MAJOR J. A. COOKE HURLE 287 



object of maintaining the supply of foxes by killing 

 as many as possible, sport being quite a secondary 

 consideration. 



This is not the place to treat of the sacrifices so 

 readily made by the hunting community in general, 

 but it is within the scope of this work to record that 

 the master of the South Devon was one of the first to 

 act without waiting for a lead. He at once placed his 

 stud, which he had been at pains and expense to 

 replenish during the summer, at the disposal of the 

 Army buyers. They took the whole of his ten hunters. 

 Then the master himself was taken ; for his regiment, 

 the North Somerset Yeomanry, was called up for 

 active service. It was not to be his first experience of 

 warfare ; in the Boer War his squadron had gone with 

 one each from the West Somerset, the Devon and the 

 Dorset, to form the 7th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry. 



Help, however, was at hand. The brothers, Messrs. 

 W^illiam and Herbert Whitley of Paignton, with 

 admirable good feeling, sent their polo ponies to the 

 hunt stables, and Mr. F. C. Simpson agreed to act as 

 deputy-master during Major Cooke Hurle's absence. 

 The number of hunting days a week was cut down to 

 two, and Reeves carried the horn in place of his 

 master. 



For a whipper-in, even though he be also kennel- 

 huntsman, to hunt the pack he has been turning to 

 another is always something of a disadvantage. 

 Notwithstanding this, and an assistant new to the 

 game, with only polo ponies to ride, Reeves came 

 through the ordeal with great credit and shewed 

 some very good sport. The absence of a professional 

 whip was compensated for in a considerable degree by 

 the assistance rendered by Mr. Simpson's stud-groom, 

 Truscott, some time whipper-in to the Calpe Hounds. 



