tions
being accepted only for Covert, Wire, Poultry, or Damage Funds, as the
case may be. The Vale of White Horse (Cirencester) requires a
subscription from ladies of "L5 per day, per week." Strangers who hunt
occasionally with a subscription pack where capping is not practised,
are expected to contribute towards the Poultry or Damage Fund. In some
hunts a cap is taken from non-subscribers, from whom a certain fixed sum
is expected; the Essex and Suffolk requires five shillings a day, the
Burstow a sovereign, and the Pytchley and Warwickshire two pounds. The
usual "field money" in Ireland is half-a-crown. The Blackmore Vale,
although a subscription pack, does not fix any sum, but sensibly expects
people to subscribe according to the number of horses they keep, and the
amount of hunting they do. An old and sound rule is L5 for each horse.
As subscriptions vary in different hunts, the best plan for a lady who
has to arrange her own business matters, is to write to the secretary of
the hunt which she desires to join, and obtain from him the required
information. She will find _Bailey's Hunting Directory_ a most useful
book of reference.

IN THE FIELD.

Under this heading, I shall try to give practical advice to those who
are commencing their hunting career, and explain several things that I
would have liked to have known myself when I first rode to hounds. As we
may learn something from the failings of others before entering the
expensive school of experience, it would be wise, before we hunt, to
study certain complaints which experienced hunting men have published
anent our sisters in the field. Mr. Otho Paget says: "I am not one of
those who think that women are in the way out hunting, and in my
experience I have always considered they do much less harm than the men,
but the time when they do sin is at a check. They not only talk
themselves, but they encourage men to talk as well, and I have
repeatedly seen a woman lead a whole field over ground where the pack
intended to cast themselves. The woman, instead of attending to what
hounds are doing, enters into a conversation with a man and together
they talk on without paying heed to the damage they may do. My dear
sisters, forgive me for calling you to order, but if you would only keep
silent when hounds are at fault, and stand quite still, you perhaps
might shame your admirers into better behaviour, and thereby be the
means of furthering the interests of sport." This