256 HACKS AND HUNTERS 



covered one half with catgut and one half with leather. 

 One or two silver bands may be placed on the stick. 

 The leather keeper, at the end of the stick, should be 

 of the same color as the thong and long enough to 

 permit of the thong being brought around, so that it 

 will lie flat against the stick. 



The thong should be three feet ten inches long, and 

 finished with a red, blue, brown, or green ' ' point . ' ' Some 

 people prefer a white pipe-clayed thong, which is un- 

 doubtedly very smart, but as it soils very quickly and 

 the pipe-claying comes off all over a woman's habit, 

 I do not think it is as practical as the brown thong. 

 A crop without a thong should never be used under 

 any circumstances. The empty keeper flopping in the 

 air is extremely foolish-looking. 



The hunting crop, in common with the swagger- 

 stick or any other sort of whip, should be carried in 

 the right hand with the handle pointed downward, and 

 close to one's side, to prevent it catching in branches, 

 etc. It is frequently stated that the correct way to 

 hold the thong is to loop it once around the hand, 

 but a far better way is simply to lay it flat against the 

 hand and allow it to hang straight down. The former 

 method is so clumsy I do not wonder that people who 

 think they are obliged to carry it in that way prefer 

 to leave it home altogether rather than be encum- 

 bered with such a handful. 



For use in hacking about the country, a short kennel 

 crop, which has a thong but no handle, is very con- 

 venient to whip passing dogs off one's horse's heels, 

 etc. It should, however, never take the place of the 

 regulation hunting crop. 



For summer use a "fly-swisher," made of bamboo 

 with a tassel of white or black horsehair, is very useful 

 in keeping the flies off. 



