THE MASTER OF HOUNDS 91 



been impossible. The odd man who had to go would, 

 as a matter of course, have found out before he left 

 where hounds were going to be taken, and would have 

 himself taken the greatest trouble and gone a long way 

 round rather than risk the chance of heading a fox. 

 He would have considered the matter as he rode off, 

 and such consideration would have been quite natural, 

 but in these days a portion of nearly every large field is 

 composed of what is often called the ^'air-and-exercise 

 division," and many of these individuals hunt quite 

 regularly without ever taking in the niceties of the 

 sport. 



Where the field is really well drilled there will be no 

 straggling at the covert side, and when this happens 

 the master's duties are perceptibly lessened, but some 

 fields have to be driven into position like a flock of 

 sheep, and even then, if a sharp look out is not kept, 

 some riders will move away too soon, in order that they 

 may poach a bit of start. But the manoeuvring of the 

 field at the covert side, though difficult enough at times, 

 is child's play compared with the trouble which is 

 brought about by the over-anxious ones when a fox 

 breaks covert. It will perhaps hardly be believed, but 

 it is by no means rare for some one to commence gallop- 

 ing after a fox long before a single hound is on its line, 

 and when one man begins to gallop there are always 

 many others to follow suit, many of whom have failed to 

 grasp the real situation, and think that hounds must 

 have got away unobserved. 



Just fancy the feelings of a master who sees a fox 

 literally chased by an irresponsible member of his field 

 before a single hound has left covert. When a picture 

 of this sort appeared in Punch some few years ago 

 many hunting people laughed at it as an impossible 



