JOHNA.SEAVERNS
TUFTS UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
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HORSES AND HOUNDS:
^ J^racttcal Exznim
ON
THEIR MANAGEMENT.
By "SCRUTATOR."
ILLUSTRATED BY HARRISON WEIR.
LONDON: GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & CO., EARRINGDON STREET.
NEW YORK: 18, BEEKMAN STEEET.
1855.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Demand and high price of -well-bred horses — Mistakes in selection of brood mares and bad economy in purchasing inferior animals — Hints on feed- ing yoimg stock, especially during the winter — Superior value of horses to other stock — Paddocks — Feeding — Exercise ... p. 1
CHAPTER II.
Treatment of mares during gestation and foal-bearing — Management, diet, &c. , of the young foals ; arrangements of the stable and paddock for both — Mistakes as to early discipline, and consequent injury to the future steed — Careful management as to the hoofs, as well as use of a moderately loose rein, highly necessary — Mistakes of ordinary coach- men on the latter subject — Suggestions for improvements in harness — All irritative measures to be avoided p.l2
CHAPTER III.
Worms in young horses, and their cure — Various prescriptions — Early training at the bar, and moderation to be used — Grreat care to avoid causing inflammation while breaking in — How to stop a horse whose rider has been thrown — Ingenious cure of one that refuses to pull — Young draught horses should not be put to heavy weights — Directions how to manage young hunters across country, especially in leaping — Use of loose boxes, and large stables — Extremes of heat and cold to be carefully avoided — Clipping p. 19
CHAPTER IV.
Railways not injurious to the demand for draught horses — Comparative safety of the coach and the rail — Experience in coach accidents — Proper feeding for draught horses — Objections to the old hay-lofts — Different qualities of hay, proper season for making it — Objection to hay-making machines — Improvements introduced by Lord Ducie — Manure — Plough horses, and their hours of work — Difference of diet according to occupation — Value of wheat and other provisions, and of manure p. 27
iv CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V.
Quantity of com to be given under diflferent circumstances— IVIiscliievous consequences of over-feeding, and fallacies of quackery — Exercise should supersede medicine as much as possible — Objections to over- sweating — Ventilation of stables — Means of removing ammoniacal smells — Proper declivity of flooring — Dangerous effects of damp — Care respecting water, its quality, quantity, and time of being given — Dressing and grooming — Treatment of horses analogous to our treat- ment of ourselves — Digestion necessary before exercise — ^Treatment on returning from hunting — Washing and rubbing — Mistakes in ban- daging— Cold water beneficial both to man and beast . . . p. 34
CHAPTER YI.
Essentials for dressing and cleaning a horse — Clothing to be suited to tem- perature and time of year — To be changed in order to ensure its dryness — Separate cleaning-rooms — Too much artificial treatment pre- judicial—Dangers of sudden heats and colds— Death of a horse through inflammation induced by wrong treatment — Another anecdote — Absurd trouble taken by grooms, and unhealthy habit of hissing, puffing, and blowing while rubbing down the animal — Amusing mistakes, but ulti- mate success of a sailor turned farmer — Ancient laws for the proper treatment of old horses, and want of similar humanity in the present day — Instances of ill-treatment of old horses — Anecdote of Charles, Duke of Calabria p. 40
CHAPTER YII.
On summering in loose boxes — Various accommodation and means for so doing — A horse requires relaxation as well as a man — Abundance of water necessary — Instance of insatiate thirst — Thirst often caused by irritating over-doses of medicine — Frequent death of horses from in- judicious physicing— Subject of summering continued — Loose boxes sometimes a tolerable substitute for turning out — Diet — Over- cramming during the summer to be avoided — Young grass the best and gentlest purgative — Care required when a change is made from green to dry food — Prejudices of some persons against turning out to grass — ■ Practice and experience of the author in reference to summering — Observations of Nimrod p. 47
CHAPTER YIII.
Kemarks on the selection and purchasing of horses — Tricks of dealers — Change in the teeth as age advances — Disposition ascertainable from the appearance of the eye — Characteristics of the form indispensable to constitute a good hunter, as distinct from those of the carriage- horse — Details to be considered as to the neck and shoulders — High
CONTENTS. V
action horses objectionable, as also horses "in at the elbows" — Trial necessary in purchasing horses, and benefit of experience in effecting a purchase — Little time required to know a good horse from a bad — Points to be observed in their appearance — Length necessary, but under certain restrictions — Diseases and impeifections ; such questions best referred to the veterinary surgeon^ — Difference among the pro- fessors of that science — Curious instance — Arguments derived from sweating, and cause, symptoms, and effects of lameness in horses — Danger of the lancet in inexperienced hands — -Use of fomentations — Rules for bleeding — The "speedy cut" — Instance of it while at Oxford — Causes of broken knees ; Dangers of the wood pavement — Their treatment — Diseases of the feet — Windgalls — Cuts, and their treatment — Great care requisite in the use of the irons — Causes of internal unsoundness ; broken wind — Disadvantages and proper treat- ment of "roarers" and "whistlers" — Use and treatment of broken- winded horses — Conclusion p. 52
CHAPTER IX.
for hunting that have since become extinct — Fox-hunting the substi- tute for that of animals of a higher class — Its antiquity — The sheep dog the prototype of the canine race — -Goldsmith's theory thereupon, and its probable explanation — Curious and loose definitions of Lin- naeus and Dr. Johnson — Kefutation of the theory of the sheep dog's claim to antiquity — General views of the species ranged under the respective genera of animals — The greyhound or gaze-hound — Another theory of the origin of breeds of dogs, and probable reasons for the difference p. 61
CHAPTER X.
On the economical management of a pack of fox-hounds — The necessity of early practical knowledge relative to kennel and stable exemplified — Necessity of avoiding damp — Care taken of the New Forest hounds — Kennels should be surrounded by a wall, if possible — Lodging rooms, courts, &c. — Expense of construction p. 66
CHAPTER XI.
Change in the hours of meeting — Difference in the breed of foxes, and in the speed of the race -horses of the old and the modern school — Eclipse and Flying Childers — Number of stallions in 1777 — Faults in the present system of fox-hunting — Quotations from Markham — Condition of hounds in different countries — Reasons for the change in foxes p. 71
VI CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIT.
How to form a pack of fox-hounds — Best kennels in the present day — Mr. Assheton Smith's, Duke of Beaufort's, Lord Fitzwilliams', Earl of Yar- borough's, Lord Bentinck's, &c. — Faults to be avoided in forming a selection, and treatment while young — Hare-hunters to be avoided — Mistakes of sportsmen respecting the identity of foxes and hares — Desci'iption of a lot of draft hounds, and of the respective character of each dog- — Bad choice made by young huntsmen — Price of draft hounds as contrasted with that of good ones p. 76
CHAPTER XIII.
Huntsmen, whijipers-in, and feeders — The distemper, its prevention better than its cure — Means thereof — Exercise and air the best means of pre- vention— Story of a donkey » ... p. 82
CHAPTER XIV.
Necessity of judicious breeding — Choice of bitches — Fine symmetry of the fox-hound — Popular mistakes of the present day — Mr. Ward's skill in breeding — Time of breeding — Curious variations in the generations of hounds — Necessity for choosing good sires — Difference between "fast" and "quick" hounds — Management and feeding of the brood bitches- Selection and treatment of the whelps - Diet and medicine for puppies — Premiums for best brought up hounds at walks— Names should be given early to each young hound — Pro^jer habits in a feeder exem- plified— Symptoms of, and remedies for, the distempers and for inflam- mation of the lungs p. 85
CHAPTER XV.
judgment to be exercised in feeding — Bleeding and dressing — Prejudices of huntsmen — Beckford's remarks on dressing — Economy as to use of meal — Injudicious bleeding — Use of vegetables during the summer — Brushing, swimming, and ifeeding — Rabies canina, or hydrophobia — Fits occasionally mistaken for it — Cures of hydrophobia mentioned by old writers p. 93
CHAPTER XVI.
Instances of decided hydrophobia in the author's own kennel — Treatment of a bite under such circumstances p. 100
CHAPTER XVII.
Canker in the ear — Spaniels and Newfoundland dogs particularly subject to it — Treatment of it — Treatment of red mange — For sore breasts —
CONTEXTS. Vll
For cuts or bites — Barbarous treatment of bruised feet — Remedies for rheumatism — Use of oatmeal as food — Manner of keeping it — Its superiority to all other diet, even for labouring men — Manner of boil- ing it — Carcases of horses which have died of disease to be avoided — *' Graves" little better than poison — Insides of sheep form wholesome diet — Bad carcases often purchased for the sake of the perquisites — • No occasion for the whip at feeding hours — Ought to occupy at least an hour p. 104
CHAPTEE XVIII.
•'Food should be proportioned to work," and regulated according to the season — Tissues of the body exhausted by violent exercise — Illustra- tions of mode of treatment, and making of the "puddings" — Neces- sity of air and exercise — Walls of kennels to be frequently white- washed— Means of preventing fleas, ticks, and dust — Proper kind of straw to be used — Use of neatsfoot oil supei'seded by cleanliness — Use of sulphur — Frequent brushing highly useful — Precautions to be taken in washing dogs — The use of the warm bath after hunting doubtful, as also the practice of swimming dogs in ponds and rivers — Example of the latter — Causes and treatment of eruptive diseases — Vacations and commencement of training season — Cub-hunting — An anecdote — Number of hounds necessary p. 108
CHArTER XIX.
Bounding and education of young hounds — How to avoid their running deer — Mr. Ward's practice — Severity not necessary — Good behaviour of the author's own pack through a preserve — Exercise highly essen- tial— Cub-hunting — -A noisy whipper-in of no use — Earth-stopping — Wages to earth- stoppers in different parts of the country — Different breeds of foxes in England, France, and Germany . . . . p. 115
CHAPTER XX.
On the duties, temper, and character of a huntsman — Mistakes of young huntsmen — A really good pack of hounds will kill foxes by themselves — Good whippers-in often make bad huntsmen — Laid up ill, and my whipper-in turned huntsman — Field pleased at first — Soon wanted my return — -The pack, on my resuming my place — Anecdote of John Ward — A good receipt for a conceited whipper-in — Jack and the Ghost p. 122
CHAPTER XXI.
The duties of a whipper-in as to earths — SecoAd whip ; youths too fond of using it — How an old sportsman usually broke them in — The Pastor and Farmer Coulter — Tom, my whipper-in — Patience required in a
VIU CONTENTS.
master of hounds — Heading foxes — Every man out not a sportsman — Temper must be restrained in a master ; swearing quite unnecessary — Myself, when young, and Farmer Steers— On the yeomen and far- mers of England ; injudicious and unjust abuse too frequently levelled at them p. 130
CHAPTEE XXII.
Hour of feeding — Difference of food and treatment — Animal food necessary — Number of hounds to form the hunting pack in field^ — On drafting hounds — One fault not to be overlooked — In what the strength of a pack of fox-hounds consists — Pack of hounds that hunted hare and fox — Horses and hounds of old school — Pack dividing, and each killing their own fox p. 136
CHAPTER XXIII.
Place of meeting — Where it is best — The master should keep and follow his own counsel — Fox without a brush — Run with the same, and death — ■ Hour of meeting to be strictly attended to — The proper place for first and second whip— Confidence of hounds in a huntsman ; cruelty and roughness utterly misapplied — Different ways of di-awing — Foxes, like dogs, sleejiy in windy weather p. 142
CHAPTER XXIV.
Draw where you are most likely to find a fox — Morning best time for scent — Fair play to a fox, contrary to Beckford's opinion — No hallooing and whooping on first finding — Most likely places to find foxes early in the season — Hounds spreading wide — Upon drawing coverts and the places and business of whippers-in — Famous hound from Sir T. Mostyn's kennel — Mr. T. Palmer and " Drops of Brandy" — Dinner at his house — Deputy — Old favourites never neglected — Anecdotes of "Old Pilgrim" p. 148
CHAPTER XXY.
Laws of fox-hunting — The whole question a lex non scripta, but a matter of custom— How countries are formed and held — Coverts — Eight of master to dispose of them — Right to draw a neighbouring covert — Manner in which coverts may become lapsed — Twenty, if not seven years' undisputed possession, a legal title to a country — Mr. Assheton Smith and the Craven country — -Sir John Cope, in Collingbourne woods — The right of earth -stopping — On running into a neighbour's country — Necessity of good feeling in neighbouring huuts, propriety of forming a club, analogous to the Jockey Club, for the decision of dis- putes as to title of country — Lord Hawke's attempt — Advantages of the existing laws of fox-hunting — Tricks of keepers in destroying foxes by vermin traps p. 155
CONTENTS. IX
CHAPTER XXVI.
On game-preservers — Food of foxes not confined to game — The real •wild, good fox not a frequenter of hen-roosts — Old woman and fox " in a cradle," at Castlecoomb — Dainty taste of foxes in relation to
Lord 's venison — Another story, equally true, as to their taste for
pork — The real story — Foxes less gluttonous than is usually believed — A novus homo — The battue system — Severity in the prosecution of poachers — Comparison between the battue and the fox-hunt . p. 161
CHAPTER XXVII.
On the destruction of vermin ; traps and other contrivances for destroying them — The marten, polecat, stoat, weasel ; difference between the two latter — Mistakes of gamekeepers — Owls comparatively useful ; hawks and kites not to be spared — Common house cat, crow, magpie ; methods of entrapping them — The battue system may be allowed, but not defended — Every country gentleman may preserve his game, and yet exercise the greatest liberality and forbearance — Anecdote of a notorious poacher — Other stories illustrative of the troubled state of the country during the author's younger days p. 168
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Difficulties during a fox-chase, and best means of overcoming them — Dif- ferent behaviour of huntsmen to their hounds — Knowledge of the country essential — ^Difference between foxes early in the season and after Christmas — Relative speed of fox and fox-hound — The run — Death of the fox — The first check the most critical — Mischief of "going to halloos" — Consequence of so doing — Difficulties overcome by perseverance — A scene worthy of Landseer p. 176
CHAPTER XXIX.
Of hounds that run wide — Running the foil — A month's hunting in an- other country — Run after, and death of a fox that had baffled the huntsman three years — -The author treated to the worst fixtures — Death of a second old fox — Always attended to my hounds' dinner before my own — A sporting divine — Various remarks and anecdotes — Pursuit of a fox running with a rabbit in his mouth . . . p. 183
CHAPTER XXX.
Instead of a treatise on the art of catching foxes, I give an account of some runs in Mr. Slowman's country — His pack of hounds — Helping them to a fox, not a vixen p. 190
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXXI.
Reputation throughout the neighbourhood — Sport in Mr. Slowman's country continued — The "Artful Dodger" out-manoeuvred — New method of bolting foxes — A burst and a scramble — Hounds over-running their foxes — A cast forward not the most likely to recover the scent — Case in point — Bob and his friend — Casualties at a brook — Treeing foxes — Terriers in a di'ain — Loss of a couple of hounds for ten days, and their extraordinary recovery p. 197
CHAPTER XXXII.
Last day in Mr. Slowman's country — Departure for home — Hounds out of blood out of heart — Short days and short work necessary to recover them — Digging out a fox occasionally to be given to the hounds as an encouragement — Number of foxes' noses on kennel door no proof of sport — Foxes shy animals, particularly old ones — Curious instance of a fox evading capture in a rabbit pipe — Fast skuriy over the downs — Open and enclosed countries — A good woodland day elicits the quality of the pack— My own hounds — Kind treatment recommended, p. 206
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Beckford ; his theory and practice — Hounds should not be struck unless in the act of committing a fault — Severity censured, even in the educa- tion of boys — Leading and driving — Shying the result of harsh treat- ment— Difficulties in hunting a new country — Knowledge of his business necessary to every master of fox-hounds — Hunting establish- ments— Expenses of fees and extras — :0n purchasing horses — Best food for dogs generally p. 213
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Beckford' s advice respecting stormy weather — Master of fox-hounds con- sidered as a servant of the public— Not to take out young hounds on very bad and windy days — Losing our pack on such an occasion — A cool and easy fox — Earth-stopping, and habits of foxes in bad weather — The fox-catcher, and his manoeuvres — Scratch packs general re- ceivers— Countries should be regularly hunted, good and bad places in succession — Woodland foxes p. 220
CHAPTER XXXV.
Remarks on scent p. 227
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Is a fox a good judge of scent ? — Method of catching his game — A visit to De Ville — Stoat and rabbit — Dog foxes in the spring of the year — Effect of heat upon them p. 234
CONTENTS. XI
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Greyhound foxes — Lord Drumlanrig's run — Proposed show of fox-hounds at Tattersall's, as well as advertisements of stallions — Advantages of a Club — Choice of a President — Prizes — Changing foxes — Finish of a run in the dark — Strange place of refuge for a fox— A first-rate whipper-in of even more consequence than a first-rate huntsman — Scene in a lady's drawing room — Refuge in the chimney, and success- ful dislodgment p. 238
CHAPTEH XXXVIII.
Difference between wild and woodland bred foxes — Difficulty sometimes of making thefn break covert — Various experiments — The "black bitch" — Smoking them out — Changes and expenses in hunting establish- ments at the present day — Kennels in the grass countries — Sham and real friends to foxes — Vixen and cubs — Earth-stopping in March — The whippers-in ought to visit the earths — Episode of Jim, . . p. 245
CHAPTER XXXIX.
Tricks of keepers — A master of fox-hounds ought to possess manifold knowledge, as his business is most various in its demands — Farmers generally favourable to fox-hunting — Jim and the farmer's daughter — Foxes which lie idle easily disposed of — The weather constantly blamed for bad sport, without reason — Foxes should have a fair start — The wild system of the present day condemned — Gentlemen huntsmen — "Blood will tell" — Mr. Delme Radcliflfe — Mr. Osbaldestone — Assheton Smith — Not indispensable that a gentleman should always feed his own hounds — Lord Darlington and Mr. Meynell — Feeding hounds after hunting — Quotation from the author of the "Noble Science" — Fox- hunting not intended to be the sole business of life — Whippers-in who have lived under gentlemen huntsmen — Hills and the two Tread- wells . p. 252
CHAPTER XL.
On trapping foxes — How to foil fox-killing keepers — Bag foxes— DiS'erence of scent — Run with one — Riding too close upon the pack — Hard riders and good riders to hounds — Advice to young sportsmen — The balance seat — Look before you leap into a pond — A good rider should never part company with his horse, unless both are down together — The Centaur seat p. 259
CHAPTER XLI.
On riding to hounds — A jealous sportsman — Light and heavy weights — A sporting Baronet — Training hunters — Irish method — Making the most of your horse — Steeple-chasing and calf-hunting condemned as cruel and absurd — Easter Monday — Her Majesty's stag-hounds in the New Forest — The meet and finish , . p. 267
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XLII.
On the management of young hounds when first coming into kennel — Pre- judices of huntsmen — Air and exercise — Fox-hunting an antidote to melancholy — A few remarks on hare-hunting — ^Hounds best suited to this sport — Huntsman and whipper-in — Peculiar knowledge requisite for breeding hounds successfully — The late Mr. Ward — Harriers should be kept strictly to their own game p. 275
CHAPTER XLIII.
Advantages of hare-hunting in some respects over fox-hunting — Reduction of expenses in fox-hunting establishments to meet the times — Mr. Yeatman and his pack of harriers — Unfair prejudices against hare- hunting — A random shot at fox-hunters — Liberality the true spirit of fox -hunters — Liberal game preservers — The Squire of C*****n — Foxes do not live upon game only — Letter from an old fox-hunter — Artful keepers turning down foxes when the hounds meet to draw their pre- serves— Way to detect such practices p. 282
CHAPTER XLIV.
On bag-foxes — Scratch packs hunting them — An old fox-hunter convicting a master of harriers of his mal-practices — Improving our breed of foxes — Run with a dark-coloured fox — List of hoimds on hunting days — Diary — Effects of bathing hounds after hunting . . p. 291
CHAPTER XLV.
Estimates of expenses of a fox-hunting establishment — Wages, food, and allowances — Quality of land — Expenses for two days a week — Selec- tion of hunters — Objection to "screws" — Other items of expense — Saddles, bridles, rugs, &c. — Economy may and should be observed — Reasons for leaving out of the list the farrier — The huntsman's book, or annual bill — Earth -stopping, and fees to keepers — Advantages of the old system in preventing needless extortion — Proposals for a remedy of the evil — Opinion of Mr. Delme Radcliffe . . . p. 296
HOESES AND HOUNDS:
A PEACTICAL TEEATISE ON THEIE MANAGEMENT.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER OIS" THE HORSE.
Illi ardua cerrix,
Ai'giitumque caput, brevis alvus, obesaque terga; Luxuriatque toris animosiun pectus : honesti Spadices, glaucique." — Virgil, Ge. iii. 79.
Demand and higli price of well-bred horses — Mistakes in selection of brood mares, and bad economy in purchasing inferior animals— Hints on feed- ing yoimg stock, especially during the winter — Superior value of horses to other stock — Paddocks — Feeding — Exercise.
From the high prices which well-bred horses of good form and figure have commanded, for many years past, and still maintain, it is matter of sur])rise that breeding this kind of stock, as a system, has not been more generally adopted by the enlightened agriculturists of the present day. Good hunters have always sold at a high figure, but it is no unusual circumstance to find carriage horses in the hands of our London Job Masters, at the present moment, valued at 300 guineas the pair. Good weight-carrying hunters are always in request, for which from 200 to 300 guineas is not an unusual price realized by dealers. Horses of this descrip- tion, however, are seldom met with out of the great northern districts, Avhich have hitherto produced the finest animals ; and to the great fairs at Horncastle, Rugby, and other places, dealers from all parts of England, and the continent also, are attracted to make their purchases. In the midland and western counties, few good horses are ever produced by farmers, and the reason assigned is, that it does not pay them to breed horses. I admit that it does not, and never will pay them to raise such animals
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2 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
as are generally found in tlieir possession, the value of wliich rarely exceeds thirty pounds ; but, as many writers on the horse have assumed, tliat the Equine race thrive best in genial lati- tudes, there is no reason why as good animals should not be raised in the south, as in the north of England ; in fact, as far as climate is concerned, the southern parts of the country ought to surpass the northern in the production of this kind of stock. But the real cause of failure lies in the breed and form of the brood mares, and the little attention paid to their offspring. Were farmers to pay as much attention to the selection of pro- per animals for this purpose, as they do to their other kinds of farm stock, the result would be very different. I have known from twenty to thirty guineas given bj^ farmers of enterprise for good three-year old heifers of the short-horned, or Durham breed ; and from fifty to ninety guineas for a yearling bull of the same sort. Good Leicester and Southdown rams often sell from thirty to one hundred pounds. But if you w^ere to advise a man to lay out thirty or forty pounds, or even twenty, in the purchase of a clever well-bred brood mare, he would tell joii that " he should never see his money again." And why not ? Let him only pay the same attention to his horse, as he does to his cow, or sheep stock, and I will answer for it that he is not disappointed, supposing, of course, that he is a man of sound judgment. Let us just compare the cost of raising and fatten- ing a Durham bullock, which is to be handed over to the butcher at three years old, with that of a four-year old colt, put- ting the prime cost of their dams at the same price. I am not going to recommend any extraordinary care or expenses, well knowing that I should, on that account, be met in limine with the old reply — " It wont pay." Well, then, we will endeavour to point out what tvill pay, v/ithout building expensive loose boxes, making fine paddocks, and feeding upon an unlimited quantity of oats and beans all the year round. This system we must allow to remain where it is at present, and is likely to continue, with gentlemen amateurs, and breeders for the turf. To agriculturists generally it would be a mere waste of paper to recommend any such plan, except in a very modi- fied degree. More on this subject I reserve for masters of foxhounds, and sporting men, who supply their studs from their own stock. A Durham calt, to be reared to a large size, will consume the whole of its mother s milk up to a certain period, and when weaned will require, as a substitute, a good allowance of linseed tea, or mucilage. Tlie foal will subsist for two or three months upon its mother's milk, with what grass it ca.n pick up whilst at pasture. The keep of a mare and cow in
HORSES AND HOUXDS. 3
this state I consider to be about equal. From the first of November we may consider the winter to have commenced, and after that time both cattle and horses should be removed from their pastures into a well-protected yard, with sheds round it. The calf will now require at least half a hundred weight of barley meal, or oil cake, per week, in addition to hay and tur- nips. The colt we will allow two bushels of bruised oats mixed with chaff, and the same quantity of hay as the calf, substi- tuting a few carrots in the place of the turnips. The cost of the barley meal and the oats will amount to the same, so that the two animals will proceed pari passit as to the expense of their extra food. This mode of feeding' should continue for twenty-six weeks, involving an outlay of six pounds ten shillings for each animal independently of hay and roots.
The question now is, will the yearlings pay for this treat- ment ? In my own opinion, there cannot be any doubt of it. By well keeping young cattle the first winter they may be forced to great w^eight and size, and be ready for the market at three years old instead of four. The horse will require another year before he is saleable, but unless w^ell treated the first winter, which is always the most trying for young animals of all kinds, he will not arrive at perfection of growth or shape. Having now reached the month of May, we will, to save the farmer any further trouble, turn the two animals out to pasture, only stipulating that they shall have a shed to take shelter in from heat and storms, and if for the first fortnight a few bruised oats be allow^ed the colt night and morning, and the like quantity of meal and cut-hay chaff to the steer, no great damage will be done to his interest, or to that of the farmer. The same course is to be pursued the following autumn and winter, when the steer will consume more extra food as w^ell as the horse, whose allowance of corn may be increased if necessary by one bushel, making three per w^eek.* The second summer they will fare alike ; but in September the steer will require to be taken up from the pasture, and consigned to the bullock-pen for fat- tening. The allowance of oil-cake, barley meal, and roots, must now be administered with no sparing hand, and the extra quantity given to the steer will frank the horse through his third -winter.
\Ye now come to the relative value of the two animals upon leaving the breeder's premises, the one for the shambles, the other for the dealer's, or gentleman's stables. The bullock, if well
* This quantity of corn may by some be considered too much, but not so in r^y opinion, since without forcing colts the first and second winter, they will not attain \-igorous growth. — Scrutator.
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4 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
made out, may be worth about tliirty-five pounds. Tlie horse, at the lowest, will be worth sixty ; and may realize nearly, if not quite, three figures if purchased by a gentleman. This may be said to be '*' doing a horse" only in a very rough manner, after all. It may be so — but non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum.. Farmers, in a general way, cannot be expected to do more, and few, perhaps, will do as much. Let them, how- ever, try this plan first, and if it succeeds, of which, I think, there is scarcely a question, they v/ill then go a little further. I now turn to gentlemen breeders, still keeping on the side of economy. In a future chapter, I purpose instituting a compari- son between pasturing cattle and horses in the usual way, and the improved system of stall-feeding upon artificial grasses, Lucerne, vetches, &c.
It is very desirable for every master of foxhounds to keep a certain number of good brood mares, from which he may derive a succession of young horses, to fill up the vacancies which will occur in his establishment. Without incurring any very great expense, such as purchasing high-priced thorough-bred mares, wjiich, if of any notoriety as successful racers, will alwaj^s com- mand a high figure, there are many to be met with of perhaps equally good pedigree, whose speed has not been sufficient to place theui in a high position as racers, but winch will, not- withstanding, serve the purpose of brood mares_ equally well, and ]n'oduce good hunters. The successful breeding of horses, as well as of hounds and all other animals, requires no small share of judgment as well as a thorough knowledge of all those points which, when combined, constitute what is commonly called symmetry. In breeding horses, there are also many other con- siderations to be attended to, besides shape and make. Both sire and dam should be of good constitutions, and free from any natural defect, in wind, limb, or vision ; accidental defects are of little consequence, — the loss of an eye, for instance, where there is no constitutional weakness or deformity in that organ. Broken knees, and other injuries to the limbs and feet, from accidental causes, are of little import in brood mares. Spavins and curbs are, however, highly objectionable; being generally the result of weakness in the hock joint. Even ring bones and sand cracks should be avoided.
I once had a very fine brood mare with a sand crack, which I thought little of, and put her to a first-rate stallion ; the pro- duce was a remarkably fine colt, which, at four years old, became a splendid horse, and was in every respect calculated to make a first-rate hunter, but when broken in he became quite lame from the same cause, and was obliged to be consigned to
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 5
the plough team. This proves how careful we should be in the selection of brood mares, as imperfections of every kind in the parents will generally, I do not say in every instance, descend to the offspring. Breeding for the turf and for the hunting- field are two distinct things, and good hunters maybe obtained from three parts bred mares, as well as thorough-bred ; but by breeding from the latter you have two strings to your bow, either to sell them at two years old to go into training, if likely to suit such a purpose, or to reserve them for your own establishment as hunters.
