6 STAGHUNTING WITH THE 



is indeed a difficult task for a master to obtain 

 and keep sufficient room for his pack, in which 

 to hunt the foil of their nimble and wily quarry, 

 and to puzzle out his numerous twists and turns 

 on the sun-baked heather, or amongst the stony 

 tracks and intricate paths of some hot and airless 

 woodland. When once the tyro has mastered 

 the initial difficulties of the sport his interest is 

 aroused by the moorcraft and woodcraft dis- 

 played, or at any rate constantly exercised by the 

 harbourer and huntsman, the whipper-in and 

 the many others who play subsidiary parts in 

 the long drama of an autumn day's staghunting, 

 and if he be something more than one of those 

 who at all times only hunt to ride, he will 

 endeavour to see what he can of those parts of 

 the day's doings that involve the most science 

 and call out the most skilful manoeuvres on the 

 part of those providing his entertainment. 



Of the harbouring he naturally can see little 

 and hear less, since it has necessarily to be 

 performed at uncanny hours, and its result kept 

 private, lest there should be a rush of footpeople 

 to the lair of the harboured stag and a con- 

 sequent destruction of all chance of sport for 

 the day. 



Of the process of tufting he will endeavour 

 to see what little he can, from some hill-top or 

 other coign of vantage sufficiently distant from 

 the huntsman to make it quite certain that no 



