136 THE COMPLETE FOXHUNTER 



be cracked continuously, and it is not an easy matter 

 to make a reverberating crack when the crop is light 

 — but this is of little consequence to ordinary mem- 

 bers of the field. 



Fashion in whips changes, or is changed by the 

 whipmakers far too often. A good hunting crop 

 must always be a good hunting crop, but one 

 season they are worn long, another season shorter, 

 and quite lately the shop windows of the best-known 

 makers have been full of short, stumpy crops, which 

 are, we think, both heavy and awkward. Medium 

 length and medium thickness should satisfy every 

 one, while a very long crop is rather clumsy, though 

 handy enough for a persistent gate-opener, especially 

 if he be a short-armed man who is accustomed to ride 

 big horses. 



CONDUCT IN THE FIELD 



But, after all, the most important thing which the 

 beginner of either sex has to consider is his or her 

 early conduct in the field before he or she has had time 

 to acquire knowledge of what to do and what not to do, 

 where to go and where not to go, and so forth. And 

 by beginner in this connection we mean the man or 

 woman who has taken to hunting late in life, and who 

 has not been in the way of obtaining much knowledge 

 as to the sport. Some such people will quickly accom- 

 modate themselves to their new surroundings, and will 

 in a few weeks be quite at home in a hunting field. 



Not every one has the happy knack of taking up a 

 new sport or pastime all at once and of grasping all the 

 details of something which they have not been accus- 

 tomed to, and though the quick-witted will soon learn 