Thorough-bred horses, moreover, command a much higher price in these fast days ; and the extra expense in the purchase of thorough-bred mares will soon be made good by the extra price to be obtained from their produce. Let no person, how- ever, delude himself with the idea that he can breed animals of any figure or size from the drafts which are generally made from racing establishments, many of which are sold at a very low price. These weeds, although ever so well bred, will never answer the purpose of brood mares, for which the finest animals should always be selected. A friend of mine once tried to raise a thorough-bred stock in this manner; he purchased some under- sized well bred draft fillies for about twenty-five pounds each, and sent them to the first-rate stallion of the day, sparing no expense ; paddocks and sheds were provided, and everything done to ensure success. I warned him of the consequence to no purpose ; in due time the produce arrived, and very prettj'" things they were to look at. For two years they were pampered and fed with everything they would eat, and then sent to a trainer. At the end of a twelvemonth they were returned to their owner as bad goods, and with a long bill to pay into the bargain ; my friend was exceedingly disgusted, and gave up his breeding establishment. For our purpose great speed is not of such vast importance, neither is it in the power of many to purchase winning mares, or even first class brood mares. Those of the second class will do very well, provided they have lasting qualities, and can maintain a fourth or fifth place in the race. Such mares, if put to a thorough-bred speedy horse, may and often do produce winners of large stakes ; in any case their stock will prove highly valuable as hunters. The first con- sideration with brood mares is size ; from weeds, I have already observed, nothing but weeds can be expected, — by which I mean, horses only suitable for hacks or to carry ladies ;— but by size I must not be supposed to mean overgrown leggy animals either ; a medium standard is always best; from fifteen hands and a half to fifteen hands three inches is sufficient height for any brood
b HORSES AND HOUNDS.
mare. As to points, tbey should be somewhat after tliis fasliion : the head small, neck rather long, shoulders lying back, back long, with good loins; the breast deep, with wide ribs; the fore-legs should be straight, standing clear of the body at the elbows. From the knee to the fetlock joint short, tlie pasterns also must not be too long; hind quarters lengthy and muscular, with good sound hocks. I have observed in most animals, that unless there is a certain length and depth in the flank, they will scarcely ever produce fine offspring. To use a phrase common amongst horse-dealers, a brood mare should be a roomy animal. Those which are high on the leg, with short bodies, will not, in my opinion, ever answer the purpose. I have made the attempt against my own conviction, merely as an experiment, and a failure was the consequence. Size and length in the sire will not compensate for the deficiency of those requisites in the dam. In six cases out of eight, the colt will follow tlie proportions of the mare, and so prevalent has been this opinion among good judges of breeding, that a famous breeder of race-horses once said of his mare, a very noted one, tliat it was of little conse- quence to what horse she was put, as she always produced a winner. There is a very old but true saying, " that blood will tell ;" brood mares should, therefore, be selected from good and well tried stock, of long pedigree. It is likewise a fact well known, that the bone of thorough-bred horses is different in its texture from that of a cart horse. The first is more solid, and consequently heavier than the latter, and even as to measure I have seen the experiment tried with a well-bred horse and a large cart horse, which proved in fiivour of the former, but perfection as to shape and make is seldom to be met with.
In breeding, therefore, we must endeavour to make up for the deficiency of any good points in the dam, by the abundance or preponderance of those points in the sire. Temper also should not be overlooked, although men on the turf do not care much about the disposition of their racers, provided they have the dis- position and the power also to win. I once had a thorough- bred mare, of the very worst temper, which I rode for several seasons. She was almost unmanageable in the stable, and as soon as mounted, would kick furiously for a short time, but afterwards carried me quietly enougli, and by being calm and determined, I at last obtained conqilete control over her. Not so, however, with the groom. Slie always had a loose box, at the furthest end of the stable, to herself, but one night having by some means opened the door of her box, she rushed upon another mare in the adjoining stall, and began tearing her with lier teeth* A servant who slept in the house being awakened
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 7
by this uproar in the stable, ran down, and endeavoured to drive her back to her own box, but she attacked him in turn, and he was obliged to run and call me up. Hastily putting on my things, I rushed down to the stable, and found this brute had bitten the other in a most fearful manner, and kicked her leg off. Upon hearing my voice she immediately left off, and became quiet, but the other mare was obliged to be killed at once. • This gave me a lesson not to keep bad tempers again.
In a neighbouring hunt some years since, the proprietor of the establishment had a famous thorough-bred stallion, but of an infamous temper, and tins peculiarity descended in no mitigated degree to his stock, so much so, indeed, that several of them, when admitted into the hunting stable, were obliged to be thrown, before they could be mounted. Strange, however, as it may appear, the whippers-in preferred these bad-tempered horses to all others, for their superior qualifications as hunters, being resolute at their fences, fast and seldom beaten, even in the hardest day.
I have likewise been told that when thrown from the saddle, these horses would sometimes turn upon their riders, and endeavour to tear them with their teeth. To ride hunting upon such tigers I should consider no very agreeable pastime, but that such was the fact, the authority from whom this infonnation came is sufficient guarantee. A bad tempered horse may be generally known by the eye, being rather small, with a heavy brow, feuch are often most resolute, both in the field and on the turf, but vice, whether in man, woman, or horse, should be avoided, as productive in the aggregate of more evil results than good ones,
A horse is considered in his prime, from six to ten years of age, and for even a much longer time, he is capable of doing good service. Brood mares may be used as such until their fourteenth or fifteenth year ; some will last longer, but the pro- duce from animals aged beyond that period, will be diminutive. From young mares and old horses, fine stock will often be obtained, but I should never recommend breeding from two old animab.
The next consideration is the number of brood mares neces- sary for the purpose, and the provision as to paddocks and sheds. The former question must depend upon the scale on which a hunting establishment is conducted, and the latter upon the expense the proprietor is inclined to incur. For a moderate hunting establishment, from four to six brood mares will be sufficient, provided they be well selected, of good pedigree, clever in make and shape, and, in short, such as
8 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
can be reasonably expected to produce fine and promising stock.
Some go to a great expense in making paddocks, erecting skeds, &c., for wliich there is no real necessity; and, as a matter of course, the greater the expenses in such things, the smaller will be the profits, when all these things are taken into consideration. Good paddocks may be fenced in, and sheds constructed to answer every necessary purpose, at a very moderate cost, A plat of healthy ground should be chosen, of even surface, and in a sheltered sitiiation. A quarter of an acre is sufficient space for each mare. The fence may be made of fir poles, placed upright, and high enough to prevent the mares having access to each other. The framework of the sheds, made of wood, and the sides closed up with gorse or wattled hurdles, with a frontage to the south. The ends of the pad- docks should be in a half circle ; all angles are to be avoided to prevent accidents to the mares in turning. The roof of the sheds should be of thatch, which is warmer in winter than tiles. In districts where stone abounds, the fence may be made of this material, and the sheds also, but good wattling, with gorse or straw, rammed down firmly between it, will form a very good protection against wind and rain.
We now come to a point, at wdiich it is more than iirobable I shall be at issue with many breeders of horses in the present day. It must be, therefore, borne in mind, that the observa- tions I am about to make, on the feeding and general manage- ment of mares and their foals, and horses generally, are not intended, or indeed applicable to racing or training establish- ments. Our purpose is principally to breed for the hunting field, and at as little cost as is consistent with reasonable expectations. It has been asserted by some writers on this subject, that horses should be treated nearly, if not precisely, in the same manner as oxen and other cattle are treated by the enlightened agriculturists of the present day, that is to say, that they should be confined in paddocks, as oxen are in yards, from their earliest age, and kept in a fattening state, until placed in the hands of the breaker. Now, although somewhat of a farmer myself, I am not going to enter upon a discussion whether this system of " beef manufacturing," as it is popularly called, is a remunerating one or not ; my own impression being, that it is not, considering the very low price of fat stock. The chief, and in fact, sometimes, the only return made to the farmer, being in the extra quantity of manure thus produced for his farm, and which again produces so many extra bushels of corn when applied to the land. The treatment of horses and
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 9
oxen has not, in my opinion, any affinity; the purposes for ■which they are intended being so widely different. By stall or box feeding, young cattle are brought into the market much earlier than in the usual course, being kept almost in a fatting state from the time they are calves, the object of the feeder being to keep them in as quiescent a state as possible, for the increase of fat or bulk. Yards and boxes are therefore the best places to carry out this object, with high feeding and a great variety of food. But wliat purpose is to be gained by making a three year old colt as fat as a bullock of the same age ? Horses are not sold by weight; the hand of a horse dealer is not directed to the flank or ribs of a horse, to feel how much fat there is, but to his arms and legs, to find what bone and muscle he possesses. The bullock is required to put on fat as quickly and regularly as possible. The horse should put on muscle and strength to ht him to carry the weight of another, as well as his own, and I think it can scarcely be questioned whether exercise is not as essentially necessary for this purpose in the horse, as quietude is of importance to produce the other and contrary effect with the bullock. Whoever has examined the arms of a blacksmith, or the legs of a porter, must be satisfied, that the constant exercise of the muscles in these limbs, is the cause of their strong development
It has also been said, that horses can be kept at less expense all the year round, by having green food cut and given them in their paddocks. To this doctrine I cannot quite subscribe — when the costs of labour, cartage, &c., are taken into account — for green food, whether grass, vetches, or Lucerne, should be cut fresh every day, and in diy weather, or it will ferment, and be in that state more likely to produce viscous humours. The paddocks of which I have above written, are not intended to be occupied by the brood mares all the year round, but only from the end of October, to the beginning of April or May, according as the season may be, early or late. From the middle of April or beginning of ]\Iay, the mares should have the run of a large and dry field, with not very luxuriant grass in it, and open sheds to shelter them from the heat, or they may be caught u]) with their foals, during hot weather, in the day time, and led into their own paddocks, there to remain until the evening. The mares, when used to each other, will run quietly together, and I can only say my own brood mares were treated in this manner for some years, and no accident occurred, either to foals or dams. A bad temjiered mare must not, of course, be allowed to remain with the others, but from vicious tempers I would rather not breed at all. I am aware that the present system^ or
10 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
at. least the system advocated by writers on the horse of the present day, are entirely at variance with my views and opinions, but I need only inquire whetlier this system has pro- duced, and is producing the tine animals which come from York- shire and Lincolnshire. Are these horses produced from pad- dock or box feeding'? With few exceptions, I think I may under- take to say that they are not ; neither in a general way will such a system be adopted, even by the enlightened agriculturists of the present day. Confinement in boxes and paddocks is not only not necessary, but I think certainly prejudicial to the growth of young horses. I once tried the plan of rearing young hounds at home in a large green yard ; fat enough they became, but in bone and muscle there was an evident deficiency ; neit]ier were they straight on their legs ; and I consider that this was owing to the want of proper air and exercise. Why then should not young horses suffer from the same cause, confinement in a small paddock, without the free exercise of limbs and lungs, which are of equal importance to them as to hounds, and even more so. Hardness and fulness of muscle cannot be obtained witliout constant exercise, in my humble opinion, and I think I have reason and common sense on my side. It is a different thing with those intended for the turf, which may be said to begin training almost as soon as they are foaled. Their work commences two years before a hunter would even be backed, and the severe training they go through requires the high feeding and artificial treatment they experience. That both their frames and constitutions are affected by this severe and early discipline there can be little doubt.
How few, out of the large number of young horses, thus early entrusted to the trainer's hands, come out conspicuous for fine symmetry, or as successful racers ! There are more bad race horses bred and brought to the post at the present day, than at any period during the last century ; and I do not see that this proves very much for the judgment or system either, of our present breeders. Our forefathers were proud of bringing out fine and good animals, which would run a four mile course for heats. In the present day short courses are the fashion, and speed the chief consideration ; but for breeding hunters, give me rather a stout running horse than a speedy one. There are many horses good for half a mile, others good for a mile and a distance, but beyond that, good for nothing. Breeders of race horses only, can go on Avith their system of forcing their young stock in this artificial manner, but it is not necessary for our purpose. Horses for hunting should be of a certain age before they are subjected to the trial of a hard day with fox hounds.
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 11
At five years old tliey may be capable of doing a fair day's work, but they do not arrive at their perfection of strength until seven. If at two years old, it can do no harm to canter a young horse in training over a mile course, with a feather weight upon his back ; by the same rule a young horse intiaided for hunting, should be allowed to canter or gallop at will, in a good large open pasture, and I will venture to say he will be all the better for it.
My own brood mares and colts were treated in the manner I have thus described, and the result of my system of breeding was this, that for the drafts sold, which I considered unfit for hunting purposes, at four years old, I obtained, the lowest price thirty-five guineas, and the highest eighty guineas. One only was sold at the first low figure. Those I kept were, of course, the most valuable, and for one which I rode myself, I was oftered 200 guineas ; but price would never tempt me to part with a horse which suited me. By returning the brood mares to their paddocks, the end of October, and keeping them there until they have foaled, all risk of their injuring each other, when heavy, will be avoided, and until they become so, the more exercise, in moderation, the better. To all animals in a state of gestation, nothing is more injurious than confinement in small cramped places, and this alone is often productive of fatal consequences, either to the offspring or the mother, some- times to both. I could quote many instances to prove this fact, were it necessary, but we need only refer to the parturition of animals in a state of nature, to establish this point. The earlier foals are produced, the stronger they will generally prove. From the second week of February until the end of April are the best months. Those foaled during the summer are often weak, and require much more care throughout the ensuing winter, neither will they ever arrive at the same state of per- fection as the early bred. The treatment of mares and foals will form the subject of my next chapter.
12 nOKSES AND HOUNDS.
CHAPTER II.
Treatment of mares during gestation and foal-bearing — Management, diet, &c., of the young foals ; arrangements of the stable and paddock for both — Mistakes as to early discipline, and consequent injury to tlie future steed — Careful management as to the hoofs, as well as use of a moderately loose rein, highly necessary — Mistakes of ordinary coachmen on the latter subject — Suggestions for improvements in harness — All irritative mea- sui-es to be avoided.
The treatment of mares before foaling requires particular attention, and, as at this season of the year, from the beginning of February until the end of April, there will be little grass available for the purpose of inducing a good flow of milk, it will be necessary to have recourse to other substitutes to pro- duce this effect ; carrots have been objected to by some, but my impression is, that the large white Belgian carrot is an excellent vegetable for horses almost at any time, and is of much milder properties than tlie common red kind. Swedish turnips also agree well with horses, who are, likewise, very fond of them • they should be cut into thin slices, having previously been well washed. It is needless to comment upon 'bran mashes, which have always been in such general use ; these may be given every other day, a fortnight before the mare's time of foaling expires, and if some bruised oats are added, they will be more readily eaten. The best way of preparing a bran mash is to pour boiling water upon the bran in a bucket, and cover it over ^^ ith a rug or cloth half an hour at least before it is used, the corn being mixed with the bran and steeped with it. Boiled barley is also an excellent article of food, being very nourishing and produc- tive of milk ; it should be well washed first, and then boiled until quite soft. Horses are also very fond of steamed potatoes, which may be occasionally given mixed with a small quantity of common salt. Mangel wurzel is also a very useful root, but must be given with caution, bei ng of a laxative nature ; but it is a great producer of milk, and to mares in foal I should prefer giving it boiled rather tlian in a raw state. Parsnips are a sweet 'and wholesome substitute for green food, although not very productive of milk.
With some or all of these articles of diet, used alternately, mares may be kept in a healthy and cool state of body, with a good su])ply of milk, until Lucerne, or early grass can be obtained. They should be allowed the use of the paddock, unless in very bad weather, when they may be shut up in their sheds, and at night also; but, as I have before observed, exercise is essential
HOKSES AND HOUNDS. lo
to the production of healthy offspring, and no animal will do well without it. The floor of the shed should be littered over with straw, but not too thickly, so as to incommode the mare and foal when dropped.
The parturition of mares is generally very easy, and they seldom require more assistance than any groom of common acquaintance with such cases can aftbrd, and in ten cases out of a dozen they will not only require no assistance at all, but are much better without the officious meddling of a would-be scien- tific professor of the veterinary art. " To let well alone," is a maxim which cannot be too often inculcated ; should, however, any difficulty occur, it is better at once to call in the assistance of some clever veterinary surgeon, than trust a valuable animal's life in the hands of an ignorant groom, or a not much more enlightened village professor. After the foal has been dropped, and the mare has performed the operation of licking it all over, a bucket of warm gruel should be given to her, and for the first two or three days warm water, with some mashes with bruised corn in them. jMares are generally very jealous of their foals, and should not be unnecessarily interfered with at this early period; the quieter they are kept the better, neither should more than one person (the man to whom she has been accus- tomed,) be admitted into the shed. Strangers will only excite and irritate her, and perhaps be the cause of injury to the foal. On the third day the mare and foal should be allowed togo in and out of the paddock attached to her shed, at will, if the weather is tolerably fine; but at this early age the foal should be protected from rain, which the woolly nature of its coat will retain for a long time, and cause illness.
Although, however, every precaution should be taken to avoid exposure to rain and cold storms, yet I am no advocate for foals, when a week old, being kept too warm, or entirely under shelter; they will not be injured by exposure to cold drying winds or in frosty weather, by being allowed the use of the paddock in the middle of the day, but on the contrary, be hardened and improved by it ; and if not let out too early in the morning, or kept out too late in the evening, will advance rapidly in growth and strength. The milk of the mare has always a decided influence over the foal, and will produce, as she is fed, either a laxative or constipated state of bowels. If fed highly on corn and hay only, constipation will be the result to the foal, and if, on the contrary, with too many vegetables of a laxative kind, looseness will follow. It will therefore be necessary to regulate the food of the mare accordingly, without being obliged to admiaister physic to the foal, which should not
14 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
be done unless a very feverish state of body absolutely requires it ; a clyster, in such a case, is the safest and most simple remedy. Should relaxation of the bowels approaching to diarrhoea occur, this may be counteracted by feeding the mare upon dry food only, for a day or two, with a few split beans in her corn. In case of eruptions breaking out, either upon mare or foal, it will be necessary to give sulphur for a day or two, in a bran mash ; but during this treatment all exposure to cold or rain must be avoided. Nitre is also an excellent alterative for horses, and can be given either in a ball or mixed with bran, or dissolved in water. Nitre and sulphur mixed, two parts of the former with one of the latter, form the best alterative for horses, and wdiich can be given in a bran mash. Sulphur alone is apt to open the pores of the skin too much, and in cold weather may be objectionable. As soon as the foal shows a disposition to eat corn, there should be a low manger appropriated to its own use, apart from that of the mare, and at first some bruised oats with bran may be given : to prevent the mare interfering with the foal, she should have her feed of corn at the same time, and be tied up.
The earlier foals are handled the more tractable they will become, but there is no necessity for a head-collar being put on until they are weaned, and then it should not remain on longer than is necessary to accustom them to the use of it. Foals will soon become not only acquainted with, but attached to a good- tempered and painstaking man, and be rather more particular in their attentions than may be quite agreeable, and such a person may do almost anything with them ; they will soon follow him anywhere he may wish to lead them. There are no horses in the world more obedient and attached to their masters than the Arab, which may be said to form a part of the family from their earliest age, neither do they exhibit those vices which are so prevalent among our own breed of horses. The kicking and biting propensities so common among our thorough-bred stock are often induced and fostered by the mischievous dis- positions of the lads and grooms to whom they are intrusted. As soon as the weather is tolerably warm, and the grass begins to grow, about the end of April, the mare and foal should have the use of a large field, and be taken up in the evening. When the pasturage is plentiful, a feed of corn in the morning before they are turned out, and another in the evening when caught up and consigned to their paddock and shed, will be sufficient. It is of no use to pamper and feed foals with over quantities of corn at this early period, as they will attain sufficient growth "without it; all they require is good and nourishing food. Animals
HORSES AXD HOUNDS. 15
of all kinds, witli moderate care, will arrive in proper time at the standard of tlieir parents, in this respect ft)llowing either sire or dam, generally the latter, and sometimes going back either in colour, shape, or make, to their progenitors. Nothing will be gained by over-forcing, except an overgrowth in some, which is anything but desirable, or an overload of fat in others.
There is, indeed, a good deal of common sense in keeping young horses in, what is generally termed, a good growing and improving state. Everything beyond that is unnecessary in our department of breeding for the hunting field. Good heavy oats, we all know, are the most likely to produce muscle ; and two feeds of these during the summer, and three or four when the autumn commences, and up to the ensuing spring, will be amply sufficient to bring any foal up to a proper standard.
Foals may be weaned early or late in the autumn, according to tlieir age, the state of their m.other and her milk. When the foal is weaned, the mare should be attended to, and if her udd^r become distended, the milk should be drawn off once a day. A slight dose of physic will, however, now be necessary also. Should the udder become hard, goose grease, or lard, should be rubbed in ; the former is one of the most penetrating ointments, or applications, that can be used, and is likewise of a drying nature. The lard has more softening and soothing qualities, and is generally more safe in its application to such tender parts. In case of inflammation, or the mare's being in a very feverish state, bleeding will be necessary. Should the mother be full of milk, and in good case, I should prefer letting the foal remain with her until the end of September, or beginning of October, in preference to stopping suddenly her full supply of milk. A foal, when weaned, requires a companion, and if no other can be found, a young donkey will answer the purpose. Fillies and colts of the same age will do well together, having a good roomy shed, and mangers, and racks for hay, placed in different situa- tions, so that they cannot interfere with each other ; but after the first winter, the fillies and colts must be kept separate, and even before, if the latter show any disposition to be troublesome.
The first Avinter is always the most severe trial to all young animals, and if not well fed and attended to, their growth will receive a check, which they will never afterwards recover. _ Get them well over this, and launch them fairly in good condition in the following month of May, and little anxiety is necessary as to their future well doing. Vary their food during the first winter, and give them linseed tea. An excellent food is pre- pared by boiling linseed to a jjulp and infusing it over hay chaff* mixed with bruised oats. This is the most nourishing diet that
16 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
any young animals can be fed on : it will not only keep tliem in good condition, but make tliem sleek and soft in their skins.
During the winter months, the foals should be often handled, and they will soon allow themselves to be rubbed dry, if wet, and their feet to be taken up ; and for this purpose they should be entrusted to the care of a good-tempered and patient person. Boys are not to be trusted. When used to the head collar, they may be led about the paddock, and soon out into the field, and will require very little trouble afterwards in breaking. I may here mention, as a caution, that the head collar should not be allowed to remain on during the night, or longer than necessary during the day, as I have known accidents occur from foals en- deavouring to scratch them off, and getting their hind feet entangled in the throat lash. Their being only accustomed to the use of it, and being occasionally led about in the paddock or field, will be a sufficient commencement of discipline^ for the first season. It maybe thought scarcely necessary to impress upon any one, who is at all acquainted with the management of horses generally, the precaution that there be no accumulation of filth in the sheds, and that young horses require, as well as old ones, a suj»ply of fresh litter continually, as well as a good ventilation. The feet of colts, the first season, require little ttention, or, rather, meddling with. If dry or brittle, a little ard should be rubbed over them, mixed with a very small pro- portion of tar. If growing too long at the toe, they may be pared back, but I would not allow any blacksmith to interfere further, or touch the heel of the foot, as there is more mischief done by hollowing and cutting out this (as some village prac- titioners are in the habit of doing) than many are aware of. The frog of a horse's foot is his chief support, and everything that will weaken this should be carefully avoided : but by ignorant blacksmiths the frog is so pared down, that the chief weight of the animal is taken from the wide and even bearing of the frog and hoof combined, and thrown almost entirely upon the sides of the foot. The feet of foals should be as little interfered with as possible, and this first formation is the model to which the feet of horses throughout life should be as nearly as possible assimilated. I have known horses' feet so pared down, that the sole of the foot was not much thicker than a shilling, and thus the agony caused by stepping on a stone would throw a horse down. From the same cause arise corns. Instead of trying to im- prove nature, it would be much better if these wiseacres of black- smiths would be satisfied to conform to the model which is pre- sented them in the formation of a foal's foot. The ignorance of some village practitioners is only equalled by their obstinacy in
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 17
resolutely following their own preconceived opinions, in oppo- sition to all advice which may be offered to them. Common sense and common observation are alike excluded from their general practice.
When three years old, young horses should be taken more in hand. They may then be led out from home with a long rein attached to the bit, which should be a simple snaffle, with a rein also attached to a pad upon the back. This rein should only be sufficiently tightened to prevent the horse getting his head down too low, Eeining them up too tightly will occasion them to rear and throw themselves over on their backs. There is no greater cruelty practised with horses than with a tight bearing rein. Look at the carriage horses in London, cliamping and chafing upon their bits, with their heads kept in this unnatural position for hours together during the day, and yet no coachman appears to be aware of this cruelty, or point it out to his master or mistress. Upon cab and coach-horse proprietors some light appears at last to have broken, for we seldom now see their horses subjected to the cruelty of the tight-bearing rein. They have probably been taught by experience, that a horse can do much more work, and more easily to himself, by having his head at liberty. Should these humble pages meet the eye of any who delight to ride in fine carriages, drawn by richly capa- risoned horses, I trust they will not consider the observations I have made upon this point, as entirely beneath their notice. Whatever may be urged by their coachmen to the contrary, let this nuisance to their horses be abated. Let the bearing rein be only sufficiently tight, to i)revent the horse getting his head between his knees, and no evil consequences can follow. Let any one who is not satisfied with my remarks, only examine the mouth of any old carriage horse, which lias been thus treated, and he will soon be convinced by its unnatural elongation, al- most up to his back teeth, of the cruelty which has been so long, and so unnecessarily ijractised. Were a man's own mouth thus dealt with, it would soon extend from ear to ear — and, I must confess, I should like to see some of those gentlemen on the hammercloth, with a good thick piece of whip-cord tied from their mouths to the back of their heads, just for an hour or two in the day, to give them a taste of what their horses suffer. Docking, or nicking, that refinement in cruelty, to make a horse carry his tail up, has, at last, gone out of practice ; but I can well remember, in my boyish days, seeing a horse sub- jected to this torture, and, I trust, I shall yet live to see this other mode of torture also exploded.
Great as have been the improvements in the management G
18 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
and treatment of horses in late years, much yet remains to be done. Many alterations, I am satisfied, may yet be made in harness, and particularly in the collar, which is still unneces- sarily heavy — also in the saddle of riding horses, the tree of which, as now made, may, I think, be dispensed with. But I will reserve further observations on this point to a more fitting opportunity.
Young horses of three j'-ears old may be walked about the country over uneven surfaces and fallows, which will teach them to lift their legs. Unless very refractory, there is no occasion of lunging them at this age, as they will have sufficient exercise in following a man about for two or three hours in the day — neither is there any occasion for a heavy lout of a fellow to be placed on their backs to break them in to carry. Half the work under the old system of lunging, until the horse was nearly ex- hausted, with the dumb-jockeys, cavesson, &c., can now be dis- pensed with ; a foal that has been properly treated, and gradually broken in by gentle hands, and gentle means, will require none of these rough usages, and a boy may be placed on its back without any fear of his even attempting to throw him oflT. There is a great deal of nonsense and trash talked, about " put- ting him on his haunches," making him " carry his head in the right pl:Ace," "giving him his mouth," &c., &c. The horse will go as he is formed, most easily to himself and to his rider. Some will naturally carry their heads high, and others low, ac- cording as the head is affixed to the neck, which an observant rider will soon discover ; neither can they be forced to carry them otherwise than thus formed, without inconvenience and pain to themselves.
The mouth, however, may be formed by the judicious manage- ment of the bit, which, it may be observed, was never intended, as some imagine, to hold on by, but merely to guide a horse in the direction he is intended to go. There is more mischief done by an ignorant man pulling and hauling a young horse's mouth about tlian may at first sight appear. His mouth will become hardened by such usage, and will lose that sensibility of touch winch is the greatest recommendation and comfort in a saddle horse. I have seen colts reined up in a stall so tightlj^, and for so long a time, that they were obliged to rest and lean upon the huge bit placed in their mouths; and if such a custom is likely to give a horse a fine mouth, as it is termed, I must confess my ignorance in not being able to see any such result likely to hap- pen. From the first year, foals may be accustomed to have a small rug placed on their backs (after being rubbed over), with a roller ; in fact, a quiet man may do anything with them, and
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 19
place a boy on their backs if necessary, or make tbem put their fore feet in his pocket if he likes. It requires no lion-tamer to break in a quiet little domestic animal of this kind ; its educa- tion, if required, might as well be effected in three weeks, as in three years. It is quite a different affair, I admit, with a raw- four year old colt, which has been running wild, and never been touched or handled, but even such an one I would undertake to break and mount within a week, without breaking his heartby lunging, or his back by over-weight. The breaking and backing may be soon effected, and I would make him lie down to take me up, if I required it ; but there is a good deal requisite after that to make a young horse, and to instruct him to move in his paces as you wish. All must be accomplished by steadiness, gentleness, and perseverance, and without these nothing will ever be effectually done.
CHAPTEK m.
Worms in young horses, and fheir cure — Various prescriptions — ^Early train- ing at the bai', and moderation to be used — Great care to avoid causing inriammation while breaking in — How to stop a horse whose rider has been thrown — Ingenious cm-e of one that refused to pull — Young draught horses should not be put to heavy weights — Directions how to manage young hunters across country, especially ia leaping — Use of loose boxes, and large stables — Extremes of heat and cold to be carefully avoided — Clippmg.
