FRIENDS AND ENEMIES OF HUNTING 29 



bourhood ; they talk hunting in and out of season, and 

 always wear a pink dress-coat when they go out to 

 dinner. Briefly, they possess all the outward and 

 visible signs of genuine fox-hunting sportsmen ; but 

 they regard hunting only as a spectacle and take little 

 or no thought for the sport as a sport. I admit that 

 some of them are hard riders and good horsemen, but 

 it is this contingent which causes the Master and the 

 Huntsman the most anxiety. To the battalion of 

 thrusting scoundrels may be attributed the short 

 scrambles which are not worthy of being called hunting 

 runs, and the difficulty of hunting a fox as he should 

 be hunted on a cold-scenting day. Now, the first- 

 fliglit men, who hunt merely in order to ride, can 

 easily ruin a day's sport unless, consciously or uncon- 

 sciously, they are brought under the discipline of the 

 Master or of the Huntsman. Alfred Earp, who whipped- 

 in to Tom Firr for twenty-four seasons, thus describes 

 the tactics of the famous huntsman. " I have often 

 seen him on a bad scenting day, when casting his 

 hounds, and some of the field, as they often do, kept 

 moving on. He would work his horse broadside on 

 in front of them, and hold them there, all so quietly 

 that they would not realise his move." Parenthetically, 

 in justice to living huntsmen, it is fair to state that for 

 the last fifteen years of his hunting career, if not during 

 the twenty-seven seasons when he was Huntsman to 

 the Quorn, and the three previous seasons, when he 

 carried the horn for the North Warwickshire under 

 Mr. Lant, Tom Firr had the reputation of being the 

 most scientific huntsman in England. He would 



