90 THE HUNTING FIELD 



Beckford tells an amusing story of an amateur 

 Whip, who was got rid of with the following polite- 

 ness : — "A gentleman," says he, "perceiving his 

 hounds to be much confused by the frequent halloos 

 of a stranger, rode up to him, and thanked him with 

 great civility for the trouble he was taking ; but at 

 the same time acquainted him that the two men he 

 saw in green coats " {green, the deuce !) " were paid 

 so much by the year on purpose to halloo, it would be 

 needless for him, therefore, to give himself diny further 

 trouble." 



The first Whipper-in, it seems to be clearly estab- 

 lished, is to be an independent genius, capable of 

 thinking and acting for himself, as exemplified in the 

 case of Will Dean and the Daventry earths. The 

 station of the second Whipper-in, says Mr. Beckford, 

 " may be near the Huntsman, for which reason any 

 boy that can halloo and make a whip smack may 

 answer the purpose." 



"May be near the Huntsman," and "may answer 

 the purpose," writes our veteran, as though he thought 

 an old head would be better. In truth, though all 

 men must have a beginning, boy Whippers-in are 

 generally as great nuisances as boy butlers. They are 

 like the sham " captain," the London leg proposed to 

 hold the stakes between the Yorkshire yeoman and 

 himself at Doncaster races : " If you doubt me," said 

 the leg, with great apparent hauteur, " my friend, the 

 captain, here, shall hold the money." "But whe 

 hads captin ? " asked the wily old Yorkshire tyke, with 

 a shake of the head. "The boy Whipper-in looks 

 after the hounds, but who looks after the boy?" 



We once saw a fine scene between a Yorkshire 

 scratch pack Huntsman, and a newly caught yokel of 

 a lad in topboots, a twilled jacket, and jockey cap. 

 They had fallen out in coming to cover, and the lad 

 arrived in the sulks. Scratch packs seldom tarry long 

 at the meet, for the best of all reasons — the hounds 



