THE WHIPPER-IN 85 



putting a lash to his whip, with a large open clasp- 

 knife between his teeth at the time. 



Huntsmen Whippers-in are like lieutenant-colonels, 

 they have the full command, except when the colonel 

 is present. The simile, perhaps, is not quite good, 

 for the presence of the colonel is the exception, 

 whereas the absence of the Master is generally so in 

 the hunting field. The seldomer the Master is absent, 

 the greater, of course, the difficulty of the Huntsman 

 Whipper-in when he is. Beckford relates how a 

 Master of Harriers had found out that the use of a 

 Whipper-in was to ride after the hare, and keep her 

 in view as long as he could ; and we remember a 

 Gentleman-Huntsman assigning a somewhat similar 

 position to his Huntsman Whipper-in with foxhounds. 

 Some one observing that he wondered the Gentleman- 

 Huntsman kept a Huntsman when he did the thing 

 so well himself, and was so constantly out, received 

 for answer, that it was " convenient to have some one 

 to ' blow up ' when things went wrong." " Blowing 

 up," however, is more generally the perquisite of the 

 second Whip than the first, he always being younger, 

 and his place more easily supplied. We know " a 

 Master" who used to use the second Whip for the 

 purpose of blowing up the field. When he saw a 

 man do wrong, he would send the Whip to ride within 

 ear-shot of him, and then he would come storming up, 

 reading the riot act to the boy, pretending he had 

 done what the gentleman had done. 



Having, however, compared the Huntsman Whip- 

 per-in to the colonel of a regiment, we may pursue 

 the military simile, and say, that as in the army the 

 comfort of a subaltern is greatly dependent on the 

 character and disposition of the colonel, so, in the 

 hunting establishment, the comfort of the Whippers- 

 in is greatly dependent on the manner and conduct 

 of the Huntsman. Some Huntsmen are desperately 

 coarse and overbearing with their Whips, especially 



