THE MASTER OF HOUNDS 97 



hounds are drawing a covert, in order that he may 

 secure an advantage if the covert holds a fox. Like 

 the over-rider he, too, is to be found in many hunts, 

 and very often he combines the two characters. But 

 he is often a covert owner or local magnate, and if that 

 should be the case his offence is a double one, because 

 he must know that if he is not called to order it is very 

 likely his worldly position which has saved him. 



It is, of course, an understood thing that some 

 licence is allowed with regard to certain individuals, 

 especially when their own coverts are being drawn, 

 and in a woodland country there is seldom any vital 

 reason why the field should not be trusted to move on 

 through a big covert when hounds are drawing. But in 

 the open, when the coverts are small, the same does not 

 hold good, and whatever the master's desires are, they 

 should be implicitly adhered to. The master's great 

 difficulty, both with the over-rider and the man who gets 

 too far forward when hounds are drawing, is that when 

 individuals are rated, they, as a general rule, apologise, 

 and promise amendment if it is demanded. The 

 master is thus disarmed, but the incorrigible offenders 

 are always known, and when members of the field realise 

 that any particular man is constantly giving trouble, 

 they should support the master by adding their repre- 

 sentations to his, and if these have no effect by showing 

 their personal disapproval. The extreme course is to 

 inform the field that if over-riding continues hounds will 

 be taken home ; but to announce this line of action and 

 not to act on it when a flagrant case occurs shortly 

 after the announcement is worse than nothing, because 

 the offenders will look upon the threat as so much bluff, 

 and will in no wise amend their conduct. 



