose adoption of the 

 post of temporary master will be approved by the field. 

 It is never wise to leave everything to the huntsman, 

 unless it is quite certain that that functionary will state 

 his intentions at the meet, informing the field at the 

 same time that he is enunciating his master's orders 

 with regard to the draw. When this is done every one 

 will be satisfied, but if the huntsman deviates from the 

 original plan when there seems to be no necessity for 

 such deviation he will certainly hear of it again, for 

 there are always people who think they have a griev- 

 ance, and who will not let such an occasion pass without 

 interfering. 



If it is thought advisable by the master to appoint 

 some one to take command, if only for a single day, 

 he must, as far as he possibly can, get hold of the right 

 man, and never must he delegate the duties to more 

 than one man. An instance of a divided authority 

 we witnessed many years ago, which almost resulted 

 in the loss of a good huntsman, and we have never 

 forgotten it. It was with a county subscription pack 

 of which there were joint masters, one acting as 

 master in the northern and the other in the southern 

 part of the country. On the day in question only one 

 of the masters was present at the meet, and he was an 

 elderly man and in very moderate health. Hounds 

 were put into covert close to the place of meeting, and 



