154 THE SPORT OF KINGS 



hunt, or who, when they do subscribe, get off with 

 paying as little as they can, and these are the 

 gentlemen who render a hunt secretary's life a 

 burden to him at times. 



Here comes our reformer, who has recently 

 been giving us the benefit of his opinion. " Every 

 man must subscribe who hunts," says he, " and if 

 he does not subscribe resort must be had to cap 

 money." With this suggestion there is not much 

 fault to find, and the resort to cap money would 

 only be a return to an old custom. At the same 

 time, even the resort to " cap money " has its 

 difficulties. For example, it would seem hard for 

 a man who goes out on one horse for an hour or 

 two, and who is obliged to leave, say at 2 p.m., 

 to give 20s. or ios. to see every covert drawn 

 blank until he left, and then to find that the run 

 of the season had taken place in his absence. This 

 is an extreme case, certainly, and the man who is 

 situated as I describe is generally the member of 

 some hunt or hunts, and as such would be exempt 

 from "capping." "Capping," I may say, how- 

 ever, seems to be the only way of getting at 

 those gentlemen who reside on the borders of 

 two or three hunts, and carefully avoid sub- 

 scribing to any of them, but it will require doing 

 with tact. 



With respect to what the subscriptions should 

 be our reformer lays down the law in no half-and- 

 half style. A man must pay according to the 

 number of horses he keeps is his dictum, and then 

 he goes on to say that though this seems hard on 

 the heavy weight, yet it is only just, as the heavy 

 man with his second and third horses does more 

 harm than the light man. Now this is just what 



