THE MASTER'S EXPENSES [ii 



dogs, or dogs specially employed in guarding cattle or 

 leading blind men, are exempt, but such exemption 

 has no interest for the Master. In former days I 

 believe there was a way of compounding by payment 

 of a fixed sum for the pack, but the licence is now 

 rigorously exacted on each hound, and this brings the 

 total licence on a pack of, say, fifty couples to ;^37 105. 

 per annum. 



The hound licence, however, is not all, for in addition 

 to this the Master has to take out a licence for all the 

 men employed, for not even the helpers in the stable 

 can by any amount of casuistry be brought under the 

 category of " spade labourers ! " 



Assuming, then, that there are five men employed in 

 the kennel {i.e., the huntsman, two whippers-in, and 

 two feeders) and perhaps six in the stable, otherwise 

 eleven in all, the Master has to pay in licences ^^8 55., 

 or 15s. per man. 



This brings the total taxes and licences up to £^^ 15s. 



Travelling and Medicine. — I confess my inability to 

 see the connection between these two necessary items 

 of expenditure, and my only excuse for bracketing them 

 here is that they stand so in my book. Under the head 

 of travelling come all train expenses directly connected 

 with the Hunt establishment. These may have various 

 objects, such, for instance, as sending bitches to distant 

 kennels ; the huntsman's journeys to look at hounds, 

 and his expenses if he has to go any considerable 

 distance to help to judge ; sending hounds to Peter- 

 borough Show ; travelling of horses bought and sold, 

 or of draft hounds ; in short, all such legitimate travel- 



