io6 QUALITIES OF A HUNTSMAN 



the night, without condescending to bestow upon them 

 any further trouble. Solomon thought it a great mis- 

 fortune for any people to have a child for their king ; no 

 less misfortune is it to a hunting establishment when its 

 Master is an infant in knowledge of the noble science. 



There are many huntsmen of established reputation 

 who will take as great, perhaps greater, interest in the 

 welfare of their hounds than the Master himself, and the 

 entire management of the pack may be safely entrusted 

 to their care ; their credit is at stake when anything is 

 amiss, independent of the interest they really feel in 

 their hounds. But there are others of a different character 

 who require a Master's supervision. I believe it was an 

 observation made by Beckford, that if he had his choice 

 of a second-rate huntsman and a first-rate whipper-in, 

 or the reverse, he would select the former ; and I am of 

 the same opinion, although for a different reason. First- 

 class huntsmen of the modem school are too much given 

 to assume the credit of killing foxes to themselves, and 

 far too eager to make a display of their talents by scientific 

 casts, taking those liberties with their pack which certainly 

 must prove injurious ; whereas a man of moderate 

 abiUties, diffident of his own knowledge, will be content 

 to give the hounds a fair opportunity of displaying theirs 

 first ; and seconded by a clever whipper-in, I will back 

 him to show more sport, and maintain a better pack, 

 than the great genius. 



It is very desirable, if not necessary, for a huntsman 

 to possess a good temper and kind disposition, without 

 which his hounds will never become really attached to 

 him ; but these are not indispensable qualifications in 

 a whipper-in, who, to be perfect in his calling, must be 

 held in terror by the evil-doers of the pack ; in fact, they 



