THE HUNT DINNER 341 



every hunt that the members should meet and 

 dine once in each year at least, and the rule of one 

 old-established hunt runs as follows, and it is 

 noticeable that it is the first rule on the list : — 

 " That the members of the hunt shall meet and 

 dine twice in each year at the commencement and 

 conclusion of the hunting season, at such times 

 and places as the president shall appoint, giving 

 each member a week's notice." It was in the hunt 

 of which I am speaking a rule that every member 

 was to attend the meeting and dinner, and in case 

 of absence he was fined 5s., one half of which 

 went towards the dinner bill, and the other to the 

 funds of the hunt. It was also stipulated that the 

 president should call for the bill two hours after 

 the cloth was drawn. Of course, when the country 

 became more populated, and railways enabled men 

 to get about more, these rules soon became practi- 

 cally of no effect, men of position would not pay 

 the fines, and it was necessary to keep on good 

 terms with them. So the old-fashioned dinner 

 where the "shot" was shared by all who were 

 present became a thing of the past, and I may say 

 that the last occasion of a public dinner at which 

 the bill was divided that I know of was a church- 

 warden's dinner after an archidiaconal visitation. 



Then came the hunt dinner as I knew it. It 

 was really, so far as the viands were concerned, 

 something better than a high - class market 

 ordinary, and was generally supplied at about 

 3s. 6d. each. It was a more decorous gathering 

 than its predecessor, men were living in a more 

 decorous age, and the heavy drinking which was 

 present at most social gatherings of a public nature 

 in the latter days of the eighteenth century 



