4 HOUND AND HORN 



the grandest old sportsmen in the whole Borderland. 

 Again and again did I gaze at the electrifying message, 

 and each time it brought up new sensations of delight 

 in the attempt to realise what it meant. Fox-hounds, 

 Huntsman, Master, Forest ; each word costing one 

 halfpenny to transmit, yet worth untold gold to me. 

 I set out for a long stroll on the hillside to try and 

 picture something of what it conveyed. It meant 

 the acquiring one of the most sporting and useful 

 little packs of fox-hounds in Britain : sporting, because 

 it was hunted entirely without professional assistance, 

 the Master carr3dng the horn and being assisted 

 by two non-professional whips ; and useful, because 

 although only established some six years previously, 

 it was already doing good work and killing foxes, 

 and improving the sport obtained by neighbouring 

 packs. It meant the serious business of providing 

 and showing sport in a thoroughly sporting district ; 

 living in a community of sports men and women 

 who had all the fire and energy of the old moss- 

 troopers, and who, from childhood, were at home in 

 the saddle ; fond of a good horse and a good hound, 

 and eager to enjoy to the full the pleasure of a good 

 chase. It meant the interesting effort of breeding 

 hounds, and the engrossing anxiety of bringing them 

 forward ; the delight of taking hounds of one's own 

 breeding into the field ; the satisfaction of seeing them 

 take to hunting naturally as to the manner born ; 

 and the fascinating occupation of hunting hounds and 

 studying hound-work. 



It entailed a heap of time, labour, forethought, and 

 craft, and the assuming all the heavy responsibility 

 and the multifarious duties connected with the office 



