ii6 THE COMPLETE FOXHUNTER 



scarlet-clad second horsemen, pad grooms, sending-on 

 grooms, and extra whippers-in (to take a lame hound 

 home), while others go to the other extreme, and try to 

 work a big country shorthanded and short-horsed. The 

 happy medium is no doubt the thing to cultivate, and 

 it is good odds that the man who strives for and obtains 

 the happy medium is also the best buyer of horses and 

 forage, and in the long run the most economical of 

 masters. 



But the members of the field need not concern them- 

 selves with the financial arrangements of the master. 

 We have stated at some length what are some of the 

 systems with regard to subscription, and we have 

 pointed out what the expenses of hunting a country 

 now include, but this we have done so that hunting 

 men and women may be thoroughly aware of the para- 

 mount importance of the subscription list. No hunt 

 can be carried on without ample funds, and therefore it 

 is the duty of every one who hunts to contribute to the 

 subscription lists as freely as possible. 



CONDUCT IN THE FIELD 



It is, too, within the power of some members of every 

 hunt to make the master's task an easier one in the 

 matter of arranging meets and drawing coverts. This 

 question we have discussed in another part of the book, 

 but in every hunt some of the regular hunting men are 

 landowners, or renters of coverts, and such men should, 

 we think, always consult the master before fixing their 

 covert shooting days. In a country of big woodlands 

 masters have extraordinary difficulty in arranging meets 

 all through November and December, while at Christ- 



