94 ^n Scarlet and Silk 



in fact, your pack being in several parishes 

 at one and the same time — if you turn out 

 dressed as though huntsman and whips were 

 going to kill rats in a barn ; and above all, 

 if you seek to emulate the example of old 

 Bill Bean, the arch-trespasser, as the Druid 

 calls him, then the whole thing becomes a 

 farce, and you make enemies in the neigh- 

 bourhood, not only for dragging, but, much 

 more serious still, for hunting. If I were 

 asked what is the first and most important 

 thing in establishing and keeping up a 

 drag pack, I should answer unhesitatingly, 

 a tactful Master. Farmers, landowners, and 

 Masters of hounds all have to be propitiated 

 and kept friendly ; a bad Master of drag- 

 hounds will wreck the whole concern in a 

 single season. 



A model Master of draghounds is Colonel 

 Yorke, K.H.A., who has now ruled at Wool- 

 wich for several seasons past. The district 

 is very fortunate in retaining his services for 

 so long a time. In the following account — 

 which I originally wrote for Bailey's Maga- 



