no THE SPORT OF KINGS 



of roses. He has to work long hours, and to 

 work hard, his duties are nearly as onerous in 

 the summer as during the season itself, and it is 

 very much open to question whether ten per cent 

 of those who hunt ever give a thought to them, 

 or to the responsibility which attaches to the man 

 whom they criticise so freely and so unfairly. To 

 begin with, there is the entry to look after, and 

 that is no little matter when some fifty to sixty 

 couples of puppies are sent out to walk. The 

 drafting is a serious business, and on the manner 

 in which it is carried out does the effectiveness of 

 the pack depend in no small degree. The breed- 

 ing of the hounds, too, entails considerable thought 

 on the part of the huntsman, and the puppies at 

 walk are the subject of his constant care. Then 

 there are the hounds to exercise and condition, in 

 itself a science ; so that before ever the huntsman 

 takes the field he has plenty of work, and that of 

 an arduous nature. 



To give his critics their due, they seldom find 

 fault with the hounds, the way in which they are 

 bred, drafted, or conditioned, for the very best of 

 all possible reasons, that they know nothing what- 

 ever on the subject, and are conscious of their 

 ignorance. 



But once let the huntsman take the field, and 

 the floodgates of criticism are launched at his 

 unfortunate head. A frequent subject of fault- 

 finding is, that he does not blow his horn when 

 his hounds go away. Now frequently the field 

 carefully places itself on the upwind side of the 

 covert, and instead of attending to the business of 

 the hour, spends its time in the pleasant occupation 

 of coffee-housing. The delinquencies of Ministers, 



