A MASTER OF OTTERHOUNDS 243 



gentlemen, I am very pleased to see you all here 

 to-day." Of the farmers in the Cheriton country I 

 cannot speak too highly. I have never had an unpleasant 

 word with one of them. The little instances of timely 

 kindness are innumerable everywhere. One day in 

 Suffolk, for instance, on the Stour, a river full of 

 otters, but in many parts far too heavy to hunt with 

 any chance of success, a dear old man produced a 

 lemon, which he insisted on my sucking to quench my 

 thirst, he said, and help my voice. Another well- 

 wisher in Devonshire was in the habit of bringing me 

 out lunch in the shape of gingerbread and a flask of 

 cafe au /^f/ with just a dash of gin, a most excellent and 

 staying drink, by the way. Little attentions like these 

 help vastly to hearten one when things are not going 

 quite as well as they might. Then, too, the little 

 terriers invariably excite the sympathy of ladies out 

 with the field, and many a mile have tender arms 

 carried little Venus. As for Nellie, she absolutely owes 

 her life to a good sportswoman, who pluckily rescued 

 her at a kill from amid the growling mass of hounds. 

 They had pulled down their otter on land, running 

 from scent to view before I could get to them. 



There are, I am aware, differences of opinion among 

 Masters touching the presence of ladies in the field, 

 but, whatever may be said of fox-hunting, where the 

 circumstances are very different, my opinion is that 

 they are absolutely in place with otterhounds, and that 

 they nowhere show to more advantage than beside the 

 water in the blue, red, or green of the hunt uniform. 

 And what an example they sometimes set us men I 



