io6 THE COMPLETE FOXHUNTER 



odd days' hunting in the course of the season. Many 

 who are thus placed are, and always have been, first-rate 

 subscribers, and in this connection it may be pointed 

 out that in every hunt there are large subscribers who 

 are seldom, if ever, seen out with hounds. But on the 

 other hand there has always been a class of individual 

 who has considered it fitting that he should hunt a little 

 without paying a subscription. And in the case of the 

 really poor man, who is occasionally given a mount, 

 but is unable to keep hunters of his own, it is allowable 

 that no subscription should be looked for, but the 

 occasional sportsman who can, if he likes, but will 

 not pay because he is not a very regular hunting 

 man, should be made to pay, and so far as can be 

 judged this can only be done by resorting to the 

 capping system. 



In many ways the capping system is not a pleasant 

 one, but after it has been in practice for a week or two 

 in any hunt it does not give much trouble, except in 

 one or two exceptional places where fields are always 

 large, and where strangers are frequent. In the average 

 hunt, where capping has been instituted, rather to 

 compel the subscriptions of residents who did not pay 

 than to catch the stranger, there is little difficulty in 

 the working arrangements, for, of course, the secretary 

 knows every one personally, or at least by sight ; but 

 where there is a huge crowd to be inspected the atten- 

 tion of two or three individuals must be taken up, often 

 when hounds are drawing the first covert, and we have 

 known of an enthusiastic collector, who grieved over 

 the fact that he had lost half a dozen runs in a month. 

 ''After that," he said, " I began to run cunning, and if 

 I had not passed the whole crowd in review before 

 hounds moved off, I waited until later in the morning. 



