THE MASTER'S EXPENSES 135 



;^2o or £2^. If he had to pay each time he hunted, he 

 would not in the course of the season contribute as 

 much, at any rate, as the latter sum. Even if he hunted 

 three days a week, he would not, even making no allow- 

 ance for interruptions by snow or frost, be out more 

 than fifty times in the whole season. The provincial 

 pack does not benefit by strangers, for no man would 

 deliberately choose a plough or hilly country to hunt 

 in when he can have his pick of the grass countries. 

 Nor is it likely that the soldier home on long leave will 

 immure himself in some dull hole, with far from first- 

 rate hunting, just because his ancestral home is there. 

 No ; he will doubtless run down with a single horse to 

 spend Christmas in the bosom of his family (having 

 previously taken care to be there when the home 

 coverts were shot), after which, with a clear conscience, 

 off he goes to some hard-riding pack, where he can get 

 more fun for his money and better test the powers of 

 his new horses. Such a one is useless to the poor 

 Secretary or Treasurer on the look out for a good sum 

 by capping. Provincial packs, then, are useless for 

 this system of taxation, but let the Secretary by all 

 means coax all the money he can out of the enormous 

 fields that hunt at the present day with the popular 

 packs. 



Subscriptions, and, incidentally, of Ladies. — The first 

 duty of every right-thinking man who settles down in 

 the country with the intention of hunting as much as 

 he can is to give what he can afford to the local pack. 

 The sums given and expected vary in the different 

 hunting countries, but I think I am not far wrong if I 