Foals are very subject to worms, which will prevent their growth, unless speedily destroyed. A rough coat, excessive appetite, with a short dry cough, are generally signs of the animal being affected with these parasites, which are sometimes very difficult to remove. A pint of linseed oil, with a table- spoonful of spirits of turpentine, given two or three alternate mornings, fasting, is a very simple and efficacious remedy for this purpose. Calomel may be resorted to, should this fail, but I am always an advocate for simple prescriptions with young animals. Calomel is a powerful medicine, and requires careful treatment ; and acting as it does upon the whole system, the foal will be more subject to catch cold. It must be also followed by an aloetic purge. From eight to twelve grains of calomel may be given to a foal, made into a small ball, with flour and honey, and a small quantity of finely powdered ginger. To a yearling from twelve to eighteen grains may be given. As a purge, from one to two drachms of aloes, according to the size
C2
20 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
and strengtli of the foal, with half a drachm of Turkey rhubarb, and a teaspoonful of grated ginger. All horses, before physic is given, should be prepared by having bran mashes, and no hay or corn for at least twelve hours previously. Griping pains are often produced by a want of attention to this preliminary preparation.
When a purgative ball is administered, the horse should drink freely of gruel or warm water, which will tend to allay any irri- tation in the intestines, and carry the effects of the medicine off more freely. Castile soap, combined with aloes, forms a very good dose where worms are supposed to exist, in the proportion of half a drachm to one of aloes. I see no necessity for horses, young or old, being physicked, before being turned out in the spring, as the young grass will certainly have that effect without the aid of medicine. When four years old, a colt may be broken in, and ridden about during the summer months by the whipper-in, which will render him handy and accustomed to hounds ; but he will not be capable of doing any severe work the first season, neither should he be regularly hunted until five years old. Having been exercised with the hounds the first summer, he should be consigned to his shed or loose-box, during the ensuing winter, and, by commencing with cub- hunting the following autumn, he will then be fit to take his place in the hunting stable. Some are too anxious to commence ox)erations with young horses at four years old, but if there is one year gained in this way, there may be several lost in another ; for by too soon taxing the powers of a young animal, many years of good after-service are often lost; whilst the muscles and sinews are still too pliable, and, I may say, half unstrung, there is, of course, more probability of the horse being overstrained. At the leaping bar young horses may have their first lesson, and I consider this an excellent mode of preparing them for the hunting field. The bar being covered with gorse, they should have half an hour's exercise at it, once or twice a week, not placed too high. This will teach tiiem to lift their legs clean, and instruct them how to take off, before coming to a fence or gate. In the first lesson, the bar should not be placed higher than the horse's knees; the man who leads the colt should walk over it first, and encourage him to follow by his voice ; another man, with a whip in his hand, should be behind to prevent his backing, buttlie whip should never be used unless the horse is positively restive !
The first lessons should be taken standing or walking, and if the horse is led half a dozen times over in this manner, tliis will suffice for the first day. He should then be patted and led
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 21
away, Tlie next time the bar may be raised ratlier higher, and the horse trotted up to it. After three or four days' lessons, the bar may be raised as high as tlie horse's breast, but beyond this there is no occasion to advance ; neither should the colt be dis- gusted by too long a drill. When perfect in his lessons, a boy may be placed on his back, to ride him over, but care should be taken that the lad is a good rider, and can stick tight to the saddle or the cloth, for should the horse stop short at the bar, and throw his rider, the manoeuvre will be repeated. My own practice in breaking young horses, was to back them always first in the stable. A lad was made to mount and dismount from the colt for several times in succession, sitting on his back, talking to him and patting him. This lesson was persevered in for an hour, or until the horse was perfectly reconciled to the lad. He was then led out with him on his back. Sometimes a sack, containing two or three bushels of corn, was placed on the horse, to accustom him to carry weight, with which he had to stand in the stable for an hour or two at a time. Without the use of this dumb jockey, we had very little difficulty in thus breaking in our young horses ; neither did we have recourse to lunging them at all, which I think is generally practised by colt breakers, to save both time and trouble. As with old, so with young horses, walking exercise should alone be permitted at first, until they are got into tolerable condition for greater exertions. Walking over fallows, or up and down hill for two or tliree hours a day, will be found quite sufficient exertion to keep most young horses tolerably quiet, and they will thus gra- dually become inured to the weight they have to carry, and, when put to faster paces, go with more ease to themselves and comfort to their rider. Colts before being regularly broken in, should have, at least, two mild doses of physic, as a preventive against inflammation from overheating. I lost once a very valuable young mare from this cause, she having been, I think, over-ridden by the whipper-in, although he was generally a quiet, careful man. He had to go a few miles one day in the heat of summer, and was directed to walk the mare there and back ; but he must have departed from his instructions, as she was brought home in a violent heat, as I was afterwards informed, and inflammation suddenly taking place, she was dead the next day.
In my father's time we had a plan of breaking in young horses to stand still when their rider was thrown, which in the present day may be characterised as partaking rather of cruelty, not to animals, but to boys. It certainly had the desired effect. We had a large field, enclosed by a high wall, round which tha
22 HORSES AND HOTJNDS.
lads used to exercise their horses, with a thick rug only, doubled to sit upon. A single snaffle and a sharp curb bit were placed in the horse's mouth ; the former to ride and guide by. To the curb was attached a long single rein, which was placed in the boy s hand, or attached to his wrist. When the horse was in motion, either walking, trotting, or cantering, the lad would throw himselt off, holding only the long rein attached to the curb, the sudden pull upon which, when the lad was on the ground, would cause the horse's head to be turned round, and stop him in his career. The boy would then gradually shorten the rein, until the horse was brought up to him, then patting and caressing him, he would again mount. After a very few lessons of this kind, the horse would always stop the instant the boy fell, and remain stationary beside him. The lads, as well as the horses, were rewarded by my father for their proper per- formance of this rather singular manoeuvre, but I never saw or knew any accident occur. The horses thus trained^ proved excellent hunters, and would never run away from their riders when thrown, always standing by them until remounted. From the lads constantly rubbing and pulling their legs about, we had no kickers. When a boy of only fifteen, I was allowed to ride a fine mare which had been thus broken in, in company with the hounds. Being nearly sixteen hands high, I had some difficulty in clambering up and down, but wlien dislodged from my seat, she would stand quietly by until remounted, and appeared as anxious for me to get up again as I was myself.
It may be said that all this was time and trouble thrown away, and that the present plan of riding a young four-year- old, straight across country at once, will answer the same pur- pose. My reply is, that a good education, either upon man, horse, or dog, will never be thrown away ; and, notwithstanding the number of horses now brought into the hunting field, there are still few well trained hunters to be met with. The horse, the most beautiful and useful of animals to man, is seldom suffi- ciently instructed or familiarised, although certainly capable of the greatest attachment to his master when well used, and deserving to be treated more as a friend than a slave. It is a general remark how quiet some high-spirited horses will become when ridden by ladies. The cause of this is, that they are more quietly handled, patted, and caressed by them, and become soon sensible of this difference of treatment, from the rough whip and spur system, too generally adopted by men. Our own plan of treatment combmes the suaviter in modo with i\\Qfortiter in re. Gentle and simple usage persevered in, even witii bad tempers, finally becomes triumphant. When a
HOKSES AND HOUNDS. 23
yoimg liorse "setup his back," as the term is, and refused to proceed, he was held in that position with the lad on his back, and there kept standing for half an hour or more, until he was too glad to walk quietly on, when required. A gentleman in our neighbourhood having purchased a very fine carriage horse, at a high price, was not a little annoyed, upon trial, to find that he would not pull an ounce, and when the whip was applied, he began plunging and kicking. After one or two trials the coachman declared he could do nothing with him, and our neighbour, meeting my father, expressed his grievances at being thus taken in, and asked what he had better do. The reply was " Send the horse to me to-morrow morning, and I will return him a good puller within a week." The horse being brought, was put into the shafts of a wagon, in a field, with the hind wheels tied, and being reined up so that he could not get his head between his legs, was there left, with a man to watch him for five or six hours, and, of course, without any food. When my father thought he had enough of standing still, he went up to him with a handful of sweet hay, let down the bear- ing rein, and had the wheels of the wagon released. After patting the horse on the neck, when he had taken a mouthful or two of hay, he took hold of the bridle and led him away — the wagon followed — thus proving stratagem to be better than force. Another lesson was scarcely required, but, to make sure, it was repeated, and, after that, the horse was sent back to the owner. There was no complaint ever made of his jibbing again. The wagon to which he was attached was both light and empty, and the ground inclined rather towards the stable.
It is scarcely necessary to mention the fact, but young draught horses should never have a heavy load behind them until they are well accustomed to the collar, and have their necks har- dened to its use. Almost all young horses, except those only of very tender mouths, require to be ridden with a curb as well as a snafile bit, the first season. In crossing country they require to be held in hand and assisted at their leaps. The silken thread is all very well for made horses, who know their business, but if a young horse is left to himself over heavy land, or at awkward fences, he will be soon all abroad, and his rider and himself on the ground or in the ditch. Horses should be put quietly at their fences, being pulled up into a trot before coming to them. When hunters rush at their leaps, it is a sure sign they have been badly educated, and ridden by men who have not the courage or patience to do things quietly. To pull a rushing horse up at his fence would be to ensure a rattling fall, and he can only be gradually broken in from this bad habit..
24 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
If pulled up; or prevented taking liis fences in his accustomed manner, lie will go at them sideways or any way, and a fearful fall to his rider wall be the consequence. The Irish are generally the best fencers, and for this reason, that they are broken to take their leaps in a standing position. There are some, many men I may say, who like to go fast at their leaps, being too nervous to take them coolly ; and I have known many good and hard riders with hounds, who cut very awkward figures without this excitement.
Great attention is required in having young horses properly shod. The shoe should be neither so brittle as to break, nor so soft as to bend ; the size and width of it must depend in some measure upon the country. If a flinty one, strong and wide shoes will be necessary ; if, on the contrary, a stone brash,^ or sandy soil, a much lighter one will suffice. Yov ng horses, which have a long stride, and are inclined to overreach, should be shod short at the heel on the fore foot, and short aho on the toe of the hind one ; the inside of the shoe should also be bevelled off. Overreaches are sometimes very difficult to heal, and will throw a horse out of work for a week or ten days. The grist and dirt should bo first well washed off with warm water until the wound is quite clean, Fryar s balsam should then be applied with a linen bandage, and if bound up when fresh done, the wound will probably heal at once without further trouble ; but should it not be thoroughly cleansed before the bc;n;lage is applied, it will not heal, and poultices will have afterw^ards to be made use of. Proud flesh will then arise, which can be reduced, if exces- sive, by being touched with caustic, or, in slight cases, a little white sugar powdered and alum will be sufficient. The first and grand remedy in all cases of strains and injuries, of almost any kind, is the most simple— hot water. This should be freely ap- plied, and if persevered in long enough, the most violent strains or bruises will yield to this application alone. Injuries to the hock joint are the most serious of all, and very often terminate fatally, if not judiciously treated at first. Should the joint oil escape, inflammation will often set in, and baffle the skill of the most clever veterinary surgeon. For a broken leg there is sel- dom any better remedy than a leaden ball,* although instances have been known of a fracture being successfully reduced. A fore leg may be set with a great deal of trouble, but there are so many chances against its properly joining, that it is scarcely worth the experiment. With the hind leg the case is hopeless.
* To this I demur, liaA-ing seen several instances, in whicli the fracture has been reduced, and the horse become active and useful for hack work.
nOKSES AND HOUNDS. 25
I once tried tlie experiment upon a favourite carriage liorse, but failed, with all the care we could give, and that was not a little. I have known a young horse break his thigh bone in struggling, when being thrown down, to have an operation performed. In suddenly turning a corner, also, I have seen the same thing occur.
Broken bones, however, with horses, although so frequently falling, in one way or another, are of rare occurrence; and it is fortunate they are so, as the liorse is almost an impracticable animal to deal with in such cases.
In all hunting establishments, and, I may add, in every case where it is practicable, horses should have the luxury of a loose box to themselves. It is not only a Kixury to the horse, but it enables him to recover himself so much quicker after a hard day's work. Instead of being tied up in narrow stalls with scarcely room to turn round, and only sufficient to lie down in one position, and that not comfortably either, he will there have room to rest as he pleases, and enjoy the free use of his limbs. It is a most mistaken idea to suppose that hunters, or horses much exposed to the weather, require to be kept so warm as they often are, Nothing, I am satisfied, is more prejudicial to their health and lungs than the noxious and overheated atmo- sphere of many stables, in which they are obliged to exist twelve hours out of the twenty-four. Let any one who questions this pay a visit, early in the morning, to stables containing several horses, when they are first opened ; or look at the general ap- pearance of grooms whose occupation is in such places. Their pale faces clearly prove the unhealthy state of the air in a hot, crowded stable. The care which some of these men take, in their mistaken zeal, to exclude every particle of fresh air from the stable is quite extraordinary, and proves how little common sense ever enters into their calculations. I had much rather keep a horse in a barn during the winter months, with good warm clothing, than in such places as common stables, and, I am quite satisfied, he would enjoy better health, and be less liable to catch cold, or subject to diseases of any kind, and would do much more work, than any hot-house plant. The late Mr. Hunt, of radical notoriety, when a young man, living with his father on the Wiltshire Downs, kept his hunters in the open yard during the hunting season, with a shed to go into as they liked ; and I have heard my father say, with whom he hunted in those days, that with these horses, so kept, he would beat almost the whole field, himself and another excepted, who rode thorough-bred horses. This was carrying things to the other extreme point; but, of the two plans, I should prefer Mr.
26 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
Hunt's to the hot-house system, as more reasonable. I have known extraordinary distances performed by horses in this rough and ready state, and, with a good allowance of corn, there is not only no lawful impediment to their being better suited to stand all kinds of rough w^eather, and rough work to boot, but the greater probability of their doing so without feeling half the pressure from without, which must weigh heavily upon more pampered forms. Est modus in rebus, however, the middle course is the best, if only for appearance sake, and that is more than half the consideration with owners of hunters in the pre- sent time. I would only suggest, from these remarks, that there is no occasion for the fuss some, or, I may say, nearly all grooms make about hot stables and warm clothing. It is true they like to turn their horses out in good trim, as it is called, and with sleek and shining coats ; for this they deserve praise instead of censure. But whilst their masters avoid Scylla, they need not be wrecked on Charybdis.
JS'ec, dum hcec vites, vitia, in contraria curras.
Clipping is one of the finest and most favourable inventions to grooms that ever has yet been introduced. It saves a deal of trouble and elbow grease with a rough-coated animal ; but this is often carried to excess, as many horses are clipped only to save trouble which do not really require it, and this operation when once performed will have to be repeated the next season also, and so on to the end of the chapter. Thorough-bred horses do not require this treatment, but I have seen them subjected to it, and the natural beauty and silky nature of their hair quite spoilt. For rougli half-bred animals, I am a great advocate for clipping, the effects of which are quite wonderful, and the metamorphosis so complete, that a man would scarcely know his own horse again. The alteration in their work is quite as great as in their improved appearance. One man also can locjk after three clipped horses as well, or better, than two rough ones, w^iere economy is the order of the day, and that appears to be a very general, if not favourite, order now-a-days. In the fast coacliing time, and when the team was really turned out in first- rate style, the ostler who looked after the horses belonging to a fashionable fast coaching concern told me that he and a boy had to look after eight horses, and clean the harness also : and, to his credit, I never saw horses or harness turned out in much better trim. Before the railroad era commenced, travelling had been brought to perfection, and, although a seat in a first-class railway carriage is a luxury in comparison with that on a coach box, I must confess, even now, except where time was of great importance, I should prefer the latter to the former.
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 27
CHAPTER IV.
Eailways not injurious to the demand for draught horses — Comparative safety of the coach and the rail — Experience in coach accidents — Proper feed- ing for draught horses — Objections to the old hay-lofts — Different quali- ties of hav, proper season for making it — Objection to haj-making machines — Improvements introduced by Lord Ducie — Manure — Plough horses, and their hours of work — Difference of diet according to occupa- tion— Value of wheat and other provisions, and of the manui'e.
It might have been supposed that the introduction of rail- ways would have superseded or materially diminished the use of horses generally employed for draught purposes ; but, taking into account the number of cabs and omnibus horses now em- ployed to ply to and from railway stations, not only in the great metropolis where the increase has been enormous during the last few years, but also in the rural districts and large towns ; railway travelling has not had this effect, but, on the contrary, has increased the demand for beasts of this descrip- tion. There are still to be found some four-horse coaches in localities where railroads have not yet been formed. The flourishing whips of former days are now forced, like the Red Indians of North America (by the pressure of the steam en- gine or puffing Billys, as a coachman used to call them,) into the far west, there to subsist on short fares and short commons, until, by some branch line, their vocation will be entirely gone. Notwithstanding the number of coaches formerly on the great roads leading north, south, east, and west from London, and the heavy loads occasionally carried on their roofs, few accidents, comparatively speaking, occurred, and they were very seldom attended with fatal consequences. A crash, however, on a rail- way is a different affair, and the loss of life and limb on several occasions has been very great. During twenty years' travelling by coach I never witnessed any serious accident, not even to the breaking of a limb ; but I have been present at two or three turns out, though not turns over. Upon one occasion a fast young whip on the western road deposited his outside passen- gers in a horse pond, but as it happened in the month of July, and in turning into the inn yard where the coach stopped to refresh its passengers, they were soon accommodated by the attentive landlady with a change of garments until their own were dried by the kitchen fire, and every attention having been paid to the comfort of the inner as well as the outward man, they proceeded on their journey in high good humour. I have seen also the outsides, by the coach being driven rather too
23 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
near a ditch, take a "flying leap over into a cottage garden, to the great consternation of the worthy old occupant of the cot- tage adjoining, who was standing outside the door to see the coach pass. The coach did not go over at all, but from the lurch it gave, tlie gentlemen on the roof, taking this as a matter of course, anticipated the event, and, to their dismay, not only had their leap for nothing, but saw the coach travelling on as if it was "all right."
The most extraordinary performance, however, I ever saw without an accident, was on the Cheltenham road, where a turn- pike man took upon himself the office of Jehu to his own horses, a short stage into Evesham. A friend and myself journeying into Leicestershire, chanced to fall in with this conveyance, but on the change of teams and coachman, seeing the turn-out, now prepared to forward us on our journey, we declined the front seats, which we had hitherto occupied, and retr^ted to the rear, ready for the overthrow which we had every reason to expect. The off leader was of elephantine proportions, nearly seventeen liands high, and a dead puller, w4tli a mouth as hard as a crocodile's. His fellow or companion in arms, for in harness they were not, was about fourteen hands, a sort of nondescript ani- mal, in head and shape more resembling a hippopotamus, and decidedly as slow. The off-wheeler was blind, and a bolter ; and the hopes of the "family coach" depended solely upon the exertions of the near wheeler, who had to strain and tug against these three contending powers to keep the vehicle anywhere in the road. The tackling by which these variously-disposed ani- mals were fruitlessly attempted to be held together was upon a par with the team itself — cord, chains, and tar-twine prepon- derating over leather. The master of the horses being as w^ell master of the tolls, and Jehu only j^^^o hdc vice,^ was evidently a strong cross of the butcher, and handled the ribbons and whip much after the fashion of a London drayman, though not quite so artistically. I observed to the coachman, who left us at this point, that it was a very rum lot to look at. — " Yes, sir," he replied ; "and I think you will find it altogether about the rum- mest lot to go you ever sat behind yet ; and if you'll take my advice, you'll be on the look-out for squally weather." The preparations being completed, we very reluctantly took our places behind, in company with an aged^ ostler, from whose quivering lips the words " all right" issued in tremulous accents, as if in strong anticipation of their being speedily converted into the contrary meaning ; and this was the case much more quickly than I expected. At starting, the Brobdignag pulled steadily away to his side of the road, and, notwithstanding all
HOKSES AND HOUNDS. 29
the exertions of the master of the tolls, assisted by a young fanner on the box with him, he accomplished his purpose of landing us all very cleverly on the bank, the coach wheels being in the ditch. It took some time to set things square again, but by removing Brobdignag to the otlier side, he dragged the coach once more on the road, and start No. 2 was effected. We got along tolerably well to the point of a hill, which led down into the town, when the row began in earnest, fast and furious. To hold Brobdignag in was now entirely out of the question ; and down the hill he went at a rattling pace, although the young farmer held by might and main, with the leaders' reins in the hollow of his arm, for better jjurchase. The coach rocked to and fro like a vessel in a gale of wind, and the screams of two ladies inside added to the uproar, and lent wings to Brobdignag's flight. Upon passing a jDarticular spot, my attention was arrested by a deep-drawn sigh from the aged and trembling ostler, as if a load of care had been removed from his breast. " What's the matter with you, old gentleman T I inquired. " Oh ! how thankful I be for that f " For what f I asked. " Look there, sir, at that milestone, by the side of the road. ISIaster knocked him over only yesterday, and I made sure he'd a had another touch at 'im again to-day."
"But fast we fled away, away; And I covild neither sigh nor pray,"
until we reached the town of Evesham ; on entering which, the coach was within two feet of the corner of a house, and we were brought suddenly to by the pony rushing into a butcher's shop, where probably he had been often before accustomed to stand with the panniers on his back. This brought us to a safe anchorage without loss of life or limb. The passengers quickly descended and marched off on foot to the inn, opposite to which the master of the tolls, after dispensing with the services of his leaders, drove up in no very happy mood, amidst the jeers and laughter of all the postboys and ostlers who had witnessed his performance. A military gentleman, the friend and companion of the two ladies inside, pitched into the unlucky Jehu, threaten- ing all sorts of law proceedings, which the toll-keeper cut short by saying that he might save himself all further trouble, since he would be hanged if ever he got on a coach- box again !
It was the custom with all large coach proprietors to feed their horses upon hay-chaif and corn mixed, a few split beans being occasionally added, without any hay at night. I have known this plan adopted with hunters also. ^ Less hay is, of course, consumed, and the food being given in a compressed
30 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
form, the stomach is not distended. The hay should be of the very best quality, from upland pastures, and at least a year old. Clover hay, although the best for fattening cattle, will not do for horses to work upon, being of what is called a foggy nature, and decidedly bad for the wind. Saintfoin, cut when in full blossom, is less objectionable, and the most hearty of all artifi- cial grasses ; it may do for draught horses, but it will not do for hunters when in work. Oats should be old, and of the heaviest kind ; many prefer black to white ; the difference is little, if any, as to strength ; weight in the bushel is the best criterion to judge corn by. Select good oats, above 40 lb. the bushel, well cleansed from grist and dirt, and which have not been heated on the kiln. The potato kind are generally the heaviest, and I have known these weigh 47 lb. In the autumn, when horses are shedding their coats, a few old beans are necessary ; but at other times they should be given very sparingly.
In most modern-built stables, the old-fashioned hayloft has been dispensed with, which was generally a receptacle for dust, cobwebs, and the filth of rats, mice, and cats. If the hay could be cut fresh from the mow every day, it would be better, as, by exposure, it loses much of its aroma and freshness. At any rate, a hay-chamber will be a necessary appendage to a hunting esta- blishment, where it should remain in trusses until wanted ; but by the use of a light cart and pony, or donkey, the hay-chamber might be dispensed with entirely, and the hay brought in every morning fresh from the rick, if situated at some distance from the stables. There is a great difference in the quality of hay, and it requires some judgment to select a rick fit for hunters in the season. Hay that has been washed by rain is quite unfit ; as is also that which has been mowburnt or over-heated ; but hay, to be good, requires a certain degree of fermentation or heat. If the rick is hollow, so that you can thrust your arm into it nearly up to the shoulder, it is a proof that the hay has not been sufficiently heated. You may also judge by the truss, which should be close, firm, and heavy. Hay, for hunters, should be cut early, before the grasses run to seed — by the first or second week of June at latest — whilst the juices are at the full flow.
Hay should be made by hand, and not by the agency of the hay-making machine, which, although of great service to farmers in some seasons, when hands are scarce, yet scatters abroad the leaves and blossoms of the finer kinds of grasses and small clover, which abounds in all good pasturages. In hay for hunters or racehorses, the two extremes must be carefully avoided— over-fermentation, producing mowburning ; or under-
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 31
fermentation, producing mouldiness. The first has a strong diuretic effect ; the last will occasion disease of the lungs and broken wind. Clean fresh wheat straw is at any time prefer- able to bad hay, and when hunters or carriage-horses are fed upon manger food entirely — that is, corn and chaff mixed — they should have a few pounds of clean and sweet wheat straw put into their racks at night. I have known horses kept for agricultural purposes entirely without hay throughout the sea- son, and in confirmation of this I may mention the system pursued on the late Lord Ducie's farm at Whitfield, in Gloucestershire. Some five or six years since, the fame of Lord Ducie's improved mode of cultivation having reached my ears, I was induced, with three friends, to pay a visit to his farm, then under his lordship's personal superintendence.
The farm consisted, as I was informed, of about 240 acres of land, wdiich, under the old system, had produced a rental of about 200^. per annum. The fences had been levelled, with all the timber ; the land thoroughly drained, and a wide water- course cut through the farm, into which the drainage water was conveyed. Instead of the old-fashioned barns, which, in my opinion, are much more calculated, and do generally prove, better preserves for rats and mice than for corn, a large and expensive threshing machine had been erected, driven by steam, and the ricks being placed close to the building, and on each side of a rail which led into the threshing-fioor, the process of taking in and threshing out the corn proceeded simultaneously as w^ell as the cleaning and sacking it. The system pursued on this farm was that which alone can answer in the present times — viz., to grow the greatest possible quantity of green and root crops, by which a large stock of cattle and sheep may be supported, and thus to add to the increase of the wheat crop also. The roots grown on the farm, consisted of mangold wurzel, white carrots, and Swedish turnips, the average per acre being, I was told, about thirty tons.
Except in the first year, very little artificial manure had been used, and none afterwards except that made on the premises. Large tanks were made to receive all the liquid manure from the different yards and bullock-houses, which, by forcing pumps, was thrown over the compost heaps standing outside the yards. As nearly as I can recollect, there were about eighty acres of roots, forty of clover, and one hundred and twenty of wheat growing on the farm when I visited it. The trimming of the carrots produced an immense quantity of green food during the summer months, upon which and the clover, cut in a green state, the cattle and stock subsisted. Hay was neither
32 HORSES AND HOUXDS.
made nor used. The horses employed were of a superior de- scription, and tlieir drivers Scotchmen, with Scotch ploughs. The allowance of food to each horse was about a peck of oats, which were bruised, with a little clean wheat straw at night. The working hours were from seven in the morning until twelve, when the horses were brought into the stable, fed,_ and rested for two hours, and then worked again until five or six in the evening, as their services might be required. This was, of course, only during the spring, summer, and autumn months, when the days were long. The horses thus treated were in first-rate condition, and full of hard flesh.
The system thus pursued on Lord Ducie's farm proves that for slow work carrots and corn are sufficient to keep horses in good working condition, and even above the usual condition, which, thej'' certainly were when I saw them. I do not suppose that race-horses and hunters, whose bodily exertions are sometimes so severely taxed, would upon this same diet be enabled to go through their performances ; but I think that the prejudices which some men entertain against carrots being given at all, either to race-horses or hunters, are unfounded, and that they may be given not only safely, but Avith advantage both ta the wind and health of the horse during the hunting season, two or three times a week. "With draught horses certainly a great saving of hay may be effected by their use, nor does there exist any necessity for hay being given at all to horses required solely for this purpose ; when used by being cut into chaff, the consump- tion may be reduced to one-half the usual quantity, mixing it with two parts of wheat straw cut also into chaff". The straw of oats^ when cut early and well harvested, is also a good substitute for hay ; but I am no advocate for barley straw being given to horses in work, although it may do very well for cattle. By the example set upon Lord Ducie's farm, it has been proved that horses can be kept in first-rate working condition, and that both cattle and sheep can be made fat for the butcher, without ever tasting hay at all. It may be asked, why dispense with the use of hay, cui hono ? The answer is, that an acre of land which will produce two tons of hay, will produce from twenty to thirty tons of mangold wurzel, carrots, or Swedish turnips. The usual allow- ance of hay to a horse being about a hundredweight per week, (and this, with the waste where hay is used, is a fair calculation,) you set off the value of the root crop against the hay crop; the former may be put down at 1/. per ton, and the latter at 3^. ; you have, therefore, three times tlie money value in the roots, after deducting the expenses of cultivation, not to mention the extra quantity of manure which will be returned to the land.
