92 THE HUNTING FIELD 



hounds, and to mind all that passes in the rear of his 

 Huntsman ; and when all are before him together, 

 and clear of the wood, to act as occasion may 

 require." "As occasion may require" is a fine com- 

 prehensive phrase, capable of containing anything. 



The greatest vice hound servants, whether Hunts- 

 men, first or second Whips, can be guilty of, is that 

 of drinking, and unfortunately it is one to which they 

 are peculiarly exposed. Every person likes to treat 

 them with a glass of something, so what wnth one 

 glass here and another glass there, they stand a very 

 fair chance of becoming, what country people call, 

 tipplers, that is to say, people who do not get blind 

 drunk, but who are always getting a drop. 



" Bless me ! " exclaimed old Peter Pigskin, as we 

 were jogging to cover together the other morning, 

 " Bless me ! there's Mr. Lapitup drinking a glass of 

 grog at yon public-house door. Jle^s drank fifteen 

 hundred a-year, and he's dry still P^ 



Gentlemen are not altogether exempt from the 

 charge of encouraging drinking. When hounds meet 

 at their houses, they are very apt to send the butler, 

 or Jeames Plush, out with the brandy-bottle, or some- 

 thing equally potent, and then there's pretty crashing 

 and flashing, leaping of gates, and larking at rails. It 

 is a bad principle, and a custom that had better be 

 commuted into a goose, or a whole bottle of some- 

 thing at Christmas ; after a long ride, or on a cold 

 raw morning, a glass may be all very well. It is 

 against the abuse, and not the use of spirits that we 

 contend. 



We do not object to hospitality to servants ; far 

 from it, but then we advocate its exercise at season- 

 able times. After a good run, no one would object 

 to the frothing tankard flowing round — not even 

 Father Mathew himself, provided that great water 

 saint had first experienced the delightful delirium of 

 a wet shirt, got in a hard ridden run ; neither would 



