HUNT SERVANTS— THEIR DUTIES 213 



I wonder, realise what it means to hunt a pack of 

 hounds, even harriers, thrice a week ; the dark morn- 

 ings of work, the labour in the field, the late 

 evenings on tired horses or afoot, the care and anxiety 

 for their hounds, the drenching days, the frosts, snows, 

 and storms that these men endure, and endure cheer- 

 fully. 



" Stonehenge " has some excellent and pithy things 

 to say on the subject of Hunt servants and harriers. 

 Concerning the huntsman he says : "As with the 

 poet so with the huntsman, nascitur non fit. He 

 should be a very different person from the huntsman 

 of a pack of foxhounds. Sometimes a young man 

 succeeds in this task, but more frequently he fails from 

 want of temper and patience ; and the age which is 

 best suited for the sport is that at which man usually 

 has arrived at some degree of control over his natural 

 impulses. Still, there are some exceptions to this rule, 

 and I have seen harriers exceedingly well hunted by 

 very young men.* But whatever the age of the hunts- 

 man, he should be quiet, persevering, cautious, and 

 free from meddling, and should trust to the noses of 

 hounds in preference to his own head. . . . few are 

 so framed as to fit them for the management of harriers 

 until they have sown a crop of wild oats in other and 

 more exciting amusements. The chief art of the 

 huntsman here (in hare-hunting) is in breeding his 

 hounds and in drafting them so that they shall be 

 ' suity ' and pack well ; for when once they are in the 

 field, little or no interference is necessary. They 

 should be as handy as kittens, and should scarcely 

 require a whipper-in, and indeed some of the best 

 packs I have ever seen have been without that appen- 

 dage. By constantly taking out hounds in summer, 



* I can testify to the same prodigy, but it is rare indeed. 