HORSES AND HOU^'DS. 33
Tlie value of wheat straw may be put down at about 25.?. the ton, and oats at 25. 6c/. the bushel : two tons of hay would keep two horses twenty weeks, at a cost of 6/., or at the weekly rate of 6.S. On the other side, allowing two bushels of corn to each horse, the cost would be 10s. for the two, carrots 3s. per week, or three cwt. By feeding on corn and carrots, the expense of keeping two horses for twenty weeks would amount to 13/., in which three tons of carrots would be consumed ; you have then left from seventeen to twenty tons of carrots, to meet the extra expense of corn feeding, which woidd keep two other horses for the same period. It will be seen, therefore, by this plan of growing roots instead of hay, that twice the number of horses may be kept in far better condition than upon hay alone, the value of the manure to be returned to the land will also be proportionally greater. I have here given a fair allowance of corn, more perhaps than falls to the lot of farm horses generally. But I have heard it stated that horses have been kept upon carrots and wheat straw only, and even hunted upon such food. This may be a fact, for anything I can say to the contrary, but I am quite satisfied that horses used for draught purposes will do better upon carrots, wheat straw chaff, and a moderate quantity of corn, even half the allowance I have made, than upon hay. Various other kinds of grain are given to draught horses ; wheat, beans, peas, barley, and grains, but oats in this country have always been considered the best and soundest food for horses, which they unquestionably are, affording more muscle than any other, without any very heating property. Wheat is a very improper food for horses, although containing a great amount of nutritious matter ; it will swell in and distend the stomach, and I have known horses and sheep both killed by eating it : barley, without being prepared by boiling, is also very heating. For horses in hard work, split beans used with moderation are an excellent addition either to oats or soft manger food. Peas are objectionable, as tending to flatulency, but pea meal is often given both to horses and sheep, although my experience 'of its use will not justify me in recom- mending it. The messes which are often prepared for farm and draught horses it is quite unnecessary to mention ; every man has some crotchet in his head upon this subject, and I have seen various cooking apparatus in work for this purpose, some steam- ing potatoes, others boiling linseed, and my impression is that the result of all this domestic cookery will be disappointment, causing more trouble than it is worth, and in the end a moro expensive mode of feeding than upon good heavy oats, which require crushing only to be made the most of. Bruised gorse has been highly extolled by some, but for what exact properties I
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36 HORSES ASB HOUNDS.
horse to acquire that indispensable requisite, which is commonly called wind, or the power of going at great speed without dis- tress. To any one acquainted with the anatomy of the horse, it must he obvious that this power cannot be suddenly attained, nor until all superfluous fat is gradually reduced, and the lungs, heart, and kidneys got into a healthy state of activity. This must be the work of time, and it cannot be done without.
Ventilation also in stables is of the utmost importance to the health of the horse. Over each stall a small aperture should be made in the ceiling, and by having some draft holes in the front wall, with a sliding board, fresh air may be admitted as required, and thus the stable may be kept at a proper temperature. It is, I think, a good plan to have the entire window turn upon a pivot in the centre ; thus, when the horses are out at exercise, the stable may be thoroughly purified. By scattering gypsum or peat ashes over the floor, a great deal of the ammonia will be absorbed. In many old stables, the declivity of the pitching stones is so great as to cause a constant strain upon the back sinews of the hind legs. The best plan is to have the floor of the stables very gradually decline from each side to the centre. In some of my loose boxes, which were large and square, the drain was in the centre of the box, with an iron grating over it. In any case the drainage from the stable should be quick and effective, the pitching or paving stones regularly and nicely laid • so as to throw off the urine into the main drains. Damp stables are very injurious to horses, which are subject to rheu- matic attacks, as well as dogs ; and the floor should be laid upon dry coal ashes, with a layer of concrete over them. There should also be a large outside drain, with a good fall, the_ side nearest the wall being built up with bricks or stone laid in cement, which will prevent any surface water soaking into the floors or foundation of the stable.
Whatever objections may be made on this score by grooms, stables should always be both lofty and have plenty of light. The want of the latter I am satisfied often causes horses to shy, if it is not the primary or sole cause of this failing. There can be no wonder that horses, kept in badly-ventilated and dark stables, should be subject to ophthalmia and bad eyes ; the only wonder is, that they can see at all, when suddenly emerging from such dens into the broad glare of day. Starting and shying are, it must be admitted, very great faults, by which many serious accidents occur continually ; but both habits are attributable to defective vision. Of late years more attention has been paid to the construction and ventilation of stables ; but still much remains to be done.
HOKSES AND HOUNDS. 37
In large and roomy stables, where the ventilation is good, a large bucket of water may be left at the side of the manger, or a small cistern made of slate always kept three parts full, for the horse to drink when so inclined ; but water should not be kept in hot and close stables for the purpose that some grooms use it — viz., to take the chill off. We all know that hard spring water is not so good for horses as soft river water ; but when the latter cannot be had, spring or well water may be put into a large cask or tub, with a good piece or two of chalk, or a lump of hard lime, and a small bowlful of this mixture put into a bucket of cold water; or the chill may be taken off by pouring some boiling water into the bucket. Nothing can be more absurd or injurious than limiting the allowance of water, a very common practice with ignorant grooms, which not only makes horses continually craving for it, but is also productive of fever and other complaints. In racing establishments, water is offered to the horses two or three times in a day, and it ought to strike every man of common sense that water is as necessary to a horse as food, particularly when so much evaporation goes on, as with racers and hunters. After severe exercise, the chill should be always taken off the water before given, for which purpose a quart of boiling water put into two gallons of cold will be found sufficient. Few men would, I should think, be simple enough to give any horse before galloping him, a quan- tity of water ; but such, I have heard, is the practice with some, and this is one way of taking the chill off with a vengeance. On hunting mornings many grooms give their horses no water at all ; an ignorant and cruel practice, and productive of much injury to the animal. When horses are properly attended to, and at reasonable hours, the stable being opened at five in the morning, no difference need be made in the allowance of water, but where the stable is visited at seven o'clock instead of five o'clock, which is more likely to be the case in small establish- ments, and when the master himself is not an early riser, a bucket of water may be too much, but two gallons can never do harm. A certain quantity is indispensably necessary for the proper mastication of the food, and without this the horse will be in a state of fever the whole day. I have known horses nearly killed by this idle and ignorant plan of giving them no water on hunting mornings, the bowels having become so con- stipated at the end of the day as to require the assistance of the veterinary surgeon the next morning. I should like to set these would-be knowing gentlemen down to their breakfast without their cup of tea or coffee, and a piece of dry bread only to mumble ! They would, if treated in this manner, have perhaps
38 Hor.sES AXD HOon)S.
a fellow feeling for the poor animals which have the misfortune to be placed under their care.
Next in order to proper feeding comes dressing and grooming; and here there is a very wide field for the exercise of every description of assistants to manual labour, from the besom to the flesh-brush, the usual practice in these clays being to dispense with as much bodily exertion as possible. I have seen horses taken frequently out of the stable, reeking hot, stripped of the saddle at once, and tied out in the open air to get dry, whilst their feet are being washed, or the besom perliaps applied to their legs, to brush the dirt off. This is one way to save trouble, at the risk of endangering the horse's life ; and I have known some quietly disposed men allow their grooms to palm such a gross and palpable act of idleness and ca,relessness off upon them, as productive of no evil consequences to the horse, with the cool remark, " Oh, I suppose my groom knows his business !" Know- ing a man's business and ching it are not quite the same thing yet, but some men would believe the moon made of green cheese, rather than take the trouble to inquire " why and how." If a man, after running a race, was suddenly strii)ped of all his clothes, with the perspiration running out of every pore in his skin, the probability is that he would catch his death from cold ; and why should a horse be exempt from the like conse- quence ? simply, I suppose, because he happens to be a horse, and his master an ass ! There can be no other reason ; cause and effect generally go hand in hand with all animals whose skins are porous, from the biped to the quadruped.
It is not necessary for every man who can buy and keep a horse to possess the knowledge of a veterinary surgeon, or even make such an attempt ; but if he will treat his liorse pretty much after the same fashion as he treats himself, supposing him to be a man of moderate habits, he cannot err very far from the mark. Before breakfast he will feel himself more light and fit for a run, if so 'disposed, or a smart walk in the open fields ; he will then be ready for his breakfast, and eat it with avidity. After this repast he will not feel quite fit for a race, until he has digested his food, and perhaps his paper; but in an hour's time he will be all right to go through his day's work, beginning with moderation. Every man sliould bear in mind the old doggrel lines which, I suppose, it is almost unnecessary to repeat, " Up the hill spare me, down the hill bear me, on the flat never fear me." They are rendered also in other words to the same effect ; " Up the hill force me not, down the hill drive me not, on the level spare me not." That is, taking it for granted that the horse is fit to go, as he could scarcely have been supposed ,
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 39
to address his master in such language either when out of con- dition, or with a full stomach.
When a horse returns to the stable, either after hunting or a journey, the first thing to be done to him is to take off the bridle, but to let the saddle remain on for some time at least, merely loosening the girths. The head and ears are first to be rubbed dry, cither with a wisp of hay or a cloth, and then by the hand until the ears are warm and comfortable ; this will occupy only a few minutes, and the horse can then have his bit of hay or feed of corn, having previously, if returned from hunting or from a long journey, despatched his bucket of thick gruel : the process of washing his legs may now be going on, whilst he is discussing his feed of corn in peace ; as each leg is washed, it should be wrapped round with a flannel or serge bandage, and by the time the four legs are done with, the horse will have finished his feed of corn. A little hay may then be given, which vAW occupy his attention while the rubbing his body is proceeded with. I am a great advocate for plenty of dry clean wheat straw for this purpose ; and a good groom, with a large wisp in each hand, will in a very short space of time, make a clean sweep of all outward dirt and wet. It cannot, however, be properly done without a great deal of elbow grea&e as well, of which the present generation are inclined to be very chary. When the body of the horse is drj'-, a large loose rug should be thrown over him, and the legs then attended to, and rubbed thoroughly dry by the hand ; I know the usual practice with idle and knowing grooms is to let the l)andages remain on until the legs become dry of themselves, but I also know that there cannot be a worse practice ; for horses' legs, after hunting, the large knee-bucket should be used, with plenty of warm water, which will soothe the sinews after such violent exertion, and allay any irritation proceeding from cuts and thorns. The system of bandaging horses' legs, and letting them remain in this state for hours, must tend to relax the sinews ; such practices have never gained favour with me, but I have heard salt and water and vinegar highly extolled by some, with which the bandages are to be kept constantly wet, as tending to strengthen the sinews and keep them cool ; if, however, used too long or allov/ed to become dry, I conceive more injury likely to result from their use than benefit. It is generally known that those who have recourse -to belts for support in riding, cannot do well without them afterwards, and although often advised to try these extra aids, I never availed myself of them ; cold water is the best strengthener either to man or horse, and a thorough good dry rubbing afterwards. After
40 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
severe walking exercise, the benefit of immersing tlie feet in warm water for a sliort time must be fully appreciated by all who have tried it ; but I very much question if any man would feel himself stronger upon his legs the next morning, by having them bandaged with hot flannels during the night. Very much may be done by the judicious use of hot and cold water, in fact, more than by half the prescriptions in general use ; but the proper time must be attended to as Avell, for its application. When a horse has had a long and severe day's work, he should not be harassed more than is absolutely necessary, by grooming and dressing ; the chief business shouldbe to get him dry and comfortable as quickly as possible, and when that has been eftected, a slight wisping over with a dry cloth will be suffi- cient for that night.
CHAPTER VT.
Essentials for dressing and cleaning a liorse — Clothing to be suited to tempera- ture and time of year, — To be changed in order to ensure its drjaiess — Separate cleaning-rooms — Too much artificial treatment prejudicial — Dangers of sudden heats and colds — Death of a horse through inflamma- tion induced by wrong treatment — Another anecdote — Absurd trouble taken by grooms, and iinhealthy habit of hissing, pvifHng, and blowing while rubbing down the animal — Amusing mistakes, but ultimate success of a sailor turned farmer — Ancient laws for the proper treatment of old horses, and want of similar humanity in the present day — Instances of ill-treatment of old horses — Anecdote of Charles, Duke of Calabria.
The usual appliances in dressing and cleaning a horse are a currycomb and brush, wisp of hay, and dry cloth, with a sponge and water brush for the feet, and a small comb for the mane and tail. With horses of fine coats, or with those which have been clipped, the currycomb is too rough to be often used, unless wliere dirt or clay tenaciously adheres to the hair, and then it should be applied with a very light hand on the surface only, so as not to scratch the skin ; it is more properly adapted to clean the brush only, the use of which is indispensable to keep the coat free from dirt and scurf.
The clothing should be adapted to the season of the year as well as the temperature of the stable ; and it is far preferable to have a cool stable and more clothing than a hot one with less. Until the weather becomes cold and chilly, a linen cloth is the best, and quite sufficient for any horse. At the end of October, the woollen rug may be substituted, but there is seldom occa-
HOKSES AND HOUNDS. 41
sion for more than one of these, although I have often seen two used, more for the purpose of ke€i)ing the horse's coat fine, than for any other. This coddling is not only of no service wliatever to the horse, but decidedly prejudicial to him. The treatment of horses by grooms generally tends only to the one thing — their great object — the smart appearance of the horse's coat ; and to this almost every other consideration is to give way. What should we think of a man wearing his great coat and hat in the house, and putting them oif when he went out on a wet day? The keeping a horse burdened with a quantity of warm clothing in a hot stable is just as reasonable a practice. Each horse should have to his wardrobe, however, two rugs at least, if not three, that one may be always dry. The cloth which is thrown over him when he first returns to the stable wet and dirty, is not proper for him to sleep in, and a clean one should be kept by the saddle room fire, ready to be put on, when he is done up for the night.
In some establishments there is a cleaning room set apart for this purpose, where the horses, when very dirty, are scrubbed and washed ; it has certainly an advantage in keeping the stable more free from dust, but it should be protected from cold draughts of air. In warm weather, there can be no great harm done in cleaning a horse outside the stable door, provided he has a loose rug thrown over him, to prevent his too suddenly cooling; but the practice of stripping a horse at once when heated, and tying him outside the stable without any clothing at all, is most injurious. Knowing the abuses to which this liberty is so often exposed, I never allowed a horse of mine to be placed outside the door mider any pretence, and the infringe- ment of this rule was certain dismissal. Neither should I per- mit any horse in the winter season, after a Imrd day's work, to be removed into the cleaning room.
Horses which are thus artificially treated in hot stables, and with warm clothing, are, of course, much more liable to catch cold than those which are almost used in a state of nature, such as cart horses, and from their sudden exposure to a cold atmo- sphere, when heated, arise colds, coughs, chills, and sometimes, in consequence of these, farcy and glanders. These evil effects may generally be traced to checked perspiration, and those who have kept horses must be aware that a severe cold caught in the winter months, is not so easily got rid of again, and often ends in chronic cough. Numbers of horses fall victims to inflam- mation, produced by sudden exposure to cold, and by having cold water given to them when in a heated state. I witnessed the fatal efi'ects of the latter a short time since with a young
42 K0R5ES AND HOUNDS.
and valuable liorse belonging to a farmer. This horse was seized suddenly with what the farmer thought the colic, or fret, and the village practitioner being sent for, he gave him what he called a warm drench, with about a quart of gin as well The result of this imprudent dose was soon visible, by- increased pain and inflammation, which set in so rapidly that the horse was dead before nine o'clock the same evening. My advice was solicited in the afternoon, when too late ; but I pre- scribed the only remedies which would be serviceable in such a case — the use of the enema and warm fomentations to the stomach — the horse having been already bled by his doctor till he dropped down. A little before nine o'clock, I fortunately went to see him, and found him surrounded by men and boys, trying to keep him on his legs, and prevent him lying down. The learned Vet. was also present, but ignorant that at that moment his patient was dying. I ordered the men and boys in- stantly to come away from him, and they had not left him one minute, before the horse fell dead against the wall. Being a very large animal of the cart-horse breed, he would certainly have crushed to death one or more of the people who were around him but for my fortunate arrival iust at this critical moment. In cases of this kind, where inflammation sets in so rapidly, the probability is that the most scientific treatment would scarcely avail to save life ; but when fuel is added to fire, by peppery drenches, or drastic doses of physic being crammed down the horse's throat, the chances of a cure are hopeless. In the very first instance bleeding may check the inflammation ; a good dose of castor oil should also be given, and warm gruel with a little ginger in it. A warm mustard poultice may also be a[»plied to the stomach, and flannels steeped in hot water.
I will state one case more which came under my own obser- vation, and where a very valuable horse would most inevitably have been sacrificed at Mt. Bolter's altar of maxims but for my timely arrival on the scene of action. A friend was staying with me in the hunting season with two good horses. He had his stud groom, of course, a very consequential gentleman, and who did not, as the vulgar saying is, think small beer of himself. I gave them some loose boxes to themselves, which were generally hermetically sealed against all peering curiosity hun- ters. I seldom ventured to look into this garden of the Hes- perides for fear of the dragon, but my man often talked of the condition and other balls which were being continually crammed down the horses' throats, much against his advice ; but he was considered ordy as a country bum])kin, and what should ho know about the management of high-bred cattle like his mas-
ITOESES Ayj) HOUNDS. 43
ter's horses ? One day my friend came to me with a very rueful visage, saying his horse was taken very ill, and Thomas had advised him to send for the farrier of the village.
" Send," I said, " for the butcher at once."
" Why," he said, " I did not know what to do ; and Thomas said the horse was very ill, and he should go for the farrier."
" Well," I said, " the horse belongs to you, and you can do as you like ; but I'll bet you five pounds that if Mr. Bolter crams one of his fire balls down his throat he will be carrion by to- morrow morning."
" Oh !" he said, " what shall I do ? Pray come and see him, for I fear the farrier is arrived already ; and the horse cost me one hundred and twenty guineas."
" So many shillings," I said, " he is not worth if Mr. Bolter once handles him."
He hurried me down to the stable at once, and fortunately the furrier had not made his appearance — his stopping to mix up the precious comx)Ound he usually crammed down horses' throats upon all occasions, upon this, saved the liorse's life. Upon examining him, I found him suffering from incipient in- flammation, no doubt produced by Mr. Thomas's condition balls, and the chances were fifty to one against his recovery. I told my friend there was only one course to pursue, and that instantly must be done — to send to the nearest large town for a clever veterinary surgeon, to bring with him his apparatus for injecting warm water and gruel, to unload and soothe the intes- tines. A man on horseback was directly despatched on this errand, and no sooner was he gone than the village professor made his appearance. Being always, open to conviction if wrong, and vrishing also to hear the opinion of my learned friend, ^Ir. Bolter, I held my peace. My friend and Thornas held a consultation together, and I could see Mr. Bolter's advice about the nice cooling ball that he had brought with him being given at once, was on the point of being adopted, when it was time to step in to the rescue of the poor horse.
" Pray, jlr. Bolter,'* I said, " will you allow me to see the ball you are so strongly recommending r
" Oh, sir, by all manner of means : here it is."
Tlie smell was sufficient.
" Will you tell me," I said, " what this ball contains ?
*' Oh no, sir, you know we never tells out of school ; but it is summut I mixes," with a very knowing look.
"Well, then,'' I said, "as you are so communicative, I will tell you some oi the ingredients — all I do not pretend to. Your occult science has, no doubt, many secrets which are far too
44 nORSES AND HOUNDS.
deep for me to unravel • your ball, however, contains aloes, gum guaiacum, carraway, and, I liave a notion, a sprinkling of black pepper, with a fcAv drops of oil of turpentine."
At this announcement, Mr. Bolter's visage became consider- ably elongated; but he still tried to keep his ground, saying he would answer for his ball, and he would take a little blood as well.
" Bleeding," I said, " may not be amiss ; but the only fit re- ceptacle for the ball is your own pocket."
My friend appearing undecided, I clenched the matter by say- ing at once —
"Now, Mr. Bolter, I will bet you five pounds, or five shillings, that if the horse is to take that stuff in your pocket, he is stiff in four-and-twenty hours — will you take my bet ?"
" No, sir," he said, " I wont ; I don't like betting."
" Then," said my friend, " that settles the matter ; my horse shall not take that ball, at all events."
The horse was bled, however, and very soon afterwards a clever veterinary surgeon arrived, who approved of what I had done and suggested, and told my friend that if the furrier had crammed that stuff down the horse's throat, his chance would have been out.
" Warm water and gruel, with the apparatus T have brought over, are the only remedies to be applied in this case ; and if these don't save his life, nothing can."
Fortunately his life was saved, and Mr. Thomas was ordered to spare his trouble in mixing up any more condition balls. One can scarcely guess the extraordinary things which are some- times prescribed by ignorant people in the country.
Before I could give my horses the luxury of a loose box to each, they were always turned round in their stalls once or twice in the day, and left to stand, with a rein attached to each post, and in this position they were groomed, cleaning horses against the rack, or manger, induces them to become crib-biters. Some horses are so ticklish, when rubbed under the belly, that you cannot prevent them kicking, unless the foreleg is strapped up, or the tail held firmly down by one hand, while the other is employed in wisping off the dirt : but some grooms take rather a pleasure in making their horses kick and bite whilst dressing them — there is certainly no necessity for half the fuss and work which is made often about this simple operation. To hear some grooms hissing and blowing whilst dressing horses, you might suppose their labours to be quite Herculean ; and the quantities of dust they inhale from this practice cannot be otherwise than most hurtful to their own coiistitutions,
HOESES AND HOUNDS. 45
To tliose who have not been accustomed to horses from early youth, the management of them is a sealed volume which they do not care perhaps to break open and look into, and therefore everything is left to their grooms ; they do not like to interfere, either from a fear of exposing their want of knowledge to their inferiors in every other respect, probably, than this. I was once much amused by a sailor commencing farming opera- tions, with about as much knowledge of ploughing as his ploughman had of managing a ship ; but having been accustomed to strict obedience from all liands on board, he carried the same peremptory disposition on lard, and any of his workmen sug- gesting anything to be done, were ordered by the captain to do just the contrary, merely by way of maintaining his paramount authority. It may well be supposed that the system pursued by our sea captain for the first five months was anything but agreeable to the rules of good husbandry ; the farm, in fact, was turned nearly topsy-turvy, but being a very shrewd and observ- ing man, he soon saw what was right and what wrong, and trimmed his sails accordingly ; being laughed at by a farmer for such extraordinary proceedings as some of his Avere, he angrily replied, " Do you think I am going to be told by these landlubbers what to do '? my or dersshall be obeyed, whether right or wrong, and now that my hands are quite satisfied on this point, and will do whatever I tell them, I think we shall sail very well together, and right the ship at last." He turned out, afterwards, a capital farmer, and his men were always the most orderly and well-conducted in the parish.
Every man may, with a very little trouble, acquire the knowledge necessary to manage his horses, his best instructor being common sense; and it would be well for the equine race, were their lords and masters to bestow a little more attention upon them than they usually do. Horses were much more regarded by the heathens of old, whom we think so meanly of, than they are by us Christians of the present day. Laws were made by Constantine to enforce the proper treatment of horses, and punishments inflicted upon those who ill-treated or abused them ; and we read that the old racers, who had distinguished themselves in the circus, were afterwards maintained out of the public treasury ; those pensioners on the public bounty were called " Emeriti," as deserving their discharge from labour, and also support in their declining years. How fare the " Emeriti " of the present day 1 and how few consider the aged and worn-out servant^?, which have contributed so much to their pleasures or their purse ! Instead of protection in their declining years, they are generally made over to the tender mercies of cabmen
46 HOUSES AND HOUNDS.
or cadgers, until the little strength they have remaining is whipped out of them, and they are then consigned to the knacker's hands ; surely, the paltry few pounds for which an old horse may be sold, should be no consideration with their great and wealthy owners, and it would be more to their credit to have their old servants shot at once, than expose them so remorselessly to certain drudgery, and a lingering death.
To prove how old horses may be abused, I may state an instance which occurred under my own observation ; I had an old hunter, no particular favourite, one which had been ridden, however, several seasons by the second whi])per-in, but having become too slow for his work, my first whipper-in told me he could get him a good place for life, with an old farmer who wished much to have him, and promised to take every care of him, merely requiring him to ride about tlie farm ; upon this assurance, and knowing something of the man, I consented to let him go, — but guess my astonisliment when, a few months afterwards, npon returning home, this identical old horse was put into my carriage (and a heavy one it was,) to drag me home a distance of fourteen miles : I could scarcely believe it possible, but there he certainly was. ' This was the only pair of horses I could procure, and he was therefore obliged to go the journey, which I was determined should be his last. Passing through the town where his present owner lived, I stopped and made inquiries how he could have come into his possession ; the story was soon told: the farmer did not like him, and had there- fore sold him to the postmaster. Having explained to this man the circumstances under which he had left my stables, I asked the i)rice he had given for him, which was ten pounds ; this sum I immediately tendered to him, and the old horse never left my premises again.
This case may operate as a caution to others, not to trust to their servants, or allow them to have any casting vote, as to the fate of an old horse. There is an old story, which has probably been heard by many of my readers, but it is so approjoriate to the subject, that I may be pardoned for introducing it at this juncture. It was the practice of Charles, Duke of Calabria, to sit in council at Naples with his ministers on certain days, to hear all general complaints ; and that no persons, however humble, should be denied admittance to his presence, a wire was run across the court to the outside entrance, which, when pulled, gave the Duke an opportunity of knowing that some petitioner had applied for admission. Tliere was an old baron who, being tired of his horse, then grown stale in his service, had ordered him to be turned out of his stable, to obtain a livelihood how
IIOESES AND KOUNES. 4<
lie could. Tins horse one clay straying near the court, and rubbing against the wall, pulled the bell ; the Duke's attention was attracted by it, but no person claiming admittance, he inquired of his attendants the cause, and was answered by a courtier, with a smile upon his countenance, that it was only an old horse. " That makes no differen'ce," replied the Duke ; " my court is open to all, and I w^ould have you to know that justice extends to the brute creation. Who is the owner of that horse? Send for him directly." The baron was summoned to answer for his horse, and acknowledged that he had rendered him mucli service in several campaigns, but being now worn out and useless, he had turned him adrift to provide for his own living. " Very well," said the Duke, " but let me ask you one question : since you have been in years and past service, has the pension which my father granted you been withheld T " No, sire," was the reply ; " it has been punctually paid to me." " Then," said the Duke, "if you would retain your pension, and the character as well of a brave and generous man, go and provide for your old horse, as the state has provided for you." The case of the old baron and his horse is, I fear, but too common even in these enlightened days, and few, very few prove, although all may admit, that justice should extend to the brute creation.
CHAPTEE VII.
On stimmerlng in loose lioxes — Various accommodation and means for so doing — A horse requires relaxation as well as a man — Abundance of water ne- cessary— Instance of insatiate thirst — Thirst often caused by irritating over-doses of medicine — Frequent death of horses from inj udicious physic- ing — Subject of summei'ing continued — Loose boxes sometimes a toler- able substitute for turning out — Diet — Over-cramming during the summer to be avoided — Young grass the best and gentlest purgative — Care re- quned when a change is made from green to diy food — Prejudices of some persons against tmrning out to grass — Practice and experience of the author in reference to summering — Observations of Nimrod.
Many of my readers may recollect the letters of the mighty "Nimrod," on the subject of summering hunters in loose boxes, which gained many advocates for a system which has been con- tinued down to the present day, and it may be considered pre- sumptuous in me to (Question such high authority. I am aware, also, that it is not in the power of every one to give his horse (and I write for the man of one horse, as well as for the master
is HORSES AXD HOUNDS.
of stucis on a large scale) the benefit of a summer run, witli cer- tain conditions inseparably connected with the well-being of the horse when turned out to grass. I have seen horses sum- mered in various ways, from the great studs in Leicestershire, dow^i to the single animal kept by the lover of the noble science, whose limited means only allow him the opportunity of meeting the hounds once or twice per week during the hunting season, and who is obliged to husband his horse's power to admit of this gratification. Some summer their horses in the stable only, with windows and doors open ; some in loose boxes, in sheds, barns, and outhouses, as each man's fancy leads him, or according to his peculiar circumstances. I have seen horses turned into such places, with a thick layer of wet clay up to their fetlocks ; others with a profusion of straw ; others without ^ny, standing on the bare stones to keep their feet cook I knew, also, a very economical gentleman, wdio, instead of giving his hunters a run at grass, gave them a run in his phaeton during the summer months, and he said they were all the better for it ! Credat Judceus Apella, non ego. To make the most of horses, where such a disposition exists, there can be no question that hunters, after a severe season, do require some relaxation and rest from their arduous labours during the summer months. The bow should not always be kept bent. Some consider horses in the light of machines, and work them as long and as hard as they can ; and when unfit for use, buy others. Some sporting men (as they are termed) will, in like manner, run a good horse off his legs, or until he has scarcely a sound one to stand upon. With such I have little to do ; they are quite out of my pale, and if they can reconcile such conduct with their consciences, they must be hard indeed. Justice extends to the brute creation. Unfortunately, however, for the brute creation, there is many a greater brute to be found among bipeds than quadrupeds. Mr. Martin's act, it is true, has somewhat pro- tected the humbler animals from the cruelty and tyranny which have been exercised over them by tliose higher animals supposed to be endowed with reason and religion ; but it does not go far enough. To those who have not the opportunity of turning their horses out to grass, I would suggest the plan of giving them some large outhouse, or a loose box in some cases must suffice, well littered with straw, the place to be kept as cool as possible. There should be placed in one corner a very large bucket, such as is used for w^ashing horses' legs, or a good sized tub, containing nine or ten gallons of w^ater ; this should be filled morning and evening with fresh water. The craving which many horses evince for water is generally caused by
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 49
tlie absurd practice of grooms in stinting them in tlie quantity- given.
