152 sportsmen Parsons in Peace and War 



hunting days, providing his own horse and hunt kit, but he had 

 to resign the post owing to the exigencies of business. The 

 vicar's gardener developed into kennelman, and did everything 

 except shoot old horses sent to the kennels as flesh. The 

 kennelman was so keen that he followed the pack on foot for a 

 few hours when they met near, before returning to his work, so 

 when the honorary secretary could no longer whip-in he was 

 promoted to that high office ; but his genius did not lie in this 

 direction and the experiment had to be abandoned. A pro- 

 fessional whipper-in therefore became necessary, but, as Mr. 

 Honey pointed out at the committee meeting, the feeding of 

 an extra horse would be a severe tax on the hunt's resources. 

 The difficulty was overcome by a sporting farmer on the com- 

 mittee getting up^ — his name deserves to be recorded : it was Mr. 

 John Martin of Little Marland — and saying, " Look here, sir, 

 the extra horse shan't cost you or the hunt anything for its 

 keep." And he provided hay, straw, and oats throughout the 

 season. The horse question settled. Will Ford was engaged as 

 whipper-in. The vicar took his full share of the work in kennel 

 and stable, in addition to digging the garden in spare moments. 



In the spring of 1912 this little establishment was overtaken 

 by a dire calamity. In the first place most of the puppies were 

 down with distemper, and on top of that there was an epidemic 

 of influenza which prostrated both Mr. Honey and the kennel- 

 man. In this crisis Mrs. Honey came to the rescue and managed 

 to keep things going while her husband was laid up. She 

 exercised the pack on foot and on a bicycle, nursed Mr. Honey 

 and also the puppies, who had to be fed with spoonfuls of 

 whisky and milk every three hours, as they were too bad to lap 

 on their own account. Anyone who has had to nurse hound 

 puppies through a bout of distemper will appreciate what that 

 item, alone, of her task meant. 



In summer-time Mrs. Honey also helped to exercise the pack 

 with her husband, starting at six thirty a.m. and returning at 

 eight. Bicycles were used, except when coupled puppies were 

 running with them, as they used to invariably bring the riders 

 to grief by getting the couplings across the front wheel. 



After this fashion the pack was kept going season after 

 season, all hands doing their best towards the common end. 

 The question of flesh was always an important one in a kennel 



