CHAPTER X 



A NEW DEPARTURE 



" We have often doubted whether Masters of 

 Hounds like seeing people out cub-hunting or not, 

 and we have about settled the question in our own 

 minds as follows, viz. that huntsmen or Masters 

 who go out early — at daybreak, for instance — are 

 glad to see people, because they are sure that none 

 but sportsmen will come ; whereas the mid-day or 

 afternoon performance favours all the idle, yammer- 

 ing, bothersome, chance medley customers of the 

 country." So, fifty years ago, wrote the versatile 

 author of Handley Cross, than whom no one had 

 a more intuitive knowledge of the component 

 parts of the hunting field and of the predilections 

 and prejudices of Master and huntsman and whipper- 

 in. I wonder what he would have said had he 

 lived to these times, and seen the cub-hunting 

 fixtures advertised in the daily papers. 



I think there is not much necessity for me to 

 insist upon the fact that for the majority of people 

 who go out, cub-hunting is just a little bit of a 

 bore, and it is only men who take an interest in 

 hounds, who are enthusiastic admirers of them on 

 the flags and in the field, who feel at all keen about 

 those daybreak gatherings of which Surtees writes. 