A friend of mine once complained to me of a horse he had, which he said was never satisfied, and he believed would drink a pond dry. " Well," I said, " that is soon cured ; get a large bucket or tub, and put it in his box, and make your man keep filling it to the brim as long as he will drink ; don't let him get to the bottom." He followed my suggestions, and the next time I saw him, he said his horse was quite cured, and never cared about water afterwards. I may here say that when I kept hunters, they had always a large bucket of water standing by them in their boxes, day and night. Of course when they came in hot, from hunting, it was removed, but replaced always when they had been dressed and done up for the night, ^\^len one considers the violent exertions which some horses undergo in the course of the day, added to the hot and impure air breathed by them in their stables, there can be no surprise at their thirst and craving after water. It is not only cruelty, but folly, to deprive them of as much as they require, and unless they have been stinted in the quantity by some ignoramus of a groom, they will not drink more than is good for them. We cannot always say the same of his would-be genius of a master, when seated in the back parlour of the " Lushington Arms." A little learning is a dangerous thing, and the airs some of these stud grooms, as they are called, give themselves, as well as the knowledge they assume of everything connected with horses, are something quite preposterous. To hear them talk and give their opinions, you would suppose they had the whole pharma- copeia at their tingers or tongues' ends, and had been bred up in a veterinary college. What with alterative balls, condition balls, urine balls, and all such trash, is it to be wondered at that horses are sometimes craving for water, or nearly dying of thirst? The wonder is they so long exist under such treatment. _ And then, when Mr. John, the groom, has got his horse and himself into a fix, by an overdose of his condition balls (given for the sole purpose of making the horse look fine in his coat), he goes with a long story to master about his horse being in a very bad way : got the colic, or fret (no wonder) ; better send for Mr. Bolter, the village blacksmith, who sets up for veterinary sur- geon, cow d -ctor, pig and dog doctor, all in one. Exit John. Enter Mr. Bjlter. Mr. Bolter assumes a very serious aspect, looks the horse over, turns up the whites of his eyes, pinches him in the side, pretends to feel the pulse, although he can't quite make out where it lies, and pronounces his opinion. " A very bad case, Mr. John, and as much as I can do to save
E
50 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
liis life. Tie liis liead up, while I steps across and gets summut as I mixes, which will do un good." Mr. Bolter quickly returns with such a compound, in the shape of a ball, that it often settles the business, and the next person who appears on the scene is the knacker. We had often dead horses brought to the kennel, which, coming from farmers, we could not well refuse, and the general reply to my question, " Well, farmer, this is a sad loss to you ; how did it happen ?" " Oh, sir, he was taken all of a sudden with the colic or fret, or something of that sort, and we sent off at once for the furrier (commonly so called, instead of farrier, but by the way no misnomer), and he gave un a drunch." " Oh," said I, " the drench explains all ; you need say no more." I do not by any means wish to be too hard upon the Messrs. Bolters, or gentlemen of their profession, but I am only stating facts which commonly occur, and which might be remedied by the use of a little common sense, instead of so much of the mixums. In all inflammatory cases these con- founded balls and drenches are only adding fuel to fire, and must produce fatal consequences.
To return to my subject of summering horses. If you have no opportunity of turning them out, you must do the best you can with a loose box. The more roomy and airy it is the bet- ter. The shoes should be taken off, the hoof pared well down and even all round, and short at the toe. Lucerne is a capital thing to give horses, but fresh vetches, not too old, or new mown grass, if the others are not to be had, will answer the purpose. You need not attend to the crotchets many grooms have in their heads of cramming horses during the summer months with corn, under the idea of keeping them in condition ; they do not require more than two feeds per day. With no work and no exercise, they will always keep high enough in flesh, if not too high. Clothing of course they will not require, which should be gradually withdrawn from the time they are not used for work. Many knowing hands, who must be always meddling with horses' stomachs in some way or other, prescribe a dose of physic, as a preparation — for what ? The gripes or colic I should suppose. When horses are taken from dry food to green you may as well give a man a dose of calomel and a black draught in the morning loho is taken off beefsteaks and port wine to he put on mutton broth or gruel. Young grass w^ill clear them out well enough without the aid of the apothecaries' shop, but when taken up and put from green food to dry hay and corn, they will then require a dose or two of physic, with plenty of bran mashes.
I am well aware that with many there exists a prejudice
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 51
against turning horses out to grass at all. Tliey say it takes them at once out of condition, that is, from hard flesh and mus- cle, the result of hard feeding, and that you have to do this over again before the horse is fit to work. I grant it is the case to a certain extent ; but the question is, under which sys- tem the horse will do most work, and last longest in health and strength ; in short, be of most value to his owner, for that is the point which most men consider, and that only. My answer is, that a horse which has the benefit of a summer's run at grass every year, will last many years longer and do more work, and hard work too, in the season, than the horse which is constantly kept in condition, as the term is, and fed upon corn, winter and summer. The cord that is always strained will snap the soon- est. I have heard it objected also, that horses when turned out to grass become as fat as bullocks, that they are driven wild by flies, get kicked by others, become broken-winded and roarers, fill their legs with windgalls by stamping, and, in short, that they are nearly ruined by it. I can only say, in thirty years' experience, I never met with any of these evil results from my usual plan of summering horses, and I will shortly state the course I invariably pursued. Our hunting season expired with, the first week of April ; after that the horses were only wisped over once a day, not dressed : the corn taken off from four feeds per diem to two, which were mixed with a large portion of hay- chaff, and given as usual at four times ; the clothes were thrown loosely on (a single rug) without any girth, the shoes taken pff, and the feet pared down as far as we could go without draAving blood. The first fine day all the horses were turned out in a dry pasture, with not much grass in it, where there were shade and water, for an hour or two at first. If it rained they were caught up again, and rubbed dry when brought into the stables. " Didn't they gallop and tear about the field, and try to kick each others' legs off?" No, they did no such thing, their feet were rather too tender for much galloping, and not being utter strangers to each other, they generally began feeding quietly, and so went on amicably together. They were always brought into the stable in the evening, and had a feed of corn with, plenty of hay and chaff, and a rack of hay at night ; also a feed of corn in the morning before let out, until the weather became more settled, and they had become gradually inured to the change. After that they remained out, day and night, except in hot weather, when they were taken up in the morning about ten o'clock, and remained in their loose boxes until the_ cool of the evening. There was also a large open shed in which they could at any time take refuge from a storm. Their feet wero
£2
52 HORSES AM) HOUNDS.
always looked over every three weeks, and if any were brittle a thin tip or plate was put on. Thus they continued until the beginning of July ; they were then taken up for good to prepare for cub-hunting. I perfectly agree with the remarks of Nimrod, (whose work I have read long since these first chapters were written), about horses being entirely ruined by being turned out to grass in the usual manner, without care or protection of any kind. Fine coated horses would be driven wild with the flies, and stamp and batter their legs to pieces. No such course as this has ever been advocated by me, and unless the horses can be regularly attended to as I have stated, they are far bet- ter even in a stable. To those who cannot dispense with their horses' services until late in the summer, I would recommend a paddock with a shed in it, or to give them the run of a farm yard if no paddock can be had, as horses are sadly tormented with flies from the end of July to the middle of August. I shall enter more at length on this subject at another time. This, for the present, may suffice. I can only state in conclusion tliat my horses treated in this manner went through more work than any others in the field, were seldom sick or soriy, did not go broken-winded, and lasted for many years longer than others which were always kept on the hard system.
CHAPTER VIIL
Ecunrts on tlie selection and purchasing of horses — Tricks of dealers- Change in the teeth as age advances — Disposition ascertainable from the appearance of the eye — Chai-acteristics of the form indispen- sable to constitute a good hunter, as distinct from those of the carriage- horse — Detads to be considered as to the neck and shoulders — High action horses objectionable, as also horses "in at the elbows" — Trial necessary in pm'chasing horses, and benefit of experience in effecting a purchase — Little time requned to know a good horse from a bad — Points to be ob- served in their appearance — Length necessary, but imder certain restric- tions— Diseases and imperfections; such questions best referred to the veterinary surgeon — Difference among the professors of that science — Cm'ious instance — Alignments derived from sweating, and cause, symp- toms, and effects of lameness in horses — Danger of the lancet in ines* perienced hands — Use of fomentations — Eides for bleeding — The "speedy cut" — Instance of it while at Oxford — Causes of broken knees ; Dangers of the wood pavement — Their treatment — Diseases of the feet — Wind- galls — Cuts, and their treatment — Great care requisite in the use of the irons — Causes of internal unsoundness; broken wind — Disadvantages and proper treatment of "roarers" and "whistlers" — Use and treatment of broken-winded horses — Conclusion.
Having now treated of the breeding, rearing, and general management of horses, it may be as well to make a few remarks
HOESES AND HOUNDS. 53
upon the purchasing of them, and the points to be attended to in selecting them, for the purpose of hunting, the road, or har- ness. The first question generally asked is the age of the horse, should his appearance be approved of; and here the inexpe- rienced man will be entirely at the mercy of the seller, unless he can obtain the assistance of some friend well versed in such matters, or the opinion of a veterinary surgeon, which is not always obtainable. The teeth of a horse undergo great changes from the time of birth to the period when he is between four and five years old, about which time the tush or tusk appears, situated between the front and back teeth. From the marks or grooves in the front teeth the age of the horse may be correctly known by those accustomed to them. At six years old the mark on the two central front teeth is gone, though a slight black stain still remains. At seven years old the mark on the four front teeth of the lower jaw disappears, and that on the two outside ones is wearing out also. After this the experienced alone can determine the age of the horse, but it may be known to them by the teeth on the upper jaw. The disposition and temper of a liorse may be known by his eye, which, when large and full, betokens a good temper ; but when small, with a pro- jecting lid, the reverse is generally the case. Large heads are, in my opinion, very objectionable, as well as what are called Eoman noses, and, generally speaking, are indicative of a bad strain in blood. For carriage horses the shape of the heads may not be of much consequence, but for hunters a small head, or at least a thin one, is indispensable. I never yet saw a horse with a big burly head of good or lasting qualities in the field, although there are of course exceptions to most general rules.
A friend of mine once purchased a fine-looking animal as a hunter, which he brought out in great form to exhibit, and asked my opinion of him. " His head," I replied, " is quite enough for me." "Well," he said, " but just cast your eye over him ; he is a splendid animal." " All, barring his knowledge- box." His make and shape were good ; in fact, he was what the dealers call a jine topped horse; but there was a deficiency of bone under the knee, as well as exuberance of head, and I advised my friend to consign him at once to the carriage. " Oh no," he replied, " he is a capital hunter, and I intend to show you the way to-day, if we have anything to do." We did have something to do, as it turned out ; but it was more than my friend could do to keep his big-headed brute together, and, after having given him some rattling falls, it ended by his stopping entirely at the last hill and giving in. The next time I saw him he was in his proper place, with a collar on his neck.
A horse with a big body and thin legs can never carry weight
54 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
througli a hard day. The finest form is of little use without good legs and feet, with plenty of bone and muscle. These are of the greatest importance to the hunter, and, without them, no horse can long stand the wear and tear of a hunter's life. Good flat hocks are also of first-rate consideration. A fine crest and neck, with high shoulders, present great attractions to many, but are not essential in a hunter. Horses with rather low shoulders, but fine at the point, and tliin necks, often prove good in the field, also showing greater speed ; and if possessed of other requisites, such as good chests and backs, standing low in the body, upon straight legs, I should prefer tliem to very high or large-shouldered animals. When in motion, a horse should go level and easy to himself, lifting his legs sufficiently high to clear the ground ; but very high-actioned horses are, in my opinion, very objectionable, either as hunters or hacks. Grand action is all very fine in a London carriage horse, or a park pack, where show is of such great importance ; but for wear and tear give me the level stepper, who will still be lifting a clean leg long after the others have been strained and bat- tered to pieces.
Horses in at the elbows, as the term is, can seldom go with ease to themselves or comfort to their riders : they have a short and jarring action, and are liable to fall.
In purchasing horses for myself, if satisfied with the appear- ance of the animal, the only trial I required was to have them led with a loose halter a certain distance, and then trotted back to where I was standing, and, strange as it may appear, I seldom mounted a horse before I purchased him. A farmer once brought me one which, at the first glance, Isaw was just the animal to suit me. Having quickly looked him over from head to foot, there was nothing out of order which I could detect, and I therefore inquired the price. The farmer thinking from my hasty examination that I did not intend to purchase, solicited me to mount and try his paces. This I declined, but made him walk the horse up to the yard door and trot him back.
"Now, farmer," I said, "that will do ; how much do you ask for him f
" Why, sir, I hope you will not think fifty-five guineas too much ; he is rough and dirty now, but I will take less if you think the figure too high, and I wish you would only put your leg over him."
'' Put him in the stable, and here's your money."
Those accustomed to horses seldom require more than five or ten minutes to look any animal well over ; but to the inexpe-
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 55
rienced a much longer investigation is necessary. A narrow con- tracted foot and a wide one are equally to be avoided. The first is generally the result of disease or bad management in shoeing, and horses with the latter are liable to speedy cuts under the knees. Very long pasterns are objectionable, as also those in the other extreme. The distance, however, fiom the fetlock to the knee should be short, and the muscles of the arm full and large. It has been justly remarked that, for speed, a horse must have length somewhere, either in the body or the limbs. The former is far preferable to the latter, although I have had good hunters with short backs and bodies, but they were gene- rally what are called hiick leapers, and not very easy to sit on going over their fences.
The diseases and imperfections of horses have been so fully described and pointed out by Mr. Laurence and other professors of the veterinary school, that I should probably be only sup- posed to be taking a leaf out of their book were I to go at any length into this their peculiar department. When the services of a clever veterinary surgeon can be obtained, it is the safest plan for the inexperienced to call in their assistance at once, and to avail themselves of professional advice, even in pur- chasing an animal. The fee to be paid on such occasions is a very trifling consideration in respect of the risk any unsophis- ticated person may run in being done out of a large sum of money by buying a brute, and the pleasure of having to keep him into the bargain. In the veterinary art, as well as others, doctors differ, as will be seen by the ballooning trial some time since, when some asserted that an animal so suspended must suffer ; others, that he did not. The case a])pears to have turned on this point — at least, so it is reported. The fact of the animal sweating exceedingly, which was alleged by the prosecutor as a proof of the supposed pain, was met by the evidence of wit- nesses, who deposed to the same condition in other horses, which, on the same evening, a very hot one, were standing quietly in their stables. The cases, in my opinion, are not analogous; and beyond that, they have no reference to each other. Sweating in horses, as well as in their lords and masters, w^e all know, can be produced by either excessive iiiglit, exces- sive heat, or excessive pain ; and I should like to see any philosopher who doubts the trutli of this assertion just sus- pended by his smallclothes to the car of a balloon, with his legs dangling under (only by way of experiment), to travel as high as the top of St. Paul's. There is nothing extraordinary in horses confined in close stables breaking out into a sweat in a very hot evening ; but there must be some other cause to pro-
56 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
duce this effect were they standing only in the open field. The animal suspended to the car of the balloon must have been in a still cooler atmosphere, and therefore could not have sweated from excessive heat. His state, as deposed to, must have been produced by fright and pain combined, and, with all due defer- ence to learned opinions, I must, as advocating the cause of the horse and hound, maintain that such an experiment was an act of cruelty and nothing else.
We all know that those engaged in surgical operations have little sympathy for the sufferings of their patients, and it is, perhaps, fortunate that the case is so ; but for this very reason, the evidence of such men, where a question arises as to the pain any animal, biped or quadruped, may suffer under an operation, should be listened to with caution. Every one has heard the story of the girl and the eel ; and her reply when rebuked for her cruelty in skinning them alive, " Law, sir, they be used to it." The fact is, she was so used to it that she never considered its cruelty. That any animal can be suspended in mid air to the car of a balloon without bodily suffering, I, for one, will never believe, though all the veterinary surgeons in London should decide to the contrary. It may be as well to notice some of the common kinds of lameness in horses, their probable causes, appearances, and effects. Lameness in the shoulder is occasioned by the muscles being overstrained, either by exertion, slipping, or falling, and may at once be known by the horse dragging his toe along the ground when moving. Hunters are more liable to this kind of lameness than horses used for other purposes, and it is wonderful that they are not more frequently lamed in this manner, when one considers the terrific falls they often meet with.
It is a dangerous thing to trust a lancet in the hands of an inexperienced man, and therefore a veterinary surgeon should be sent for at once — fomentations being in the meantime ap- plied to the point of the shoulder and inside the arm. In this case I have found bleeding in the vein situated just at the bend of the arm of great efficacy in promoting a speedy cure, by subduing local inflammation at first. Rest, with plenty of hot water fomentations and a mild dose of physic, bran mashes, and a short allowance of corn, will do the rest.
Sudden lameness is also caused when in exercise, by what is called the speedy cut, and I have known horses drop instantly to the ground from the pain. This is caused by the shoe strik- ing or cutting the part just inside of the knee. Horses with large feet, crooked legs, or rolling action, are very liable to injure
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 57
themselves in this manner, and therefore are to be avoided. When a young man, at Oxford, and not fully initiated into the secrets of the jockey art, I got a most surprising fall from a big, lumbering brute, with large feet, which I rode a mile or two on the road by way of trial. Trotting him pretty briskly along to try his paces, he came down on a sudden, without the least trip or peck, as a hint of his intention, and gave me such a rattler that I have not forgotten it to this hour. I have had a pretty good loek out for speedy cuts ever since, having received a few cuts about the face and knees upon this occasion. But the worst part of the business was to follow. The brute broke his knees, as well as mine, fearfully, and I was obliged to buy him, as his owner, a very knowing old scoundrel, insisted it was all my fault. For a month nearly he was laid up in the stable, and I was glad to find a purchaser at any price, rather than ride him again.
Broken knees, however, are not always caused by faults in the legs, feet, or action of a horse. In turning corners on slippery, or hilly ground, in frosty weather, greasy roads, pavement, wood pavement particularly (such is my horror and abomination), the cleanest steppers may sometimes turn up, and no blame to them. During frosty weather, horses' shoes should always be roughed, as the term is, and when they have to travel much over stones. In our hunting country, some parts of which are very hilly, my horse's shoes were always either turned up or grooved at the heel. A small steel point is best, as the grooves soon fill up. Many accidents were avoided by this plan, as it gave the horses a better purchase when going down hill at their fences. The treatment required for broken knees is simple enough when the skin is only abraded. Wash the part well with warm water until all dirt or grit is removed, and then ap- ply a linen bandage with tincture of myrrh and brandy mixed in equal proportions for twenty-four hours. A salve composed of lard and finely-powdered charcoal will be found sufficient afterwards. Should there be any deep cuts, however, different treatment will be necessary, or the horse may be lamed, or dis- figured for life. In bad cases, professional aid should be called in. Splints, or small excrescences on the bone under the knee, are also another cause of lameness, particularly when situated near the sinew, and the pain caused by striking them will occa- sion the horse to fall. The best application for these is mercu- rial ointment, to be rubbed in twice a day with the finger, not smeared all over the leg, but carefully confined to the excre- scence alone. They may be dispersed also by blister ointment.
58 HORSES AND HOUKDS.
When removed, 1 would recommend the use of salt Tj^ater ban- dages to strengthen the legs ; but these must not remain on during the night, and should be kept constantly moist whilst in use. We now come to the ringbone, which, upon its first ap- pearance, may be reduced by mercurial charges, or blister oint- ment ; but if neglected is a sure cause of lameness.
Diseases of the feet are common, and require to be treated by a clever veterinary surgeon, or incurable lameness will follow. 1 bought a horse once with only three hoofs,^t least one was in embryo ; he was a capital hunter, but from fever in one of his feet the hoof had sloughed off, and a new one had begun growing. In this state I bought him at a low price, and with rest and careful treatment, in about a twelvemonth the hoof had grown nearly to the size of the others, and he carried me well in the hunting-field for some years afterwards, without being in the least lame. Windgalls are also very common, the result of the tendons being overstrained ; to disperse these, when not very bad, rest and bandages will often sufiace, but in worse cases, blister ointment or mercurial charges must be employed. Rest, after all, is the chief restorative, and the horse should have a holiday in the summer season, by which, and the application of salt water bandages, they will not pro- bably return. Curbs are caused by a strain of the back tendon of the hind leg, and appear just below the hock-joint ; they will give way to the mercurial charge, or blister ointment, if taken in time ; and to prevent their re-appearance a slight firing is, I think, the best application.
The irons should be used very lightly, so that no scar shall afterwards appear. ITie scoring which horses sometimes expe- rience at the hands of ignorant or unpractised professors, is not only cruel, but perfectly unnecessary, and there is no occasion ■for those _ transverse marks, which only add to the sufferings of the animal, and disfigure him also ever afterwards ; the iron should run in an oblique direction down the leg, ivith the sinews, and not across them. It was the fashion formerly, with many sporting men, to fire their horses before they required it, when any apparent weakness existed, acting, I suppose, upon the well-known adage, that "prevention is better than cure." My father was of this opinion, and once took advantage of my absence from home, after the hunting season, to operate upon two young horses I had lately purchased, much to my annoy- ance. They were perfectly sound and clean about their sinews, but the governor taking it into his head that they were not over strong on their pins, had them down, and a fool of a farrier
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 59
applied tlie irons to such purpose up and down, lengthways and crossways on their legs, that they were disfigured for life ; remonstrance was useless, as the mischief was done, but I could not help being sadly out of temper when my father coolly remarked, " You said these horses suited you ; this firing will only, therefore, prevent their breaking down ; and there is another thing, you will not be able to sell them."
Of internal imsoundness, roaring and broken wind are the most common causes, and most easily detected, but although volumes almost have been written as to the cure of the former, the case has been now pronounced nearly hopeless. Of broken wind there can be no question ; in the earlier stages, however, of roaring and broken wind, horses are capable of doing good service, with quiet treatment and at moderate paces. I have myself ridden roarers, hunting for several seasons without experiencing any ill effects either by falls or otherwise, but they required careful handling, and would not bear being suddenly forced to the top of their speed, or being driven hard against hilly ground ; they must also be allowed more time at their fences, when in the least distressed. The noise they make, although not perhaps accompanied with much pain to them- selves, is very painful to the rider. Whistling is next akin to roaring, proceeding from the same cause, contraction <of the larynx, or thickening of the membranes of the windpipe, which in some horses is hereditary, or resulting from neglected sore throat, strangles, or cold. In the latter cases, geuLie blisters or embrocations applied externally, will greatly relieve the breath- ing of the horse, by reducing any internal inflammation ; but ■where there is a natural contraction, which is often the case, applications of this kind will, of course, have little efi'ect,
Broken-winded horses are powerless as hunters, although they may last many years in slow work, with necessary atten- tion to their feeding, which should consist almost entirely of manger food, — a mixture of the sweetest hay chaff and bruised com. Lime-water I have also found of much service, which should be thus used : — place a large lump of lime, about the size of a man's double fist, in a tub, upon which pour four large buckets of water ; when settled and clear, a quart of this mix ture should be given in a bucket of water, night and morning, for a fortnight, or longer if necessary.
.There are many other diseases to which horses are liable, now so generally treated on and explained by clever veterinary surgeons, that it is unnecessary, in a work of this description, to enlarge further upon them ; my object having been chiefly
60 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
directed to the breeding, rearing, and economical management of this most useful animal, as well as its kind treatment, and to enforce the latter I cannot do better than conclude in the words of Solomon : —
" A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel,"
CORSES AND HOUNDS. 61
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER ON HOUNDS.
" Qui studet optatam cursu contingere metam Multa tulit fecitque puer, sudavit et alsit, Abstinuit Yenere et vino." — Hokace.
CHAPTER IX
Eemarks on hunting in general, and specially on fox-hunting — Beasts fit for
hunting that have since become extinct — Fox-hunting the substitute for that of animals of a higher class — Its antiquity — The sheep dog the pro- totype of the canine race — Goldsmith's theory thereupon, and its probable explanation — Curious and loose definitions of Linn^us and Dr. Johnson • — Refutation of the theory of the sheep dog's claim to antiquity — General views of the species ranged imder the respective genera of animals — The greyhoimd or gaze-hovmd — Another theory of the oi'igin of breeds of dogs, and probable reasons for the difference.
The observations lam now aboutto make on the subject of hounds are not intended to provoke the criticism of those, who, whe- ther as masters of hounds or huntsmen, may possess equal, if not superior knowledge to myself in all that relates to their management. I neither invite nor deprecate their censure; my object is, to instruct the uninitiated in the mysteries of the ars venatica, and defend the often abused noble animals, which contribute so largely to our health and amuse- ment, and whose services are often ill requited — the horse and the hound.
Hunting may be considered not merely as a pastime or recrea- tion, but as a science also. Every man who wishes to excel in any of the arts of angling, shooting, riding, boxing, fencing, &c., would require first some instruction, and afterwards con- siderable practice, to enable him to become a proficient in the management of the rod, the gun, the horse, the gloves, or the foil. So, also, with regard to the games of chess, cricket, &c. They are all intended for the same purpose — amusement, but demand, more or less, the exercise of mental as well as cor- poreal exertions. There is also an art oi riding well to hounds, the knowledge and practice of which are as necessary to the
G2 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
rider for the full enjoyment of the sport, as they are indispen- sable to the due maintenance of order in the field, and to pre- vent that kelte?' skelter system ot riding, so much the fashion in the present day, offensive alike to the master of the hounds and all true sportsmen, and to which may be attributed the critical checks which so often occur in the chase, and frequently the destruction of a good day's sport.
Fox-hunting has been styled by its ardent admirers as par excellence the ''Noble Science," and without intending to detract from other pursuits of a like nature, I certainly think it has every just claim to this proud distinction. Whether we take into consideration the noble animals employed in this manly sport, the horse and the hound — the nature of the animal pur- sued— the ardour and excitement inseparable from the chase, the talents necessary to be employed, to bring it to a successful issue, the difficulties to be encountered, and the courage, tact, and perseverance with which alone they can be overcome, it will be admitted by all candid minds to have a fair title to that pre-eminence which has been claimed for it.
Fox-hunting has been compared to a sort of warfare, and what better school could there be found to prepare our youth for the battle field? It makes them good horsemen, teaches them to look danger boldly in the face, to disregard falls, hard knocks and bruises, inures them to undergo fatigue with cheerfulness, wet and cold without flinching, and braces their hearts and nerves for the bolder enterprises. In a national point of view, therefore, and as tending to the welfare of the state, fox-hunting is entitled to all and much greater support than it generally meets with. From the earliest ages down to the present time, hunting has been, in some shape or other, the favourite pursuit of man, whether for pleasure, or the means of subsistence, also the dog his favorite companion in the chase.
The nobler beasts of venery, such as the stag, the wolf, and the wild boar, have gradually faded away upon the increase of population and advancement of agriculture ; and all save the former are now unknown in the British Isles. The red deer or stag is in his natural state limited to the wild hills and deep morasses of Scotland, although some few still exist in the west of England, on the borders of Exmoor, where the once royal sport of stag hunting in its legitimate sense is still kept up, if not with all the pomp and circumstance of former days, yet witli the ardour and enthusiasm, for which the sporting men of Devon and Somerset have ever been conspicuous.
Fox-hunting has now taken the place of the more dangerous pursuits of the wolf and boar, which were generally character-
HOKSES AND HOUNDS. 63
ized by sad disasters — death often to the hounds, and divers risks to man and horse. We can still, however, aver, that we follow a beast of prey, and as such, the fox meets with little sympatliy at our hands, and when overtaken by the hounds, he dies as he has lived, game to the last, lighting with his enemies. Our ears are not assailed by the screams of the hare, nor our hearts melted by the tears of the deer (if he sheds any, which, by the way, I think very problematical, if not altogether poeti- cal); a wild stag at bay being quite as awkward a customer as any over-driven infuriated bullock out of Smithfield market.
It would be a matter of no little difficulty, and one of deep research, to determine by whom the first regular pack of fox- hounds was established, and of what materials it was composed. The fox-hound is certainly an artificial animal, originated in this country, and known in no other climate of the world ex- cept where imported. If we are to credit Oliver Goldsmith, the sheep-dog is the grand original of the canine race now dis- persed over the globe ; but all the Goldsmiths in the universe would fail, I am satisfied, to convince Tom Sebright or any other artistical huntsman of the present day, that their darlings ever could, by the barest possibility, lay claim to any affinity with a sheep-dog.
