6 HOUND AND HORN 



a move would be made back into his native district, 

 where he was a recognised authority and indeed 

 looked on as a sort of oracle, would, I knew, reconcile 

 him to any extra work and irregular hours which 

 his new duties might bring. 



With the hounds went a Volunteer First Whip, 

 Tom Telfer; and no hunt possessed a more active 

 or harder working one, a quicker man in the field, or 

 more determined across a rough difficult country. 

 His incursions to the larger neighbouring hunts were 

 frequent and always brought fun of some kind, for 

 he had a posse of followers who frequently got into 

 difficulties in their attempts to follow him. 



For the position of Second Whip I knew there 

 would be some competition. In fact, there was some 

 danger of the supply exceeding the demand. The 

 anxiety of the field to assist during the progress 

 of a fox chase was always superabundant, and on 

 one occasion so great had been this eagerness that 

 my predecessor is said to have declared that having 

 run a dead-beat fox into a small plantation clear of 

 rabbit-holes and all other refuges, he was the only 

 man who was not hunting the hounds. So it was 

 fixed that Jack Purdie, the head stable lad under 

 Batters, should be appointed Second Whip and 

 Second Horseman combined. 



Over and over again that day did I enact in 

 anticipation the joy of waving hounds into cover, 

 and after a long chase, of course at a terrific pace 

 over a big country, I pictured myself standing in the 

 middle of the baying pack and throwing the dead 

 body of a stift fox to hounds. Coming in an hour 

 later for lunch, I was asked by the lady who presides 



