CHAPTER IV 



THE MASTER'S EXPENSES 



(By Lieutenant- Colonel G. C. Ricardo, Secretary Craven Hunt. 

 Master 1886-1892) 



Contrast between present and past — Increase of sub- 

 cription packs — Claims for damages — Shooting tenants — 

 Purchasing horses — Stud required in the shires — Do the 

 thing well or leave it — Price of horses — Wages of ser- 

 vants — Shoeing — Straw — Hay — Oats — Meal — Coal — 

 Saddlery and horse clothing — Whips, spurs, and horns 

 — Clothes and Boots — Flesh account — Taxes and licences 

 — TraveUing and medicine — The huntsman's petty 

 account — Repairs and miscellaneous — Table of expendi- 

 ture — Puppy show : Walking and breeding — Poultry 

 claims — Wire — Earth-stopping, finds, and litters — Cap- 

 ping — Subscriptions and, incidentally, of ladies — Con- 

 cluding hints 



The whole question of the cost of hunting from the 

 Master's point of view is one that involves side 

 issues enough to fill a volume by themselves, and it 

 is only possible in the present chapter to touch on 

 the main features of his expenditure. 



It is commonly argued that fox-hunting has become 

 more and more costly, and the M.F.H. is supposed to 

 have suffered in this respect even more than those who 

 follow hounds in other capacities. Yet, as an old 

 M.F.H, of some ten or twelve years ago, and with 