The manner in which Goldsmith arrives at this conclusion as to the shepherd's dog being the original animal of the species, is rather ingenious, if his argument is not altogether conclusive, which, to my obtuse head, it certainly is not. His idea is that "if other animals be compared with the dog internally, the wolf and the fox will have the most perfect resemblance. It is probable, therefore, that the dog, which most resembles the wolf or the fox externally, is the original animal of its kind ; for it is natural to suppose that, as the dog most nearly resembles them internally, so he may be near them in external resem- blance also, except where art or accident has altered his form."
This being admitted, if we look among the number of varie- ties to be found in the dog, we shall not find one so like the wolf or the fox as that which is called the shephercrs dog. Thus argues Goldsmith, and he draws his conclusion by saying, that as the dogs which have run wild in America, and those also of Siberia, Lapland, and other cold countries, as well as the dogs of the Cape of Good Hope, Madagascar, and Malabar, have all a long nose and pricked ears, thus resembling the shepherd's dog in appearance, that therefore the shepherd's dog is the pri- mitive animal of his kind, and that from this unpretending original have been derived all the beautiful and magnificent
C4 nOKSES AND HOUNDS.
animals of the canine species, wliicli are to be found spread over the continent of Europe, but nowhere in such perfection as in our own favoured country. By the shepherd's dog, I take Gold- smith to mean the Scotch dog of that class, which has pricked ears, a rather thick coat of hair, with a long bushy tail ; and this dog, I have often observed, does bear in outward appear- ance a strong resemblance to the fox. So does a chimpanzee or big baboon to a man ; but that is no proof that they are ergo cousin-german ; neither can I see why that dog, which most resembles the wolf or the fox, should therefore, on that account only, be considered as the first founder of all the canine family. Learned naturalists, even so far back as Linnaeus, have made some very aerial flights, and jumped at most extraordinary con- clusions, which from their singularity are certainly extremely entertaining, if not instructive. The learned Linnstus places the glutton (of all animals in the creation) among the weasel class, to which it bears as great a resemblance in its appearance and natural habits as a horse to a hippopotamus. Dr. Johnson has also made rather a wide shot, when he describes a weasel as a little animal that eats corn.
As all these great authorities have expressed their several opinions on animated nature in rather a fanciful way, I see no reason why I should not have a shot at i\\e first dog, as well as Oliver Goldsmith — so here goes, hit or miss. For the satisfaction of all true lovers of fox-hounds, I will only premise that he will not be a shee})-dog, according to my calculation. Goldsmith asserts that the shepherd's dog, transported into the temperate climates, and among people entirely civilized, such as England, France, and Germany, will be divested of his savage air, his pricked ears, his rough, long, and thick hair, and from the single influence of climate and food alone, will become either a matin, a mastiff, or a hound ! This appears to me to be almost too absurd an assertion to require even refutation ; but were the fact so, it would go far to refute his own favourite theory of the shepherd's dog being the primitive animal, as from experience we know, that colour, shape, and make, will run back to gene- rations past, and if a hound can be produced from a sheep-dog, or bitch of that kind, without any cross, this fact alone would go far to disprove the originality of the sheep-dog. We might, with equal reason, suppose (to which length Bufl'on nearly goes) that a horse, from the mere change of climate and habits, would become an ass. We all know that climate exercises a decided influence over animals of almost every kind, yet only to a cer- tain extent. But the grand theory of almost all these learned naturalists goes to prove, that from a single archetype ot the
K0ESE3 AND HOUKDS. 65
dog genus, by the influence of climate and circumstances alone, have arisen all the varieties of this species. Now as it is not, I believe, denied by them, that there were originals of the various species of what the learned are pleased to call the " cat kind," ranking from the lion down to our domestic mouser, and as they have scarcely gone the lengths, or have taken such liberties with this latter class, as they have with our friend tlie dog, as to assert that, by the influence of climate a cat might be converted into a lion, or a lion into a cat, it is by no means unreasonable to suppose, that there might have been originally created a species or two of the dog kind (not one only), although not exactly alike in outward appearance, yet the same in inward structure. It is much more in conformity with the wisdom and care of the Almighty Creator, who, in the Garden of Eden, manifested such condescending goodness towards our first parents, making all things created obedient to their will, or subservient to their use, to suppose that there would be produced different animals of the dog kind, destined hereafter to form such valuable assistants to mankind, in various ways, than that there should be more than one species of animal destined to be his destroyer, such as the lion, tiger, and leopard. What the first varieties were, it is im- possible to determine, but I think few will be inclined to dispute the rationality of the opinion I have ventured to express on this head, even although opposed to such weighty authorities.
It is highly probable, however, that the greyhound, or gaze- hound, both from its beauty of form, and its adaptation to the wants and assistance of man, in his primitive state, would form one, and had there been only one specimen of this race at first created, upon this dog would I pin my faith, as the originator of the different species, in preference to the shepherd's dog. A dog resembling the Irish greyhound or Scotch deer-hound, would prove the most useful of all dogs (where weapons of destruction were as yet unknown) from his speed, being able to overtake, and by his power to master all kinds of game used as food. Still there is more reason to suppose that there were other original varieties, such as the hound, mastiff, and spaniel, and that these metamorpljoses have been produced from one animal, by change of country and influence of climate and food only. ' Having now dived sufficiently deep into the natural history of the dog, which probably may not be wholly uninter- esting to my readers and the real lovers of the canine race, I purpose now to proceed and treat on the hunting and manage- ment of hounds.
F
HORSES AKD HOUNDS.
CHAPTER X,
On the economical management of a pack of fox-lioimcls — The necessity of early practical knowledge relative to kennel and stable exemplified- — Ne- cessity of avoiding damp— Care taken of the New Forest hounds — Eennels should be sm-roimded by a waU, if possible — Lodgiug rooms, courts, &c. — Expense of construction.
In tlie following pages it will be my endeavour to point out how a fox-hunting establishment may be conducted, with a strict view to economy in every department, consistent with respecta- bility and eflaciency. Many ardent lovers of the sport are deterred from taking the management of hounds in their own country, by the generally received opinion of the enormous ex- penses attendant on such an establishment — and enormous in many instances they certainly are. These, however, arise chiefly from the ignorance or inattention of the master himself, and his consequent dependence upon servants, or a natural disposition to lavish expenditure. Some men will do as much with a dollar as others would with a guinea. Let no one, however, imagine that the mastership of a pack of fox-hounds is a trifling matter, or his position a very enviable one ; it is attended with many expenses, great responsibility, and unceasing exertion both of mind and body.
To the young aspirant, then, for honours in the noble science, I recommend the quotation at the head of this treatise. The best race-horse M^ould make a sorry appearance at the winning-post without training, and no man should undertake the manage- ment of a pack of fox-hounds who has not been accustomed from early youth to field sports.
The first pony I possessed when a boy was given me by my father, on the condition that after hunting I should clean and dress him myself In those days, when clipping was not in fashion, this task was far from being a pleasant one ; in addi- tion to being pretty well tired myself, and sometimes wet to the skin, I was obliged to pull off my coat and set to work in good earnest ; rubbing and scrubbing a thick coat of hair, matted with clay and dirt, I found no very great relish for after the novelty of the thing had worn offj and I accordingly remonstrated and begged to decline any further experiment in this line of business. My father's reply, however, soon cut short any further rebellion : " My law is the ' law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not;' if you don't like to cleaa your pony, I will sell him. I gave him to you on that condition.
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 67
and for a particular purpose, that when you have servants your- self, you may know, from experience, what is required of them, and be able to tell them what to do, instead of their telling you." Having experienced once or twice before the conse- quences of lightly treating the " Laws of the Medes and Per- sians," there was no alternative left but submission. Fond of my pony, and fond of riding, I set to work with energy, and scrubbed away until I was sometimes ready to cry with vexa- tion at the little progress I made on his bear-like hide. Soon, however, as a reward for my jDerseverance, a lad was given me to assist in these labours ; and then, indeed, I was happy.
You are not to infer from this early tuition that my father" was a man of very limited income — quite the contrary ; but he was (although the kindest and best of parents) one of the old school, and a strict disciplinarian. He brought up his children as the Spartans of old, to meet danger boldly, and to overcome difficulties by perseverance. From childhood we were taught to ride and disregard falls, and at ten years of age we had guns put into our hands — puny weapons, indeed, and made for our particular use. After a few lessons at priming and loading, and firing at a mark, we were allowed to roam the fields and farm- yard in quest of our game, separately^ never togetlier. Such was the regulation issued from head quarters. Considerable havoc was made among the sparrows, and a blackbird was looked upon by such urchins as ourselves in the light of a blackcock.
But I am rambling away from my subject. There is no ab- solute necessity for a master of hounds being a good groom, although there is for his being a good rider, if he intends to hunt his own pack, and see the end as well as the beginnin^p of a good run. He will never, however, neglect an opportunity of acquiring knowledge, even in such a trivial matter as dress- ing a horse, if he is a man of sense.
I shall now proceed to instruct my tyro in everything that relates to the kennel department, and as a first step we must build a house before we can live in it. Many think anything ■will do for hounds, or dogs, as they are often contemptuously called, but as all our sport depends upon the health and strength of the hound, the first consideration is a healthy kennel. This should be placed upon some high and dry situation (all high^ situations not being necessarily dry ones) ; the building should face the south, and there should be no large trees near it. To Jiunt three or four days a week you will require about forty couples of hounds, according to the country. The lodging rooms should be four in number, by which you will have _ a dry floor for the hounds to go into every morning (the pack in
F 2
68 HOESES AND HOUNDS.
the hunting season being in two divisions), instead of its being washed down, whilst the hounds are left shivering in the cold on a bleak winter's day, which I have seen done when the huntsman has been too busy to walk them out during this process.
Nothing is more prejudicial to hounds than damp lodging rooms, a sure cause of rheumatism and mange, to which dogs are peculiarly liable. I have seen them affected by rheumatism in various ways, and totally incapacitated from working ; some- times they are attacked in the loins, but more often in the shoulders, which some huntsmen call the kennel-lameness, and so in reality it is, the kennel-lameness proceeding either from a damp situation, damp lodging rooms, or damp straw — perhaps all these combined. For some years there was a malady of this " sort, said to be peculiar to the New Forest, and attributed by some to the boggy nature of the ground over which the hounds had to run ; by others, to the little stunted gorse so prevalent on the open heath. Mr. Nicol, however, I believe, thought dif- ferently, and tried various expedients to render the kennels more healthy, and had the benches constructed so high off" the ground that the hounds went up stairs to bed. I do not hear that the pack which now hunts the New Forest country has been affected with the same malady, and this, I think, is owing to a change of situation, as I have seen hounds from other kennels labouring under similar attacks, which have recovered when removed to more healthy situations. No doubt greater attention is paid in these enlightened days to the comfort and health of hounds ; yet much remains to be done, and many prejudices of huntsmen to be removed.
In building new kennels, the earth should be removed from the lodging-room floor, to the depth of a foot at least, and in its place broken stones, sifted gravel, or cinders substituted, with a layer of fine coal ashes, upon which the bricks or floor is to be laid in hot coal ash mortar. Bricks are preferable to stone. Outside the walls a drain about three feet deep should be con- structed, with a draining pipe of two inches bore at the bottom, and filled up with broken stones to within six inches of the surface. This drain is to be carried quite round the building, and will fall into the main sewer. For a roof to the building 5 prefer thatch to tiles, as affording more warmth in winter and coolness in summer, but as slate tiles are more agreeable to the eye, a thin layer of reed placed under the tiles will answer the purpose.
Over the centre of the lodging rooms should be a sleeping apartment for the feeder, which being raised above the level of
^
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 69
the otlier roof, will break the monotony of its appearance. At the rear of the kennels should be the boiling house, feeding court, straw house, and separate lodgings for bitches. In front of the kennels, and extending round to the back door of the feeding house, should be a good large green-yard, enclosed by a wall or palings. The former I prefer, although, perhaps, most expensive, for several reasons : hounds being able to see through the latter, will be excited by passing objects, and young hounds (for whose service the green-yard is more par- ticularly intended) are inclined to become noisy, by barking and running round the palings when any strange dog passes by. Having used palings at first in my own yard, I was obliged to remove them, from the following circumstance : — One day, whilst the young hounds were out at their usual game of romps, running round the palings, a mad dog chanced to pass by. One of them was bitten, and I lost seven couples, and but for the greatest watchfulness, I should have lost the whole pack. Upon this subject I shall make further remarks hereafter. ^
In the boiling house you will require two cast iron boilers, one for the meal, the other for flesh. If a spring of good water can be made available, by being conducted first into the boiling house and then through the kennels, by earthenware pipes, it will save much time and labour to the feeder ; if not, a well should be sunk near the boiling house. By having large wooden spouts under the eaves of the roof of the kennels, and tanks or water-butts to receive the rain water, enough may be saved to wash the kennels ; but for cooking purposes the purest water is requisite. Allow of no stagnant pools near the kennels. To each lodging room there should be two doors ; one at the back, with a small sliding panel high up, through which the huntsman may observe the hounds, without their seeing him ; another door in the front, with a large opening cut at the bottom, high enough and wide enough for a hound to pass through easily, and which should always be left open at night to allow free egress to the court. There must be another door also in the partition wall between each kennel, by which in the summer two lodging rooms may be thrown together. The benches should be made of pine or oak spars, and not nailed on to the frame, but joined together by threes or fours. They can thus be easily taken up, and the frame moved aside, whilst the kennel is being washed down. The height of the benches from the floor should be about two feet, which will admit of tired hounds easily lying down. I need hardly remark, that a mop is very essential to the cleanliness of the kennel, and will be in constant requisition. Stone or iron troughs are best for the hounds to
70 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
liave their water in. They should be placed rather high off the ground, for obvious reasons, and fresh water supplied every day.
In some establishments there is a separate kennel for the young hounds, with a grass-yard attached for their own use, and it is certainly very advantageous ; but, with a little caution, the buildings and courts I recommend will be sufficient, and be the saving of considerable expense.
In the hunting season the old hounds will not require the green-yard at all, as they should be walked out, five or six times a day, into a paddock or field, and not be allowed to lie about in the yard or courts, but shut up in their lodging rooms as soon as they return home, particularly the day after hunting.
In the rear of the kennels should be a covered passage (into which the doors of the middle kennel should open) leading to the feeding house, which stands under the same roof with the boiling house, and is only separated from it by a lath and plaster partition or wall. This passage is intended to answer the pur- pose of a warm bath, also for the hounds' feet after hunting, for which purpose the bricks are to be gradually sloped from each end to the centre, which is to be about a foot deep, and in which is placed a large fiat stone with a plug-hole, to let off the water into a drain, as soon as the hounds are washed. On both sides of this passage will be a paved court, with a small lodging house at each end, one for lame hounds, and the other for those young hounds who may be seriously ill from distemi)er.
In the feeding room should be also two large coolers for the oatmeal, when boiled, to be placed in. You may then make by one boiling sufficient pudding to last two or three days, which will be a considerable saving in fuel. In clean coolers it will keep well for this time, but not if placed in the feeding troughs. At the end of the feeding house is a door leading into the grass- yard, or out into the field. When hounds are very dirty, they may be passed several times through the passage bath ; four buckets of hot liquor, with a handful of common salt, being thrown into the bath to keep it at a moderate temperature.
A plan of these kennels is here annexed, the construction of which, where stone is plentiful, would not much exceed two hundred pounds.
I now purpose treating of the purchasing of hounds, the oldest blood now extant, and the packs from which the best drafts are likely to be obtained, kennel management, breeding and rearing whelps, treatment of young hounds wlien first brought into tho kennel, various kinds of distemper, with, remedies and receipts also of the duties of huntsmen, whipper-in, and feeder, during the summer months.
EOESES AND HOUNDS. 71
CHAPTER XI.
Change in the hours of meeting — Difference in the breed of foxes, and in the speed of the race-horses of the old and the modern school — Eclipse and Flying Childers — Number of stalUons in 1777 — Faults in the pre- sent system of fox-hunting — Quotations from Markham — Condition of hounds iu different coimtries — Seasons for the change in foxes.
We must now commence operations by either purchasing a ready-made pack of hounds, or forming one by drafts from other kennels. At the end of every hunting season there are gene- rally two or three packs submitted to the hammer by Messrs, Tattersall, or disposed of by private contract through their agency. Although horses still maintain high prices, even higher than ever, the same observation, for what reason I know not, does not hold good with regard to hounds. There are certainly many more packs of hounds kept now than formerly in the days of Meynell and Corbet ; but hunting men have increased pan passu also. In place of the forty or fifty who, in bygone clays, were wont to greet the master and the rising sun at the covert side, we may now count two or three hundred assembled at a favourite fixture in a good country, at the fashionable hour of eleven, about the hour when our forefathers returned from the chase to prepare for dinner.
" Fashion in all things blindly rules. The jest of wise men, guide of fools."
Still there is no reason why we should quarrel about hours, and our enlightened Nimrods of the present generation have so many arguments in favour of late hours : — " No reason why we should get up in the middle of the night ; hunting was not intended for a labour, but a recreation ;" " Scent is generally better as the day grows older," [query] ; " Sensible hour, eleven ; plenty of time for breakfast and reading your letters before starting for the covert side ;" and, to crown all, " Foxes more likely to show sport, having had more time to digest their supper of last night." There is something in this last remark ; what a cowardly crew our grandpapas must have been to disturb poor Mr. Keynard before he had fully enjoyed his first nap, and so soon after dinner too ! Yet the said Mr. Reynard, although so unceremoniously treated, contrived pretty often to show them a light pair of heels, and beat them out of sight and hearing. Then they were such a set of slow coaches in those days, with their pigtails, mahogany boot-tops, and garters round their knees ! Not a whit slower, my fashionable friends, than you
72 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
of the present railroad era, only, as Mr. Weller wonld say, " they had rayther a different notion of doing things." Foxes were not quite so plentiful, and altogether a difierent kind of animal — no Piccadillys, or French importations — but in most countries a fine large greyhound fox, long in the body and high on his legs, who was not to be so easily handled as the present mixed and degenerate race. In those days also, there were no large game preserves, where foxes could glut themselves with little trouble — they had to travel far in search of food, and sometimes went supperless to their kennels. Scarcity of foxes rendered it necessary to begin early in the morning upon the drag, and instead of riding and mobbing a fox to death, almost as soon as found, our forefathers made the most of him, not being very sure about finding another. The hurry-scurry, helter- skelter, tally-ho, whoo-hoop system ot the present day is not fox hunting, but fox murdering.
Hounds are not so much faster now-a-days than they were formerly, but the system is faster. I know this is debateable ground, and I shall probably be laughed at for such a remark. But let the fast men of the present day try the experiment ; let them match two couples of their fastest hounds against time, over the Beacon Course, at Newmarket, and see if they can beat Mr. Barry's Bluecap, who, in the famous match with Mr. Meynell's hounds, ran the four miles in a few seconds over eight minutes. Colonel Thornton's bitch, Merkin, is said to have run the same distance in seven minutes and half a second. Beat this, my fast young brother fox-hunters of the present day, and then laugh if you can !
What also is the comparative speed of the race-horse then and now? To all the sporting world, the names of Eclipse and Flying Childers must be familiar, and of the latter I find it recorded, "That in October, 1722, he beat Lord Drogheda's Chaunter, (previously the best horse of the day.) six miles, ten stone each, for one thousand guineas. He had already, at six years old, run a trial against Almanzor and the Duke of Rutland's Brown Betty, nine stone two pounds each, over the round course at Newmarket, three miles, six furlongs, and ninety-three yards, which distance he ran in six minutes and forty seconds ; to perform which he must have moved eighty-two feet and a half in one second of time, or nearly after the rate of one mile in a minute. He likewise ran over the Beacon course, — four miles, one furlong, one hundred and thirty-eight yards, in seven minutes and thirty seconds ! ! It is reported that Flying Childers did not race until six years old, and that his extraordi- nary speed and power were first discovered in a severe jox chase.
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 73
SO tliat we have here the fact of the fastest thorough-bred horse of his day being taken from the hunting field to the course at Newmarket ; and if such a horse was the only one to live with the hounds to the end of the run, which is also related, it is a pretty good proof that the speed of fox-hounds in those times was not of that contemptible order, which our present fast men are pleased to assign to them. This may be called an isolated case, but I have good reason for believing, that amongst the first riders of the past generation, thorough-bred horses were gene- rally used, equal in speed, if not superior in stoutness, to those of the present day ; and that there was no lack of thorough-bred stock in this country during the past century, may be gathered from the fact, that in the year 1777 there were no less than eighty-nine stallions advertised.
How is it, then, that we hear so much of these fast bursts, day by day almost, with fox-hounds in the fast countries, of which so little has been said or written in reference to packs of the past generation ; simply because the system of fox-hunting has been completely altered ; certainly, in this particular point, not improved. We all allow and call this pursuit of the fox a science ; neither is this a misnomer, when we take into considera- tion the tact, talent, and knowledge which are requisite in a huntsman, to carry him successfully through a long and arduous chase ; but for a quick burst of fifteen or twenty minutes, going away from a patch of gorse or small spinney, close at the fox's brush, there is no science in this, it is a mere rattling gallop at the tail of the hounds, which a well mounted stable-boy, who can ride well, is as likely to see the end of, as the most clever huntsman ; all that is here required is horsemanship, not head.
In instituting a comparison between the speed of the past and the present packs, there are several points to be considered, which appear to have been altogether overlooked ; the system of hunting is entirely altered ; the circumstances and condition of the animal hunted is altered also, if not the animal himself The country is in an improved state for scent, and the start is effected in all these fast things from patches of gorse and small spinneys, in a manner not recognised by the old school, and with an unfair advantage over the fox. I could quote many passages from the writings of INIarkham, who lived in the reigns of Elizabeth and James, to show that speed with fox-hounds was no novelty even in those times. One or two short extracts may suffice : —
" The light or northern hound has a head more slender, with a longer nose, ears and flews more shallow, back broad, belly gaunt, joints long, tail small, and his general form more slender and greyhound-like j but the virtues of these Yorkshire hounds
74 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
I can praise no farther than for scent and swiftness, for, with respect to mouth, they have only a little shrill sweetness, but no depth of tone, or music." The practice with the old school of fox-hunters was to let their hounds find their fox, give him a fair start, if from gorse or spinney, and to let the body of the pack then settle down to the scent. Their object was a fox-chase ; not a fox-race ! What is the present system 1 A fox is scarcely on his legs before huntsman, hounds, and whips, are all at him, and the moment he breaks, away go the first flight, the huntsman and first whip, with only perhaps a few couples of hounds, hallooing and screaming close at his brush. If a bad fox, he is blown in ten minutes ; and if tolerably stout, may hold on for thirty or forty ; be what he may, he is bothered out of his tactics by this hurry-scurry, and most likely a good run spoilt. The fast men have their gallop, which is all they care or know anything about. The whoo-hoop succeeds, and then off they trot to find another fox, and treat him in the same manner, if they can. Now, to call this fox-hunting is a farce.
As to the condition of hounds in the fast countries, they are fed lightly, drawn very fine, and, from the system of handling them, fully alive to the game, or fun of the thing, as much as their masters. At the first halloo or blast of the horn, their heads are up in a second, and off they go like wildfire ; and unless the horsemen are as much alive to the business as the hounds, and with them when they start, catching them after- wards, if the scent holds, is out of the question. The hounds of the old school were trained differently ; fed more heavily ; and prepared more in character with the work they had to do. Two runs in a day, each of perhaps two hours' duration ; but that these hounds, when trained, could go fast, is sufficiently proved in the instance I have above addfuced, of Mr. Barry's Bluecap running the four miles in eight minutes, against Mr. Meynell's hounds, for 500 guineas; twelve horses only, out of sixty which started, and most of them thorough-bred, being able to be with them at the finish. The condition of foxes is not the same, nor the circumstances under which they are found, even were the foxes of the same breed now as formerly, which I am inclined to think they are not, in many countries at least, and Leicestershire is no exception. Foxes were not so numerous formerly as now ; they had, in former times, long distances to travel for food as well as companionship ; they have a choice of both now, at home, without tlie trouble of seeking them far a-field. A gentleman fox, like the Sultan, has the pick of a whole harem at once, without going many miles to meet his fair vixiana " by moonlight alone," as in the olden time. From the
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 75
great prevalence of game preserves, a fox lias no difficulty in supplying his larder with all the delicacies of the season, in which he revels and then goes to sleep. What condition, then, is he likely to be in, to run a burst before a lot of lean and hungry hounds, which are at him before he has scarcely time to shake himself up out of his heavy nap 1 Every allowance must be made, however, for huntsmen in the fast countries ; they have a very difficult game to play, and it is sometimes out of their power to show sport or have a run with two or three hundred horsemen, few of them sportsmen, rattling away at the tail of the hounds, all intent upon their own business, and eager for a front place; hounds and huntsmen must go on, or be ridden over. It is surprising to see how the body of the pack thread their way through the horses, when with the first few couples which get away with their fox, the whole cavalcade is in rapid motion. I have seen a field of three hundred horsemen go away with the fox and two couples of hounds ; as long as the scent holds good at head, the huntsman has nothing to do but keep as forward as he can, but should the fox turn short, right or left, he is then in difficulties ; a forward cast he is aware, or ought to be, is the least likely under such circum- stances to recover the scent, but it is his only chance of getting out of the crowd which is pressing upon him. Knowledge of country, and the run of foxes generally, are his chief dependence ; he must make a wide cast, right or left, as he may deem most likely to cross the line, and if that fails, the afiair is over, and the run spoilt. In such a case, and in this only, I would advise the pack to be divided ; the huntsman and iirst whip trying both ways at the same time. Fast hounds, of the Jlash and dash order, will go over the scent, with horses pressing them, for two or three hundred yards, often farther ; but gicick hounds will turn with it, and seldom be far off the line. There never has been any doubt amongst those of real practical know- ledge on hunting, that the pace of all well-bred fox-hounds is very nearly, if not quite equal ; the difference in speed is easily accounted for, by the difference of countries, difference of treat- ment, and difference of scent • and this will appear most reason- able when we consider that all the packs of hounds now going are descended principally from four or five large kennels.
76 nOPvSES AND HOUNDS
CHAPTER XII.
How to form a pack of fox -hounds — Best kennels in tlie present day — Mr, Aslieton Smith's, Duke of Beaufort's, Lord Fitzwilliam's, Earl of Yar- borough's, Lord Bentinck's, &c. — Faults to be avoided in forming a selec- tion, and treatment while young — Hare-hunters to be avoided — Mistakes of sportsmen respecting the identity of foxes and hares— Description of a lot of draft hounds, and of the respective character of each dog — Bad choice made by young huntsmen. — Price of draft hounds as contrasted with that of good ones.
I HAVE, however, now been going too fast myself, and shiHing decidedly. Hark back ! to my subject — purcliasing hounds. When a pack is sold at the hammer, it is generally in lots, so that you may get a few couples of good hounds to begin upon, if you are not inclined to purchase the entire pack. Sometimes a very fair pack of hounds (not first-rate, of course) may be bought for about 500/., and there is a great advantage in having a pack made to your hand, although not anything, perhaps, very particular ; but to obtain almost any body of hounds which have been working together, is far better than undertaking the arduous task of forming one from drafts, and in the end less expensive also. You can soon improve them by infusing other blood, or adding occasionally a few couples from other kennels. In the event, however, of not having an opportunity of pur- chasing a pack, we must try and make one up with the best materials at hand.
It may be considered invidious by making comparison be- tween the many first-rate establishments now in existence ; I should, therefore, select from those kennels where the oldest and best blood is to be found, and also from those where I should be likely to obtain hounds suitable to my pui-pose. Whatever huntsmen may say about their old draft, look always with most suspicion upon hounds of three and four years old. They may tell you they are too high, or too low, too fast or too slow ; but the truth is, they are too faulty for them to keep. It is but fair you should have them with others. You take the draft as it is, and must make tlie best of it. The five and six seasoned hounds are the only ones you can depend upon in this lot ; and if you obtain your drafts from the grass countries you will have a better chance, as they generally draft hounds, although very good, which cannot keep the pace in a flying country ; but they will make a very fair fight in a provincial or wooded one. These will form your body-g-uard— tried and veteran troops — ^upon whose steadiness you must rest your
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 77
hopes of final victory. I commenced in this way myself; and being fortunate in having a friend who was doing the same thing, he agreed to take all I did not require at two guineas per couple. Having such a chance, I did not mince the matter ; but got together all the drafts I could lay my hands upon from good kennels, both young and old, so that I had the picking of nearly a hundred couples of hounds to begin with.
The best blood at that time was to be found in the kennels of the Dukes of Grafton, Beaufort, and Rutland, Lords Lonsdale and Fitzwilliam, Sir Thomas Mostyn, and Messrs. Ward and Osbaldeston, from several of Avhom I obtained hounds. Some of the old kennels still remain, such as the Dukes of Rutland and Beaufort's, Lords Fitzwilliam and Yarborough's, Mr. Drake, I believe, succeeded to Sir Thomas Mostyn's, and Lord South- ampton purchased the greater part of Mr. Osbaldeston's late pack.
