THE FIELD 105 



countries, and our knowledge is derived from the fact 

 that during the last two or three years we have received 

 a very great number of inquiries on the subject. What 

 we have been constantly asked is whether in such and 

 such a hunt it is allowable to subscribe pro rata for a 

 month, six weeks, or even two or three months, with- 

 out having to pull out the full yearly subscription. 



Where capping is in vogue the solution of this diffi- 

 culty is simple enough ; the temporary visitor merely 

 makes a point of paying the cap at the meet, and the 

 matter is finished. But caps take a range of from 

 2S. 6d. to £2, and there are many who think that £2. a 

 day is too much to give, and would prefer some such 

 arrangement as a fixed subscription for a month, two 

 months, and so forth. 



Where the minimum subscription is ^^25 and the cap 

 £2 per day there is, of course, some discrepancy in the 

 figures, because it would only take twelve cap payments 

 to make up the annual subscription ; but the fact is that 

 the cap was not organised to meet the case of temporary 

 visitors, but rather to rid the field of certain individuals 

 who hunted regularly without subscribing to hounds. 

 And if no great amount of money is collected where a 

 cap is regularly taken, the moral effect of the innovation 

 has been extraordinary. We have been told that in one 

 important hunt the first year of capping brought in no 

 more than ^^50, but that within a period of two years 

 the subscription list had risen ;{^i7oo, because all sorts 

 of people had begun to subscribe for the first time. 



It need hardly be stated that in every hunt there are 

 many occasional hunting folk, people who come out 

 regularly for two or three weeks, and then perhaps go 

 abroad for the rest of the winter, or who have so much 

 business to attend to that they can only find time for a few 



