THE FAKMEES' BOOK 191 



You ought to have no difficulty about getting meets. Don't be 

 put off by " No hares " in the meet book ; often there are hares to be 

 found one year and not the next. Beware of Six Mile Bottom. 



In pencil : — 



Quite true. Hares far too numerous for it ever to be possible to 

 hunt there for some years. 



All the above are anonymous. — F. C. K. 



The observations on farmers and meets requires more selection, 

 and is more entertaining than the previous matter, which, though 

 perhaps dull, is sound and useful, and so free from redundancy and 

 vain repetitions that I have given it almost in fuU. The notes on 

 meets should revive many pleasant memories. The confidential 

 entries on the idiosyncrasies of the farmers are — well, there's a deal 

 of human nature in farmers, and human nature is never all good, nor 

 all bad, thank God. Farmers can be pompous, blustering, slim as 

 " Brother Boer," pot-hunters of the blunderbuss and " long dog " order, 

 greedy for a festive dinner, or hospitable sportsmen and thorough 

 good sorts. All need humouring, the last as much as any, for they 

 are often a bit sensitive, and are the last sort of men on wliose corns 

 one should even unwittingly tread. 



The farmers on whose land we hunt are not all of the farmer 

 class. Some few are squires of high degree, of one of whom, a most 

 worthy Admiral, it is recorded that he is " not a bad chap but wants 

 buttering." The world is small, and a Whip whose home is far away 

 was given the book to play with and found the above entry. The 

 Admiral was his uncle ! This shows that one cannot be too careful, 

 and all extracts on this head are divorced from their context, though 

 most of the notes tend to show good qualities even under unpre- 

 possessing exteriors. All beaglers cannot have the overwhelming 

 tact of a " Mother " Hunt, or talk of crops and prices with the demure 

 seriousness of " Judy " Carr-EUison. But any one can learn to apply 

 the following wise rules, which are partly in J. S. Carr-Elhson's hand- 

 writing and partly in Kenneth Walker's, and most beaglers must 

 have learned the rudiments of the game at home : I know my own 

 father taught me. — F. C. K. 



