- Type: Art Audio File
- Collection: European Art
- Culture/Region: Europe
- Subject Area: Visual Arts
- Grade Level: 9-12, College, Adult
Whippers-in, or whips, are members of a foxhunt responsible for keeping the hounds from straying off track. Although their role was not quite as prestigious as that of a master huntsman, they were still seen as vital to the execution of a successful foxhunt. In this excerpt from his 1841 manual on hunting, Robert Thomas Vyner sings the praises of talented whippers-in:
Nothing will be found to be of greater importance in the well conducting of the operations, than steadiness and persevering exertions on the part of the whippers-in; servants of that description are quite as difficult to meet with, as a first-rate huntsman; a master who “puts up” a booby of a groom, merely because he can ride young horses, and scream like a fish-woman, must never expect to see his hounds anything else than wild and vicious in their drawing, and heedless and unhandy in their attention to the huntsman when casting. It was the opinion of Mr. Beckford, that first-rate abilities in a whipper-in were of more consequence to the promotion of good sport, than they were in a huntsman.”