For a draft of young hounds I think I should select the pack of the Wonderful Squire of Tedworth, for several reasons. First, he has some good old blood, having bought the Duke of Graf- ton's hounds ; and before that he had been breeding largely from Mr. Ward's kennel. His hounds have a rough, flinty and •woodland country to contend with, where they must hunt as well as run. In their performances they are like their master — second to none. They are not hallooed and hustled about by whippers-in, although the Squire is occasionally very cheery when things go well ; and that happens so often, that I hardly ever saw a day with him when he was not cheery. His hounds, however, are left to do their work pretty much by themselves ; and I may venture to say that no pack of hounds in England, Scotland, Ireland, or Wales, can beat them in any respect. They can show their speed at a racing pace over the Downs, and bustle along through the large woodlands, and over those con- founded flinty hills (which rattle like broken bottles), at a rattling rate indeed ; the wonder is, that they don't cut their legs off. The Squire hunts six days a week, and therefore has a large body of hounds in kennel — sometimes nearly a hundred couples ; he breeds largely also, and judiciously — the result of great knowledge and long experience. He has also a very able assistant in Carter, who came into his service with the Grafton hounds.
I have had many good hounds from Lord Fitzwilliam's ken- nel, which has so long flourished under the able superintendence of that first-rate huntsman, Sebright. Not having seen the Belvoir pack for some years, I cannot say what their appearance or performances may now be ; but when I saw them some few
78 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
years ago, Goosey being huntsman, they were at that time the cleverest pack of hounds for their height I had ever met with, and I have looked over a few kennels in my time. There is also a chance of obtaining some good drafts from Lord Henry Bentinck's kennel in Lincolnshire. His present pack is founded on the late Lord Ducie's, with an addition of some twenty couples from Mr. Wyndham. No man living was a better judge of the shape and make of a fox-hound, and what his per- formances ought to be in the field, than Lord Ducie. He spared neither expense nor trouble in getting together well-bred hounds, and drafting largely again, and to his liberality in this respect many of his brother masters of hounds were deeply indebted. There are also the Duke of Beaufort's, a very old and popular sort, and deservedly so ; they are a fine lot of hounds, the dogs large and clever, with plenty of bone and power, straight on their legs, and, in short, what fox-hounds ought to be. The lady pack, as near perfection as they can be. Under the able direction of Will Long, the present huntsman, who is not bigoted, as many are, to their own blood only, these hounds are greatly improved within the last few years, and have shown superior sport, not only in running hard, but overhauling their foxes in long runs with a ticklish scent. Long has a thorough knowledge of his business, fully appreciates old pedigrees, and is altogether well fitted to hold the situation which he now does with credit to the duke and satisfaction to the country. Lord Yarborough's are a favourite sort with many, and Lord Fitz- hardinge's, Avho both breed largely. I would begin if I could with the old drafts from the Duke of Rutland's, the Quorn, Sir R. Sutton's, Lord Fitzwilliam's, and Lord Henry Bentinck's, which I think likely to supply the most useful five and six year old hounds. For the young unentered hounds, I should go to the kennels of Tedworth, the Badminton, Lord Fitzwilliam's, and the Duke of Rutland's. To hunt two and sometimes three days a week, you must purchase at least a hundred couples of hounds, but you need not keep them longer than you are obliged. When you have bought the old draft, the huntsman will, I have no doubt, tell you what hounds are likely to answer your purpose ; view with suspicion the three and four seasoned ones, and if out of fifty couples of entered hounds, you can select twenty which will hold out through the season, you may consider your- self fortunate. Put forward twenty-five couples of unentered hounds at least ; be not over particular as to appearances, for huntsmen will not draft clever young hounds, unless above or under their own standard, but keep the best bred. You will have to contend with distemper and other maladies, and young hounds
HORSES AND HOUXDS. 79
are seldom safe until they have been rounded, and have passed over the summer months.
The chief faults in hounds are, being too free with their tongues, which always increases with their years ; running mute is equally objectionable ; next comes skirting or running wide of the pack ; this is also a great fault, and hounds which once take to a line of their own, are not only irreclaimable, but do great mischief When there are two scents, a skirter is sure to be on the wrong one ; he will also cut corners, to get to the head by himself, and when joined by the other hounds, will dash and flash away again from off the line and lead the others astray. A hound which potters and dwells upon a scent, is also incorri- gible. Hanging in covert is another fault, but this may be cor- rected by a good whipper-in. Hounds often acquire this habit from self-hunting when at their walks, or by being left behind in coverts when first entered, by a careless whipper-in ; if, after a fair trial, they cannot be broken of this trick, it is better to draft them before others follow their example. Piunning riot is a common propensity, to which all young hounds are liable, and this point must be settled between Jack and themselves. Some will require a good allowance of whipcord, others little or none ; but all ought to be steady to their own game by the end of the first season ; this I consider a very fair latitude, beyond which I should not feel inclined to extend any indulgence on this score. A determined hare-hunter, if ever so good in other respects and handsome withal, will do much more mischief than he is worth. Let him go elsewhere, for it is folly to allow your whole pack to be unsettled for the sake of one hound. Nothing grates so much upon the ear of a true sportsman as to hear a rate immediately following the first tongue which is thrown ; and it is equally annoying to old steady hounds, damping their eagerness in drawing. A resolute hare-hunter is always keeping one in fear and trembling ; with a beaten fox before you, and a ticklish scent, he will assuredly flash away upon a hare and spoil the finish to a good run ; yet, strange to say, I have known huntsmen keep on brutes of this descrip- tion for the reason "that they were capital when a fox was found."
There are not wanting individuals in most hunts always up in the stirrups when a fox is on foot, and very subject to optical delusions, who will halloo the first animal they see, whether fox or hare, and with a ready-made mischief-maker, a smart scurry after a scut is no very unusual occurrence. Hounds when fresh and put upon their mettle by halloos, will flash away upon almost any scent, that is, the young hounds will do so,
80 HOESES AND HOUNDS.
and the old may follow on, though not relishing it. To make p. pack of fox-hounds run well togetlier, which is the great desi- deratum, they must be drafted both from the head and tail ; if there is an individual which has the speed of the pack, and can run out at head, he should be drafted ; and old hounds in like manner which cannot run up with the others. Old favourites and brood bitches which are not noisy, and do not hang upon the scent, may be used with advantage during the cub-hunting season, and up to the time of regular hunting, when they ought to be left at home.
As a sample of the materials which generally compose an old draft, I make a quotation from the letter of a huntsman sent me some years ago, after I had taken his draft, in answer to my inquiries about the characters of the hounds, which were a very good looking lot.
Sovereign — very steady, but slach in his work.
Headlong — steady, but scores when in covert, (i.e., cuts corners.)
Radical — steady, but free with her tongue, (in other words, noisy.)
Pilgrim — thought to be deaf. (No mistake about him — as deaf as a post.)
Jeopardy — does too little work. (There were some hopes of her improving, being young.)
Nigel — Lame in the stifle. (Case hopeless.)
Yeoman — a good hunter, but tires after a long day. (He would be of little service with an afternoon fox.)
Basil— fond of hare. (That did not much signify with a good whipper-in, being merely a question between the two, who was master.)
Fearless — Foolish.
General — hangs in covert. (Another case to be determined by the free use of whipcord.)
Stigma — too much in a hurry. (Little chance of improve- ment, this case beyond the power of whipcord to cure.) Whirlwind — a good hunter, but tires after a long day.
P.S. Have an especial eye to General amongst sheep and lambs.
The pith of a lady's letter is said to be in the postscript, and often in a gentleman's too. This latter hint about General, settled his fate at once, and his travelling ticket was made out accordingly. The lot were altogether, (although handsome to the eye) as loose a sample as to character as any young gentle- man just commencing business in the fox-hunting department, with a country full of riot and short of foxes, could wish to
HOESES AND HOUNDS. 81
have the pleasure to pick and choose from. This, as to charac- ter, may be considered a fair average of the amiable dispositions of the old draft, or entered hounds, with a lame one or two thrown into the bargain. However young masters of hounds may- plume themselves upon the good looks of hounds they purchase as draft, they may rest assured they will find upon trial no more than their money's worth, if that, out of the lot, calculating every tolerable individual at ten guineas, and under this sum no man will ever obtain a passable entered fox-hound, except by accident. From change of country and change of masters, hounds may, and often do alter their tactics a little at first, but soon relapse into their old habits, and to avoid the trouble and expense of keeping them, perhaps for some time to little purpose, not to speak of the contaminating influence of bad example, my practice was, to pick out their characters at first starting, and if any huntsman once deceived me in this respect, after the purchase was made, he never had an opportunity of doing so a second time. It is always best to know the worst at once.
There has generally up to this time been one fixed price for draft hounds — three guineas a couple — and these are reckoned as the huntsman's perquisite or rather part payment of wages. This is the fixed market price for the article, it is no fault of the huntsman if they are all bad, as the draft is generally made by the master of the pack himself, and handed over to him for dis- posal ; the price is that of an unsound or faulty animal ; any good, well-bred, and handsome fox-hound, at a very moderate calculation, is certainly worth ten pounds. Buying hounds and taking drafts are two very distinct things.
In large establishments where there is generally a superfluity of numbers, young hounds are often drafted, which do not enter readily, and others which manifest too great a predilection for running improper game, and as there are plenty without these, it is perhaps quite as well to put them away at once, to save further trouble, and not to incur the risk of unsettling the other young hounds. Those who are forming a new pack are, how- ever, glad to have such hounds, and as their kennel may be con- sidered a penitentiary for the reclaiming of bad characters, more time and attention is necessarily employed in endeavouring to reform these outcasts from better society. I have had many supposed incorrigible hare-hunters, which, when broken, turned out excellent hounds; but, with skirters, babblers, and such like, there is no hope of amendment.
HORSES AlsD HOUNDS.
CHAPTEK XIII.
Huntsmen, -wliippers-in, and feeders — The distemper, its prevention better than its cure — Means thereof — Exercise and air the best means of prevention — ■ Story of a donkey.
If you intend hunting your hounds yourself, you will require a clever and steady man, who has filled the situation of first whipper-in or huntsman, whose character will bear investigation as to sobriety and respectability ; a good temper is also indis- pensable. As the breaking-in of the young hounds will pro- bably devolve upon him, take care he is a quiet and patient man with hounds, and you will see such conduct exercise a decided influence over the pack. The best hounds may be spoiled in much less time than many imagine, by a liurry-skurry fellow, and a wild pack soon brought to their senses by a quiet and sensible man. Hounds possess much more discrimination than they are given credit for, and soon assimilate themselves to their master. If he be steady, they will be steady also ; if wild, they will be wild too, and ready for riot and mischief.
You must look out also for a whipper-in. Choose one from a good stock, and who has been bred up in a hunting establish- ment. Such are to be found — sons of respectable huntsmen, who may possibly not have had the opportunity of advancing them very far in their own line of business, from no vacancy occurring in their master's establishment. There _ is, I think, great and undue importance attached to light weights in the present day. I confess it has no weight with me, and never had. Anything in the shape of a whipper-in under eleven stone, I should not object to, if he were active and a good rider. I do not mean by this a hard rider. I have had both light and hea\y men, and found the latter did not take more out of their horses, and were altogether better riders over a stiffly enclosed country. The best whipper-in I ever had stood nearly six feet; but he was a very wiry and elastic fellow ; no useless lumber about him, but all bone and muscle. He lived with _me many years, was an excellent servant, rode well up to his hounds across country, and never killed or injured a horse the whole time he was in my service, which he only left to take a hunts- man's place. The man who succeeded him was a light weight, and in my own opinion a very bad rider, although always up with the hounds. He played the rogue with his horses, and killed one of the best of them before the season was over.
The feeder should be a young active man, not afraid of work,
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 83
sober, good-tempered, and fond of animals. When your young liounds come into kennel he will have plenty to do, if the hunting season is not over.
We hear every year of the fearful ravages committed by the distemper, and no wonder ; the wonder is that so many live through it. In place of the free air of the country, with the wide fields to roam over, for health and exercise, the young hounds are suddenly transferred to a prison, highly fed, but without the necessary accompaniment to health — fresh air and exercise. Tliey soon sicken, as a matter of course. Prevention is better than cure — although I do not mean to say the distemper can be prevented altogether from attacking young liounds when brought into the confinement of a kennel yard ; but it may be ameliorated, and the hounds prepared to resist its attacks, by careful and judicious treatment. I know some old and good sportsmen have an idea that high feeding is alone sufficient to withstand the ravages of this dreadful malady. Nature un- assisted will do much, but wisely assisted will do more. Some kennels are lightly visited by this scourge of the canine race, others suffer with severity. In some seasons, also, it is more virulent than in others ; but where a large lot of young hounds come in from their walks, almost at the same time, the dis- temper will soon break out among them, in some shape or other. Air and exercise, with good and not over high feeding, is the best preventive, or rather preparation for its attack. As soon as possible after they come into kennel, within a week at least, put the couples on them, and have them out, a few couples at a time, if only for an hour in tlie day.
Let the feeder have another man to help him at this time with a boy, if hunting is not over, and keep the young hounds out as long as they can every day. Do not be a+raid of their running cur dogs, or worrying sheep, or committing an 3^ such enormities. They have been used to these since the day they were first sent out to walk : but it is no wonder, when, after having been pent up for a month or two within the prison walls, without seeing another living object but themselves and the feeder, they should run after the first animal they see ; whether cur dog, sheep, or donkey.
I heard of a lot of young hounds, which, if report speaks true, did actually pull down a young animal of this last harmless race, and that not so very long ago either, even in these scientific and enlightened days. It happened in this wise. I tell the story as it was told to me. The huntsman and two whips were out with the young hounds, then considered sufficiently steady to dispense with couples ; at the turning into a wide green lana
Q2
84 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
suddenly appeared tlie light and airy form of a young animal of this much despised race ; one look at the company sufficed, and away he went down the lane, trotting, capering, and kicking up his heels; the ground being undulating, sometimes his ears only appeared. The attention of the young hounds became excited, and one or two tried to obtain a nearer viewof the retreating object. Sundry objurgations of the whipi)er-in seemed only to increase their curiosity, and when he was in the act of cutting Jumper's head off, or trying to do it, with his heavy whip on one side of the lane, Foreman at the other made a fair bolt of it, and away went the party as if running for the St. Leger. The huntsman hallooing, whippers-in swearing and rating, made the hounds think the game was up in right good earnest, and they of course could not do less than add their voices to the chorus. Donkey, thinking matters becoming serious, no longer carried his head jauntily from side to side, looking over his back, and giving an occasional note on his trumpet, but frightened at the din in his rear, he laid his ears back upon his shoulders, and set off as fast as his legs would carry him, blowing his horn furiously all the way. The \yhipper- in being mounted only on a pony, stuck the spurs in with fury to head them, but as misfortune seldom comes singly, little Mischief happened to get in the way, and down came pony and whipper-in crash together, Jack undermost. "Heres a go," roars the huntsman ; " pick yourself up. Jack, as soon as you can, for there's a roAV and no mistake ; you haven't no bones broken, I hope T " I ha'n t no bones broken that I am aware on just yet," murmurs Jack ; "but somehow or other, 'taint so easy to get up again ;" and no wonder, the pony's fore foot was in Jack's coat-pocket ! Matters were soon adjusted, however, and Jack was up, and off to the rescue, like mad, muttering more anathemas against Jumper and Foreman than all the c;u'dinals put together against Protestant recusants. "If I don't sarve out Mr. Jumper and Foreman for this spree, my name's not Jack ; and that infernal polkering donkey, if them young-uns haven't already settled his business afore I gets up, I'll cut him into shreds."
Fortunately there was not much mischief done to the donkey (except being pulled down) when the huntsman reached the scene of action, and the hounds, satisfied with their _ freak, seemed quite ashamed of themselves. Jack wreaked his ven- geance upon Jumper and Foreman : and thus, as he thought, the whole affair was ended — the least said about it the better. But it was not so snug as Jack fancied. Upon riding through the village of B- a day or two after, sundry greetings from
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 85
tlie unwashed nrcliins saluted Jack's ears, such as "E-aw, e-aw, who hunted the donkey ?" " Come," says Jack, " drop that suit, my fine fellows, or I'll drop my aouble thong upon some of ye, and make ye sing a diiferent tune."
Misfortunes will happen in the best regulated families -some- times. Idleness is the parent of vice, and when the young hounds are over the distemper, they cannot have too much air and exercise ; but if, as I have said above, they are walked out by the feeder every day, with an assistant and boy, they wont care much about cur dogs or donkeys, and save Jack's whipcord as well. When the hunting is over, the huntsman will have nothing to do but attend to the kennel. The old hounds will be glad of a little rest from their labours of the past season, and Ms attention may be directed almost exclusively to the young hounds. Let him keep them out half the day, if possible, early and late, with the horses in the morning, and walk them out several times during the day.
The summer is a more busy time with a good huntsman than the Avinter, and he will require three hacks or ponies, for himself and assistants, to give the hounds proper exercise.
CHAPTER XIV.
ITecessity of judicious breeding — Choice of bitches — Fine symmetry of the fox-hound— Popular mistakes of the present day — Mr. Ward's skill in breeding — Time of breeding — Curious variations in the generations of hounds — Necessity for choosing good sires — Difference between "fast" and " quick " hounds — Management and feeding of the brood bitches — Selec- tion and treatment of the whelps — Diet and medicine for puppies — Pre- miums for best brought up hoimds at walks — Names should be given early to each young hound — Proper habits in a feeder exemplified — Symptoms of, and remedies for, the distempers and for inflammation of the lungs.
As the efficiency of the pack will depend upon judicious breed- ing, I should recommend your not making use of any hounds for this purpose until they have been fairly tried, for two seasons at least, in the field ; by this time their real characters will be developed, and there is not much risk of their altering afterwards.
The bitches you breed from should possess certain points of symmetry, or they will not produce fine progeny. Without length in their flanks and width over their loins, they will not
86 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
prove good brood bitches ; and without such, no pack of hounds can be kept up to a proper standard.
The symmetry of a fox-hound, to be perfect, should be nearly as possible as follows : — Head rather wide than narrow, neck long and clean, shoulders lying well back, muscles behind the shoulder blades full, ribs wide rather than deep, back long with good loins, fore legs short and straight, and standing clear of the body at the elbows, feet round, plenty of muscle in the thighs, hams long, hocks short to the foot. Many fancy narrow heads, and a deep rather than wide chest. That is the grey- hound shape. Such hounds may run a quick burst to perfec- tion, but for hard- work and lasting qualities, give me the wide ribs, with plenty of room for the play of the lungs.
One hears a great deal in the present day about snake heads and swan-like necks, and very pretty they are to look at. Much contempt, also, is thrown upon what is facetiously called John Ward's neckcloth. Yet, notwithstanding, there is a good deal of neckcloth still to be seen in many hounds ; and I do not find that these old-fashioned-looking gentlemen are a bit worse than their more dandified-looking brethren.
Mr. Ward was, undoubtedly, one of the best breeders of fox- hounds in his day ; some of them, it must be confessed, were rather throaty, with large heads as well, but the frame-work was generally correct. They were, however, good at their game, steady drawers, good and quick hunters, and stout to the last. They were too large unquestionably for the flinty country they hunted, and their feet suffered severely ; but when they changed their country, no pack of hounds ever showed more sport. They could do what many packs cannot afford to do — give their fox a fair start, and make pretty sure of catching him after- wards. Good heads and necks are very desirable for appearance sake, but they are not to be considered essential points.
The earlier you can begin breeding the better. November is the earliest month for coupling, but whelps born after May seldom arrive at perfection. The season exercises a decided influence over young animals of almost every kind, I believe — certainly over horses and hounds. Of this I saw a remarkable instance in two litters of puppies by the same sire and dam, in two successive seasons. The first litter, produced in the month of February, were very clever, \yith good legs and feet; the second litter, born in June following, were just the reverse ; in fact, out of the five whelps saved, there was not one with straight legs. As they were a very favourite sort, they were, notwithstanding, put forward, and they turned out quite as good as their better favoured brothers and sisters, but from
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 87
fhysical deficiency could not stand quite so hard a day's work, gave one of these hounds to a friend, in whose kennel he re- mained many years, and he said he Avould do more work up to a certain time than any five couples he liad. From another of these hounds I again bred, and Lis stock was straight on their legs and clever. It is a generally received opinion t])at like begets like, but colour, sliape, and disposition will often run back (as huntsmen term it) to generations that are passed. For many years I had a favourite sort of black and white hounds with tanned faces ; but on one occasion a perfectly white whelp made its appearance. Looking back for an explanation of this X»henomenon, I found that her great grandmother had been also white.
Fox-hounds, if well bred, will give little trouble in breaking, and there is not much fear of their turning out well afterwards. Those who breed largely are nearly sure of a fine looking entry of 3'oung hounds ; but those who breed with caution and judg- ment will have the best pack of hounds. Nothing injures a pack more than the failure of the two-seasoned hunters. The first season young hounds do not often exhibit their real cha- racters ; but in the second, if there is anything amiss in the pedigree, it will generally come out. Be therefore very careful in selecting stallions for your bitches; choose those of well- tried good character, good drawers, quick hunters, and hard workers, but never use a flashy hound, and never put an old dog to an old bitch. A young bitch will often produce a fine litter of whelps from an old dog, but the ofispring of old bitches will be generally small and light of bone. A famous breeder of race-horses once said of a favourite mare, that it was of no consequence what horse she was put to, for she always produced a winner. This is not the case with hounds ; they follow the character and shape of their sire as much as their mother, and if there is any peculiarity about him, it will generally be seen in his descendants.
You need not pay much attention to speed, which is thought too much of in the present day. All hounds go fast enough, but a fast hound and a quick one are widely difterent. I would rather breed from a good hound who always kept a fair place in the pack, without exhibiting himself too much in front. We have plenty of dash and flash in the fox-hound already, and at times too much of it for sport. When a fox turns short, he is often lost by those dashing gentlemen going over the scent by half a mile or so. When foxes are plentiful, you can, of course, go and draw for another, and lose him perhaps in the same way.
88 HOKSES AND HOUNDS.
As soon as your brood bitches become at all liea\Tr, tLey slioiild be removed from the kennel, and put into the paddock intended for bitches and their whelps. In my plan for kennels there are two low sheds, one facing the south, the other the west, for this purpose. The larger you can afford to make this paddock the better, but if the i)itches can roam at large, it is far preferable for them, than being confined within ever so large a place. Air and exercise will greatly contribute to the health of the mother and her offspring, and, if possible, the brood bitches should always have their liberty, care being taken that they are shut up before the evening. To prevent their rambling about in search of food, they should be fed regularly twice a day, at eight or nine o'clock in the morning, and four or five in the evening. They should not have too much flesh in their meal, but if skim milk could be substituted for flesh, they would do better on this diet. By over and injudicious feeding 1 have seen bitches so feverish that their hair came off, and the whelps when produced were scarcely worth keeping. It is a good plan to give them a few Epsom salts in liquor, once or twice a week before whelping. They are intended more as an alterative than as physic. After whelping I give a tablespoonful of castor oil, with sheep's head broth, or milk mixed with oatmeal, for two or three days. From that time there is little fear of their doing well, and as the whelps increase in size, the mothers will become ravenous. I do not object then to their having raw flesh occa- sionally, not in lumps or in large quantities, but let the feeder cut most of the flesh from the bones, and then give them the bones to pick.
In_ selecting the whelps for keeping, take the longest and heaviest, unless you are particular as to colour. Five are a sufficient number for any bitch to rear if you wish them to be of a good size; but for the first 'two days I should leave six or seven with the mother, provided she has abundance of milk, not otherwise. This is only to provide against accidents, for bitches, if young, will often overlay and kill their whelps. Be careful, however, not to keep more than five with the mother, after two or three days have elapsed at farthest, or you will spoil the whole litter. If you want to raise your pack to a good standard, which is not to be done without fine brood bitches, keep only four whelps with the mother, all bitches, and provide some wet nurses for the others if they are of a favourite sort. A terrier will bring up two as a makeshift, but I generally prefer a hound about whose" own whelps you are not over par- ticular, coming in at the same time with a favourite bitch, and you may then save nearly all the litter, at least eight or nine between the two.
HORSES AND HOUXBS. 89
Bitches sometimes produce a gTeat many at a litter. I had one that brought into the world the extraordinary number of seventeen, but she died from exhaustion. Once coupling is sufficient if the bitch is put to the dog when at the turn of her heat. When the whelps are a few days old, the dew claws should be cut off with a sharp pair of scissors, and a bit of the tail.
Puppies are very subject to worms, which, if not destroyed, will prevent their growth, and often produce fatal fits. You may give them occasionally a dessert-spoonful of linseed oil when a fortnight old, and when a month or six v/eeks old, if the worms are not destroyed, add a teaspoonful of spirits of turpen- tine to the oil, and give it in the morning fasting. As soon as the puppies can lap, let them have some milk and their oatmeal mixed together three times a day, which will relieve the mother. Give it them warm, and remove what they do not eat at once.
There is a little white louse by which puppies are generally tormented ; they form into bunches on the neck and back, and will produce mange unless speedily removed. Rape oil, thick- ened with sulphur to the consistency of cream, will destroy them, and not injure either the whelps or their mother. I have heard of tobacco water and other things being used for this purpose, but there is no necessity for any such noxious reme- dies. If the first dressing of oil and sulphur does not destroy the lice, dress again in a few days, and with the addition of a small proportion of spirits of turpentine. At two months old the whelps are fit to go out to walk. Many huntsmen keep them till they are a month older, but I see no advantage in it. They are certainly stronger at three months than at two months old, but they are not likely to get a bellyful of good oatmeal porridge, with plenty of meat and broth mixed with it, three times or even twice a day at their walks, or perhaps none at all, and will feel the want of this strong diet more severely. When sent out to a farm house at two months old, they will get a tolerable supply of milk and whey twice a day, which at that age is more suitable to them, and I think they improve faster, and are not so likely to be checked in their growth. There is a very great difference in quarters. Some farmers take a pride in sending the young hounds home well grown and well fed ; with others they have a very rough time of it. It must be con- fessed that a fox-hound puppy is often very mischievously disposed, and some little acknowledgment ought to be made to the farmer 3 wife, in the shape of a gown, bonnet, or shawl, when such has been the case. Giving premiums, also, is an
90 IIOESES AND HOUNDS.
encouragement to have the young hounds well kept, and I found it paid wonderfully; for the best dog 41., second 3l., third 2l., fourth ll., and the same for hitches.
It is a good plan to give names with the whelps when first sent out to their quarters ; they will be more handy when re- turned to the kennel, and come readily when called. When the young hounds come in, everything is strange to them, and many are very shy and sulky. It is now that you will see the use of having a good-tempered and cheerful man as feeder ; such a one will soon gain the affection and confidence of the young hounds ; animals soon find out those who are fond of them. Let the feeder be with them as much as possible ; if he takes some broken biscuits in his pockets, or bits of meat, and plays and romps with them for only an hour on each day, on the third day they will follow him anywhere. This may appear all very childish, and great nonsense to many ; wiser men, how- ever, tlian your humble servant " Scrutator" have been caught romping and playing with children, and if you wish your hounds to be attached to you, you must treat them in the same way. I once saw a huntsman at high romps with the young hounds in the summer. He was out in a paddock behind the kennels, tossing up bits of biscuit high in the air for them to catch, throwing some to a distance, and playing all sorts of tricks with them ; it ended by his going to the end of the paddock and having a race home with them to the kenneh A friend of mine who was with me, witnessing this game, exclaimed, " What a fool that fellow must be." " Well," I said, " you may think him so ; but, with all his folly, he can do more with his hounds, both in the kennel and in the field, than any man of the present day." "Why," he replied, "he will set them fighting, with all this nonsense." "Tell him so, then, and hear what he will say." " Well," he said, " Mr. Huntsman, you seem out of breath with your exertions. I should think that romping most likely to end in a general row." "No fear of that, sir; we have our school time as well as play time, and I can check them in a moment if I see any disposition to quarrel."
These hounds would clo anything for liim : if he called one by name he would bound to him with the greatest alacrity, and try to jump on his shoulders, dancing round and fawning upon him like a spanieL He never had a whip in his hand in the kennel, nor would he ever allow a whipper-in to help draw hounds, as I have seen in many kennels. He could separate the dogs and the bitciies, when all standing together, at a word, by ordering the dogs to one side and the bitches to the other Bide of the yard, I have seen this attempted by other hunts-
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 91
men, but it was not done without trouble and the assistance of the whipper-in. All that he did was by kindness, good temper, and perseverance, and without the whip. Some of my readers will say, " "Wliat is the use of all this T You shall know. His hounds were remarkable for good conduct and steadiness in the field, and seldom missed their fox. They drew beautifully, steadily, and quickly, were very handy when making their cast, no whipper-in being required to turn them; one word from their huntsman and a wave of his hand would bring them to any point he wished. To their master's cheer, or " halloo," they would dash like wild things, and when at the end of a long and hard run they heard his cheering voice, with the well-known cry of " Have at him again," every hound seemed renovated with fresh vigour, their bristles would rise, and the fox's fate was soon sealed. ]\Iore than this, it is the duty, as well as the interest of every man to treat all animals under his care with kindness, and not to get out of temper with them ; severity is seldom required.
