242 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



if hounds ran towards another covert before Christmas the 

 Master was expected to stop them; and that with regard to 

 quite a number of estates the hunting days could not be 

 arranged until the holder of the shooting rights had been con- 

 sulted. Here, too, there was great difficulty in finding suitable 

 places for cub-hunting, and, though the hunt had a large fol- 

 lowing and the country was full of first-rate sportsmen, there 

 were innumerable little difficulties with which the Master had 

 to contend, and most of which were probably quite unknown 

 to the " field." In this respect a modem Master was 

 at a disadvantage when compared with the Master of forty 

 or fifty years belorei. Another difficulty which is of 

 comparatively recent standing is the increase of claims for 

 compensation of various kinds. In every hunt nowadays there 

 is a big list of poultry claims, and in addition there are claims 

 for damage of all sorts. No doubt the damage to fences and 

 crops is greater than it once was, owing to' the increase in the 

 size of the fields, while there are probably a dozen poultry- 

 keepers scattered about the country for every one there used 

 to be. In some of the smaller hunts the poultry fund is a 

 thing of quit© recent years, and it is just possible that some 

 of the extremely provincial hunts still do without them. In- 

 deied, less than twenty years ago a Master of our acquaintance 

 had a claim which, when examined, was found to belong to 

 the neighbouring hunt. He then wrote to the Master of tha 

 hunt, explaining the matter, and in reply received a letter 

 which, after setting forth at some length that there was still 

 a doubt as to which hunt was liable, concluded with the remark 

 that " we pay no poultry claims." This was quite final, and 

 when the aggrieved loser of poultry was interviewed he stated 

 that he had sent in his claim tO' the hunt which he knew paid 

 for damage, for it was no use troubling the others. On the 

 other side of the question, it may be stated that in some hunts 

 upwards of a thousand a year is paid for poultry damage, and 

 that in a big majority of what I may term the average hunts 

 the amount runs into several hundred pounds annually; and 

 if the claims are not promptly paid it is generally the Master 

 who is bothered and who has to ward off both written and 

 verbal attacks. I remember once seeing hounds draw a covert 

 alongside a lane, in which a biggish field was collected. There 



