SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 361 



are solitary exceptions^ wlieii he may by accident be 

 thrown out, and fast races over the downs where 

 lighter weights eclipse him ; but in everyday work^ 

 the man who cannot hold his position as first fiddle 

 is not the right man in the right place. If other- 

 wise, his only excuse can be that he is too badly 

 horsed to be with his hounds. The old squire 

 took especial care that no such charge as this should 

 be placed to his account. His men were well 

 horsed : they knew it, and did credit to their 

 master^s judgment in providing them with animals so 

 well fitted for their requirements. Will Headman, 

 and his first whip, Jem, were paragons of perfection 

 in their line of business. Two superior to them in 

 all respects could not have been found throughout 

 her Majesty^s dominions ; and although Jem, as 

 avant courier , might occasionally take advantage of 

 the position when his master, as he called him, was 

 not up, yet did he know his duties too well ever to 

 play him false, acting fairly and honestly as a locum 

 tenens until his superior came up. There were no 

 jealous feelings between huntsman and first whipper- 

 in — too commonly the case, and as commonly sub- 

 versive of sport in the field. Jem regarded AYill 

 Headman in the same light that a schoolboy looks 

 up to a clever kind preceptor ; and Will Headman 

 repaid his pupiFs attachment and deference to him 

 by a sort of fatherly interest in all he did. Jem was 

 admitted into all his arcana, or mysteries of the 

 science ; neither was he excluded from the kennel, 

 and kept in the dark as to the pedigrees of hounds, 

 breedings, and crossings, and other little matters of 



