THE MASTER'S EXPENSES 97 



not in reality the case, for the increasing preservation 

 of game has a powerful, if indirect, influence on the 

 cost of hunting. 



Although in these days a Master must be prepared, 

 with the purchase of horses and what not, to spend a 

 good deal of his own money, since very few Hunt 

 subscriptions come within measurable distance of the 

 actual expense, I shall always maintain that the actual 

 cost of keeping a pack of hounds varies but little in 

 whatever country they hunt. There is, of course, the 

 difference in the cost of horseflesh in a big, fashionable 

 country, as well as the increased number of animals 

 required, but that is a separate matter. It must, how- 

 ever, be taken into account. Whereas, for instance, a 

 stud of twelve sound and useful horses should be ample 

 for the Hunt servants in an ordinary typical provincial 

 country, they would require at the least eighteen or 

 twenty in a big, flying country. The reasons for the 

 distinction are obvious : the casualties would be more 

 numerous, and the horses themselves would come out 

 less often. It would be futile to expect to mount a 

 staff in the Shires for less than a hundred pounds a 

 horse, whereas in an ordinary country the whippers-in 

 can ride young ones at half the money. 



It is, however, false economy to mount your men 

 badly, unfair to them, and damaging to sport, for the 

 huntsman who cannot depend on his horse is worse 

 than useless, while if the whips cannot get their mounts 

 over tight places or get them along fast enough to 

 turn hounds, they might just as well, for all practical 

 purposes, remain at home. Moreover, a discontented 



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