THREE-FOLD DUTIES. 9 



no account must he attempt to make a fresh gap for 

 himself. 



Nor should the beginner ever get off and try to pull 

 a fence down, but rather he should bear away to the 

 right or left in search of an easier place, or even go back 

 the way he has come. If a whole field is shut in, with no 

 practicable exit, then, as a rule, the Master will give 

 orders for some place to be pulled down ; but when 

 that occurs it is long odds that someone is sent to repair 

 the damage next day, or that the Master knows how to 

 put the matter right with the owner or tenant. Unfor- 

 tunately, inexperienced people have seen such an 

 occurrence and have not grasped its true meaning, and 

 of this I saw an instance two seasons ago. A couple 

 of youngsters, rather older than most boy beginners, 

 were out on a cubhunting day in charge of the family 

 coachman, when hounds were in a large woodland 

 through which runs a wire fence dividing two pro- 

 perties. At a certain place there were slip rails, and 

 here the Master had arranged for a hunting wicket, 

 which was actually on the spot on the particular day 

 I refer to, but had not been put up. During the summer, 

 however, someone had closed the slip rails by putting 

 in a couple of upright posts close together, and these 

 effectually barred the way. The Master, arriving at 

 the place first, hounds having run a fox through the 

 wire fence, jumped off his horse, and, being a very 

 strong man, soon had one of the posts out, and having 

 liberated the slip rails, led his horse through. Someone 

 else pulled out the other post, and the whole field went 

 through. Three months later, at Christmas time, 

 hounds were running in a stiffly -enclosed country, and 



