THE MASTER'S EXPENSES 133 



one hundred and twenty keepers and men, and, as the 

 dinner costs perhaps another ;^3o, this matter of stop- 

 ping-out represents a respectable item in the year's 

 expenditure. Some owners of coverts prefer to pay 

 their own men themselves, and from the Hunt they get 

 only a modest five shillings and a ticket for the dinner, 

 and it must be admitted that if this were the general 

 practice, stopping-out would come considerably cheaper 

 than it now is. 



Capping. — To some folks the practice of capping 

 must always look like handing round the hat after a 

 street performance, and within certain limits it may 

 perhaps be said that if it is possible in any other way to 

 ensure those who get the fun contributing in just pro- 

 portion to the expense, capping may with advantage be 

 avoided. But such an alternative is not always feasible. 

 It must stand to reason that in the large flying countries, 

 where horsemen are reckoned by the hundred, a 

 number of strangers hunt daily with the different 

 packs, and a vast proportion of these are only birds 

 of passage, changing their hunting grounds from week 

 to week. As such sportsmen, ay, and sportswomen, 

 are here to-day and gone to-morrow, it was to catch 

 them that the practice of capping was in the first 

 instance devised. It must unfortunately be insisted, 

 as a matter of ordinary experience, that, but for some 

 such tax on the spot, these gentry would never dream 

 of giving anything at all to hounds, their idea being 

 apparently that the pack is maintained solely for the 

 pleasure of showing sport to any one so minded. In 

 taxing those who follow hounds, it is always important 



