THE HUNTSMAN'S POINT OF VIEW 209 



Upon one point Scott was most emphatic. His 

 exact words were : " I always believed in making 

 friends of my whippers-in." In this respect he 

 differed entirely from Tom Firr, of whom Alfred 

 Earp, his whipper-in for twenty-four seasons, wrote : 

 " He was a very reserved man, and spoke little to his 

 men ; in fact, it might seem strange that outwardly he 

 made very little more of me in the last week that I was 

 with him than he did in the first." But there is a 

 medium between a cold reserve and the familiarity 

 which breeds contempt. This medium Scott dis- 

 covered and acted upon. And I doubt if any hunts- 

 man was ever more willingly served by his men. They 

 became infected with his own enthusiasm to kill a fox, 

 with the result that it was seldom due to any fault of a 

 whipper-in if a fox did manage to save his brush. To 

 this trait in his character Masters owed much of the 

 sport which they were able to show to their followers. 

 Again, he was always willing to give his men the 

 benefit of his knowledge in regard to kennel-lore. He 

 told me that few things gave him more pleasure than 

 to hear of one of his old men rising in the world of 

 Hunt servants, and added with pride that there was 

 only one who had disappointed him. Now the hunts- 

 man who works like Scott increases the reputation 

 both of the Master and the Hunt. But will the modern 

 huntsman take the trouble to do the work, in view of 

 the constant changes of Mastership and the chance 

 that a new Master may elect to hunt the hounds him- 

 self ? This last question is not peculiar to the hunting- 

 field. The conscientious worker, whether he be a 



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