The distemper is generally preceded by a husky cough. At this the first stage of the complaint, an emetic should be ad- ministered ; many give warm salt and water. It is a simple and safe emetic, but I consider emetic tartar preferable. It acts almost immediately upon the stomach, and upon the system also, equalizing the circulation of the blood, reducing fever, and is an aperient. From two to three grains, or four, according to the size and strength of the dog, may be given in two table- spoonfuls of warm water or broth. (As I am writing both for feeders and huntsmen, as well as their masters, it is necessary to explain, as I proceed, the why, when, and wherefore, certain medicines are to be given.) The emetic being intended to act upon the bilious matter contained in the stomach and eject it, it follows of course that it should be given in the morning fast- ing, or it will have no eftect beyond making the dog vomit. The eflScacy of medicine is often lost by its being given at an improper time. Sometimes, too, when the dog is fractioiis, it is not half given. If the first dose does not produce yoniiting within an hour, give two grains more. This is enough ; if it does not act one way, it will another. Put the hound by himself, and let him have some sheep's head broth, with the meat (if he will not take the broth without it), two hours after ; sooner, it may be ejected. It the emetic has had good effect, and pro- duced vomiting, give at night, about eight o'clock, three grains of calomel and two grains of crude opium, made into a pill, or mixed up with butter or lard. Take care the hound is not exposed to wet or damp with this medicine, nor must he have
92 nOESES AND HOUNDS.
access to cold water. Early the next morning give liim a table- spoonful of castor oil, an hour after some warm sheep's head broth, milk and water, and warm whey, if you can get any. ^ Whey at this particular period is better than anything, and of itself mil half effect a cure. On the third morning, should the dog con- tinue to cough much, repeat the emetic, with the pill of calomel and opium at night as before, When getting better, give him eight grains of rhubarb and five of carbonate of potash every other day. an hour before feeding in the afternoon. When hounds refuse their food, and before the distemper shows itself, the following is a good recipe : — One ounce of aloes, three quarters of an ounce of iron rust, two drachms of carbonate of ammonia. Make it into a mass, and give a pill the size of a hazel nut, fasting ; repeat the third day. This requires no con- finement, and the dog may drink cold water if he likes.
There is another species of distemper, by huntsmen called the yellows, or jaundice, which, unless at once checked, will end fatally in three or four days, sometimes much quicker. The symptoms are drowsiness and loss of appetite, succeeded by a yellow appearance of the whites of the eyes ; the gums become highly inflamed, and the whole skin will soon assume a yellow hue. If the dog is high in condition, bleeding at the very first will do good; but if the yellow hue has already spread over the skin, bleeding then will most likely prove fatal. Give an emetic first — three or four grains of emetic tartar in warm water. Two hours after, give the following made into a pill : — Three grains of calomel, two grains crude opium, three grains emetic tartar. The following night give another pill as follows : — Six grains turbeth mineral, half a drachm of assafoetida, ten grains of Cas- tile soap. Repeat this the third day ; keep the dog warm and from cold water ; diet, sheep's head broth, with meal or whey, little or no meat. The fourth night, if the symptoms are sub- siding, give two grains of calomel, and three grains of James's powders.
Young hounds are also attacked sometimes by inflammation of the lungs ; symptoms, difficulty of breathing, short cough, heart beating quickly, eyes and gums red and inflamed, nose hot and dry, with great restlessness. Here bleeding freely at first is the chief remedy, and it must be repeated if necessary. Give a pill at night, composed of three grains of calomel and three grains of James's powders. Early in the morning half an ounce of Epsom salts in warm water. If the inflammation continues, give three grains of James's powders every four hours during the next day. The dog must not be kept too warm ; but cold water, and even exposure to cold air, would be tcttal. Calomel
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 93
is a very efficacious medicine with dogs, but they are differently affected by it : with some, two grains will have a powerful effect. I have, therefore, in these prescriptions followed the middle course. No doctor would prescribe for a patient with- out seeing him ; and, as so much depends upon the strength and constitution of the patient, a good deal of discretion must be left to the huntsman and feeder. With proper and judicious treatment, ten out of a dozen hounds may be saved by using the remedies I have prescribed. When a young hound is weak and dainty, give him the yolk of a fresh egg in the morning without the white.
CHAPTER XV.
Judgment to be exercised in feeding — Bleeding and dressing — Prejudices of huntsmen — Beckford's remarks on dressing — Economy as to use of meal — Inj udicious bleeding — Use of vegetables diu-ing the summer — Brushing, swimming, and feeding — Babies canina, or hydrophobia — Fits occasion- ally mistaken for it — Cures of hydrophobia mentioned by old writers.
As I have before observed, prevention is better than cure ; and where attention is paid to the diet of hounds, relaxing from the high state of feeding which is required in the hunting season, as soon as that season is over, the strong measures resorted to in many kennels for keeping hounds free from mange, and other maladies, may be rendered totally unnecessary. High feeding is, with both old and young hounds, highly prejudicial to their health, in the spring and during the summer months, but it is rather a difficult thing to convince huntsmen of this fact, as they all like to see their hounds fat and in high condition during the idle months. It is the practice in some kennels to bleed their hounds and dress them with some severe ointment, as soon as the hunting season is over.
Some few years since I paid a visit to a gentleman who has been for many years a master of hounds, and is so still, and a capital pack of hounds he has. Being at that time from home, I went to the kennel to see the hounds, as a matter of course. The huntsman appeared very reluctant to admit me, saying the hounds had been dressed a day or two before, and were not fit to be seen. All his excuses, however, would not avail ; for having travelled some distance, I resolved to have a look at them. Truly enough, they were not fit to be seen, for this
94 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
huntsman, somewhat notorious for his sharp dressings, had dressed them to so much purpose that their legs were swollen to double their usual size, and the poor animals were suffering severely. I remonstrated with him upon the absurdity and cruelty of subjecting his hounds to such torture, and asked him what his object could be in using such powerful and noxious ingredients, of which I was satisfied his ointment must be com- posed. His reply was, " It makes them look fine in their coats during the summer months, and the effects of the dressing are over in a few days." My rejoinder was not at all palatable to this great man in his own opinion, as I gave him to under- stand that I considered a similar dressing might be applied much more satisfactorily to himself, with tarring and feathering to boot, than to the poor animals which were submitted to his tender mercies.
Prejudices are very difiicult to remove, especially with hunts- men, who consider themselves a privileged class, and unfor- tunately ignorance and obstinacy often go hand in hand toge- ther. A man who is above being taught, or too conceited in his own opinion to benefit by that of others, whether peer or pea- sant, you may at once set down as an ignoramus. The best reason, perhaps the only one assigned for some of these prac- tices, is that Mr. So-and-So, the duke's huntsman, used to treat his hounds in this manner; and thus things continue from huntsmen to whippers-in for years, without inquiry. Mr. Beck- ford also may be quoted as high authority, but if I recollect correctly, his remarks upon the subject of dressing hounds are rather ambiguous. I may be considered very presumptuous in venturing to call in question such high authority, but it is quite evident from many observations made by Mr. Beckford, that although practically acquainted with all that related to the management of hounds and horses in the field, he was only theoretically so with regard to the kennel regime. On dressing hounds he remarks — " The oftener hounds are dressed I suppose the better they will look ;" he does not say that he either tJiiriks or considers they would look better, but merely supposes. In another case his feeder gives him information about boiling oatmeal and merely scalding barley meal. You may say such knowledge is only necessary for the feeder and huntsman, and I quite agree with you, if you have your ten thousand a year, and care little about the expenses of your hunting esta- blishment.
I am not writing (as I stated at the commencement) for great men, who can afford to keep up great establishments, and who are not supposed to condescend to such trifling matters, but to
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 95
a man of moderate means, and to one wlio has the management of a subscription pack, it will make some little difference whether liis meal bill amounts to 250/. or 500/. in the course of the year.
As to dressing hounds, then, systematically and periodically, I merely state my own opinion, and that formed after many years' experience and observation of all such matters. A pack of fox-hounds ought never to require dressing at all as a general practice.
As to periodical bleeding, or, correctly speaking, as it used to be called, hlood-letting, the practice is, I hope, nearly, if not quite exploded. I never shall forget witnessing an exhibition of this hlood-letting on a great scale by a huntsman, who was considered A 1 in his profession. He was standing in a small yard, w^ell littered with straw, lancet in hand, with two assist- ants holding the hounds, a couple at a time, with the blood pouring from their jugular veins, and the whole place covered with gore. Seeing no basin, or any vessel to measure quantity by, I asked this learned gentleman if he bled his hounds until they dropped, or how he was to determine when a sufficient quantity had been taken to suit his taste. He seemed to treat my question with contempt, remarking that he knew his busi- ness perfectly w^ell, and how much blood each hound ought to lose. With all due deference to his opinion, I ventured to suggest that some of his patients looked as if they did not require blood-letting at all, and his rage was great when I offered to operate on himself, as exhibiting decided appear- ances of plethora.
When the hunting season is over, let the food be mixed thin, instead of stinting the hounds in the quantity, and give them a dose or two of Epsom salts. They should also have, once a week, sulphur and cream of tartar in their food. One pound of each is sufficient for about thirty couples of hounds. If any hound should break out in spots, or exhibit appearances of mange, give him, for three alternate nights, a teaspoonfiil of iEthiop's mineral, mixed up in lard, and the next morning half an ounce of Epsom salts in some warm liquor. Giving hounds physic in their food is, as I have before stated, very objection- able. When salts are given, they should be mixed up with broth only ; but when sulphur or cream of tartar (intended only as an alterative) is given to the whole pack, they may be fed late in the evening ; and in this case it may be mixed with the meal.
During the summer months vegetables are very useful to keep hounds in health. Whey is also very cooling. I used to
96 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
give young nettles in the spring of tlie year, boiled with the flesh; and, later in the summer, cabbages. I have also given mangel wurzel ; but this must be used with great caution at first, and requires a good deal of flesh to counteract its laxative properties. Potatoes also, when steamed, and mashed up, are good food, but if boiled, the water in which they are cooked should never be given with them. During the summer months my hounds had always whey once or twice a week. I got it at a neighbouring dairy farm, and used to pay 5s. for the meal, which was sufficient for thirty couples of hounds.
It is a good plan to have hounds brushed over when they are shedding their coats ; and as at this time the mange will some- times make its appearance, turn the hair back, from the stern up to the head with one hand, and sprinkle a little plain sul- phur with the other, so as to get into the roots of the hair ; smooth it down again, and, two days afterwards, give the hound a good brushing with the flesh-brush. Some huntsmen are very fond of swimming their hounds in the summer months. Once or twice it can do no harm ; but if had recourse to often, it will make their coats coarse, and produce mange. The old and young hounds should take at least three hours' exercise with the horses alternate days, before breakfast. When they return, they should be fed lightly, and have their dinner at four or five o'clock in the evening. I have always fed my hounds tmce a day; their breakfast was strictly a breakfast only — a small bucket of pudding to two of broth for ten couples of hounds, all let in together ; but if any hounds were thin, and bad feeders, they were fed more liberally. I found hounds do better upon the same quantity of food given at two diff"erent meals, than at one only. During the summer months hounds cannot be out too much. Mine were nearly all day out of the kennel, except at breakfast and dinner hours ; in the heat of the day under the shade of trees, and at other times walking about. Nothing is so conducive to health as plenty of air and exercise.
With all due humility I now approach a subject which has arrested, if it has not occupied, the attention of the cleverest medical men of all ages, and in all climes — rabies canina, or hydrophobia — and which has hitherto baffled the skill of all. It is difficult to account for the appearance of this dreadful scourge, of the human as well as canine race, or to say for how long a period the virus may remain dormant in the system, before made to exhibit itself by some exciting cause. My own opinion is, that it may remain so for months certainly, and I am inclined to believe for years ; and I will give my reasons pre- sently for so thinking. When hydrophobia has once broken
HOESES AND HOUNDS. 97
out, in either man or beast, I believe it hardly ever yet has been subdued, but I think from what I have observed, that its paroxysms may be much alleviated, and, I should say, success- fully reduced, but I must leave to the medical profession to determine by what treatment and medicines From its so un- frequently occurring, I am induced to think that very great attention of late has not been paid to hydrophobia, and being considered an incurable disease, remedies have been thought hopeless. That it may be prevented breaking out for many years in a subject who has been most severely bitten by a mad dog, I can attest. Many instances have been cited to the same effect by writers on this subject, and if we are to believe certain authorities of the old school, the Ormskirk medicine was an infallible remedy. Beckford talks of a whole pack of hounds belonging to a friend of his being bitten, and not one going mad, which had been dosed with large quantities of Turbith mineral, also of a man who was cured by Sir George Cob's medicine. A learned writer, in the reign of King James the First, thus speaks of madness : — " In hounds and dogs which fall mad the cause is that black choler hath the mastry in his body, which choler once roasted in them through vehement heat, it overcometh the body, and maketh him to run mad, for the black choler, which is so strong, infecteth his brain, and so from thence goeth to all the other members, and maketh him venomous." He afterwards gives a list of medicines, which if not instructive, may be amusing to the reader, and I will leave him to determine which is likely to prove most efficacious. Here it follows : — " Also calamint, the seed of wild tares, sea onions, water-cresses, herb- grace, salt, aristolochia, nuts with rue, the roots of asperage, and the seed balsamum, vinegar, and the milk of an ass, child's urine, the stones of a hedgehog, the stones of a stag or an ass dried and drank; also castorium, garlic, gentian, mint, dittany."
From this dish of delicacies I leave our learned medical prac- titioners of the present day to make choice. Much has been written on this subject by other learned doctors from time to time, and Dr. Mead professes that, '' in the space of thirty years he had an opportunity of giving his plan a trial no less than one thousand times with uniform success." Pity it is that all these wonderful remedies have either been lost to the present unenlightened generation, or not duly appreciated. In the Medical Journal many cases are mentioned as having been successfully treated by our different medical men of later years, and I have little doubt that if remedies are applied immediately the bite is inflicted, a cure may be eff"ected.
S8 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
How rabies arises, it is for me impossible to determine, but that it may be caused by want of water, improper food, and long confinement, there is, I believe, little doubt ; and I should say, it is more likely to break out in the spring months, when the weather is very variable, than at any other season of the year. We must also bear in mind that dogs are sometimes affected by fits, 2^^'^cm^i/ in the same manner as if labouring under the rabies canina; and of this I relate an instance which occurred to a dog of my own some three years since, and which I have still. May not other dogs have been similarly affected, and destroyed as mad 1 I went out on the moors for a walk, in the month of May, being accompanied by a man who carried my fishing-rod and basket, and a terrier which had been given me about a fortnight before. This dog had been tied up in the stable of the public-house where I was staying, but he had been let out every day for a run, and I fed him myself to make him know me. He was a young dog, not a twelvemonth old, and had got over the distemper. When we had walked about four miles, and were on the open moor, the day being somewhat sultry, the dog suddenly began jumping round us, as if in play, and then barking and biting at our legs. My companion, although a strong and resolute man, Avas alarmed, and said the dog was going mad. I told him not to be frightened, for it was only a fit, which dogs were subject to after they had had the distemper. Thinking the fit would soon be over, I pulled off' my coat and caught the dog up in it, intending to carry him to some water, which I saw near me, but I could not hold him long, and as he began foaming at the mouth and struggling violently to bite, I was puzzled what to do with him, being without gloves. My companion, seeing me much excited, then took the dog from me, and tried to hold him, but he could not do so, and he begged me to let him kill him, as the dog had bitten him in the hand. " No," I said, " you shall not kill him, or we shall be fancying ourselves going mad, and the very idea will be enough to make us miserable for some time to come. Let him go at once." Away he went, like a shot out of a gun, as far as our eyes could follow him on the open moor, and we lost sight of him. " There," said my companion, " I suppose you are satisfied, sir, that the dog is gone mad." " No," I replied, " I am not at all satisfied about it, and more than that, I hope to satisfy you, before the day is over, that such is not the case." I then went down immediately to a small hamlet, which lay under the hills, got some hot water, and fomented the man's hand, and then applied a strong mustard poultice, which I changed once or twice, and we were, after some refreshment, a
HOKSES AND HOUNDS. 99
little more composed. I then begged my companion to go quietly Lome. " Pray, sir," he said, " what may you be going to do on these mountains alone f " Why," I said, " my friend, I shall walk these hills, and search the ravines as long as I can see, or until T find the dog, if it is till midnight." " Then, sir," he said, " I shall go witli you ; I don't care much about this scratch, and I should like to know the fate of the dog, and if you do not think he was mad, we shall find him." We accord- ingly made a circuit of the country, making inquiries of every man we met with, but no tidings could we hear of the missing animal. At six o'clock in the evening, we were on our homeward track, and called at a keeper's house to know if he had seen or heard anything of him ; still no tidings. I then determined, although pretty well tired, to go again to the very spot where we had lost him, and search the ravines, although my companion was very much averse to this proceeding, and he told me afterwards he was afraid of finding him. We walked and searched for two hours more, when in going down a ravine, whistling and calling the dog by name, his head suddenly appeared above the heather and gorse, close to the side of the stream. He had fallen, in his fit, down the steep bank into the water below, whicli had restored him to his senses ; he crawled out into the heather, and there laid for nearly eight hours. He was quite recovered, but stiflf and frightened.
Now, had this occurred in a thiclily populated district, the dog would most probably have bitten other animals whilst the fit was upon him, or any one he met in his way, and would un- questionably have been destroyed as a mad dog. I reached my quarters about ten o'clock at night, gave the dog a dose of calomel, and made him up a bed in the corner of my bed-room, leaving the door partially open for him to go down stairs if he liked. When I got up in the morning I found the dog had been down stairs, jumping round the servant girl, and frightening the landlady as well. From what I heard from my companion of the day before, a consultation had been held by the village gossips and the landlady, and it had been resolved nem. con. that my dog was certainly mad, and ought to be destroyed. My worthy hostess soon made her appearance, and urged me to destroy him at once. To this I gave a flat denial, laughed at her fears, and told her that, for the satisfaction of the man that had been bitten, as well as my own, the dog should not be touched by her or any one else, but I did not afterwards trust him out of my sight day or night. In a few days the dog was quite well again.
I have been rather particular in this case, to satisfy the h2
100 HORSES AXD HOU^-DS.
nervous and timid that a dog may exhibit all the appearance without being in the least affected by rabies canum.
CHAPTER XVL
Instances of decided hydropliobia in the author's own kennel — Treatment of a bite under such circumstances.
I WILL now relate some cases of decided hydrophobia which occurred among my own hounds some few years since. There was a large yard dog confined in the stable yard by a long chain to a box ; but I had given directions that he should always be let loose two or three times a week, at least, whilst I was absent from home. I have reason to think this was not attended to, and perhaps water not given to him regularly every day, as I had ordered. The day I returned the dog had broken loose, and bitten some of the old hounds about the place. ]\Iy whipper- in, being a sensible man, had caught him and shut him up in a place by himself, and immediately brought me the pleasing intelligence that he believed the dog mad, and he could not tell what mischief had been done. Singular enough this dog, after biting other dogs, rushed up to one of my children, who was walking out, and tried to lick his hand. He was a great favour- ite with the child, who, seeing him covered with foam and dirt, pushed him off, saying, "Get away, Xep, you are so dirty." The dog left him immediately, and jumped into a pond near. A few hours after he was taken up by the whipper-in, and con- fined in an outhouse. To prevent accidents, some of the tiles were taken off the roof, and food and water let down in buckets. Nothing, however, would he touch after the first day, and on the third he died raving mad, having torn everything to pieces within his reach. For safety, all the loose dogs about the place were shut up or destroyed, but I had still an idea that he might have bitten some of the young hounds through the rail- ings, as they were generally out in the green-yard. So it proved. We watched them carefully, and two of them soon showed sjTiiptoms of rabies. They were removed directly, placed in a loose box, and died in three days afterwards. Others soon fol- lowed, and I then sent off for a very clever surgeon in the neighbourhood, who was fond of the chase, and whom I had before consulted on the distemper. As soon as he arrived I told him the circumstances, and that he would jjrobably have many
HORSES A5T) KOrSDS, 101
Eatients to try experiments on. He shook his tead, and said e was afraid he could do no good. To commence, however, we dissected the two dogs which had died. In the stomach we foimd only sticks and straw, and the brain exhibited no appear- ance of inflammation, which we had expected.
" Xow, doctor," I said, " let me introduce yon to yonr living patients." '* "Well,' he said, •' I think I must decline that hononr ; I never had any very great desire to walk into a tiger 3 den, but I should take the tiger's for choice, in preference to going into a den of mad dogs," " Come," I said, " doctor, don't be nervous : but if you wont venture in, I will, and you shall hold the door outside." TVe went, therefore, to the d'X)r, with the whipper-in, but the moment he opened it, and shewed his face, both the hounds flew at the door like savages. " This will never do," said the doctor; "take your gun and shoot them at once, or we shall have mischief done. Such advice did not suit my humoiu: just then, and I confess I was guilty of a sort of foolhardiness common in our youthful days, and which prompts us to do acts which we should repent in cooler moments, I wished, moreover, to try experiments, as I feared the whole pack might go mad, and they were very valuable. " WeU," I said, " I have a strong impression that these hounds, knowing me well, will not bite me if they can help it ; at any rate I will try the exx^eriment. I therefore put on two pairs of gloves, took a short thick stick under my arm. and, notAvithstanding all the doctor and my man could say to the contrary, opened the door, leaving them outside, and walked boldly in. Their eyes glared fiercely as they advanced to meet me, but I called them by name, went up, and began talking to them in my usual tones, and ]\^tted them on the head. They appeared to know me quite well, wagged their tails, and then laid down sulkily in the corner. Satisfied so far that I could now give them medicine, without much fear of their biting me, I left the den, and retired with the doctor to consult what to prescribe.
After having locked the door, the doctor and myself returned to the house, to deliberate upon the best course to piursue with our mad patients. " Well," he said. *' I can prescribe, but I tell you my candid opinion, that all the medicine in the worid will not cure them, and still I advise you to give them a dose of powder and shot, as the best and shortest recipe." "This I have t(^ld you I shall not do," was my reply. " Very well," he said, " now there is anotlier difficulty. You have heard, I dare say, of one tiiking a horse to water, Arc."' " \ es," I replied, " I think I have heard that story once in my life, if not oftener." " There, then,' he said, " we shall be foiled, for I see your
102 HOESES AND HOUNDS.
wHipper-in is no great favourite, and I question whetlier any man of common sense (putting yourself and him out of the question, as I consider you both bordering on insanity) would undertake such a job — in short, you could not ask a man to run such a risk." " I am quite of your opinion, doctor; and as one of the fools cannot do it, the other must — so now to business."
His prescription was from ten to twenty drops of laudanum (according to the violence and frequency of the convulsions,) three times a day, which I gave them. I had some strong broth made with sheep's heads, the meat stewed with it, of which they would take a little occasionally, but with great difficulty in swallowing it. The laudanum had the effect of reducing the paroxysms after the first day, and by its continual use the dogs became listless and drowsy. On the fourth day, however, I found them dead, but so quietly had they died that they were curled up as if asleep, and had gone off without a struggle. Several others were seized and treated in a similar manner, with doses of laudanum and morphine, but with the same result. I then tried prussic acid, beginning with four drops and going up to twenty. This powerful medicine had a most decided effect in alleviating the paroxysms more quickly than laudanum, but nothing could arrest the progress of the disease. All my patients sank gradually, but died without convulsions ; nature appeared completely worn out.
I had now lost fourteen hounds by this terrible disease, all young, strong, and healthy, only a few days before. For a week no new cases appeared, and we began to think we had nothing more to fear. The whole pack had been, of course, well watched, and Epsom salts, with other alteratives, administered. A month passed and another without any symptoms again appearing, and my whipper-in and myself were congratulating ourselves, thinking all danger was nov7 past. Just, however, nine weeks after its first appearance, as we were feeding the hounds, a young dog chopped at his food in the trough in an unusual manner. I always attended at the feeding hours, and called the hounds in by name myself At once my attention was rivetted on this hound. I called for a pair of couples, put them quickly round his neck, and told the whipper-in to shut him up immediately by himself " Why, sir," he said, " what's the matter with him T " Only this," I said, " that he will be raving- mad to-morrow morning" — and so he was. This was, however, the last case that appeared, and but for my quick detection of the vslight alteration of manner in this dog when feeding, the whole pack must have inevitably been destroyed, as he would,
HOESES AND HOUNDS. 103
no doubt, have bitten most of them during the night, or early in
the morning.
The thing that alarmed me most, however, was the feeder being bitten quite through the wrist by this dog. He was in the habit of going about the kennel with his arm quite naked up to the shoulder, although I had often cautioned him about it. The whipper-in came running to me directly, to_ say that the feeder had been bitten through and through on his naked arm. A fearful wound it was, and bled profusely. This I encouraged by warm salt and water, applied as long as I could get any blood to flow. I then made him suck the wound, and when dry I put some lunar caustic immediately into it. The man was greatly alarmed at first, but I succeeded in soothing him to a certain extent, made him go home, and gave him a strong dose of calomel, A doctor was sent for directly, who said I had done quite right, and he could do nothing more except cut out the part bitten or cauterize it. I told him in my opinion the cutting out of the part would be useless, and I thought the caustic I had put into the wound would produce sufficient inflammation and suppuration ; and so it did, for a fearful arm he had the next day. We then kept on with drawing poultices, and other ointments, until the wound was healed, which took some time. He had calomel and alteratives continually, but having set his mind upon a good sea dipping, I saw he would not be satisfied without it, and I accordingly sent him down with a friend, and between him and the boatman he waS' nearly drowned. The dog by which he had been bitten died mad.
This man lived in my service several years afterwards, was married, and returned to his native village. I saw nothing of him until about eight years had elapsed, when he again came to work for me. He was then much altered, perhaps from hard work and hard living, and had become weak in body and almost silly in mind. I gave him a cottage to live in, and made him as comfortable as I could. His health, however, gradually declined, and just nine years after he had been bitten he died. Those who attended him at the last said he died in fits, and barked like a dog. I cannot vouch for this as a fact, but his ■wife is still living, and the man who sat up with him at night. During the four years he lived with me after being bitten he was as usual, but I made him take alteratives at the return of the season when he had been bitten. Should it be really the case, that this man died from the efi'ects of the bite inflicted nine years previously (and tliis fact could be set at rest by the exami- nation of those who attended hiin in his last illness), two points
104 HORSES AND SOUNDS.
will be established ; one, that the virus does remain in the system for a length of time without being exhibited ; the other, that the disease may be prevented breaking out, by the periodi- cal use of medicines. I should think also very much depended upon the nature of the wound, whether only skin deep, and whether inflicted on the open hand and arm or through the clothes. In cases of this superficial nature I think the actual cautery (if much blood does not flow) used immediately, and then drawing poultices and stimulating ointments would effect a cure.
CHAPTER XVir.
Canter in the ear — Spaniels and Newfoundland dogs particularly subject to it — Treatment of it — Treatment of red mange — For sore breasts — For cuts or bites — Barbarous treatment of bruised feet — Eemedies for rheu- matism— Use of oatmeal as food — Manner of keeping it — Its superiority to all other diet, even for labouring men — Manner of boiling it — Carcases of horses which have died of disease to be avoided — " Graves" httle better than poison — Insides of sheep form wholesome diet — Bad carcases often purchased for the sake of the perquisites — No occasion for the whip at feeding hours — Ought to occupy at least an hour.
Dogs are very subject to canker in the ear, which if not speedily cured will cause deafness ; and I have known it break out when neglected into sores all over the ears, head, and neck. Spaniels and Newfoundland dogs are more subject to this than other dogs. Give from two to four grains of calomel at night, and some Epsom salts in the morning ; afterwards sulphur, two or three times a week. An ounce of sugar of lead, dissolved in a quart of rose or rain water, makes a good lotion, and if perse- vered in for a few days will eff"ect a cure. Shake the bottle well before using it, then warm one or two teaspoonsful of the liquid and gently insert it into the ear.
When dogs are affected by the red mange I commence with bleeding and a dose of calomel afterwards, then give a teaspoon- ful of ^thiop's mineral every other night for a week, or a tea- spoonful of powdered nitre, one of sulphur, and one of cream of tartar, mixed up together in lard. Dress with the following ointment: two parts of rape oil, one of spirits of turpentine, a small quantity of soft soap dissolved with the turpentine, and a sufficient quantity of sulphur to make it as thick as cream. For swellings or sore breasts in bitches, which often arise from neglect when their puppies are removed, the following is an ex-
HORSES AITD HOUNDS. 105
cellent recipe, and will draw to a head as well as heal : a spoon- ful of honey, one of flour, one of sweet oil, one of weak wliite wine, and an egg, yolk and white. Put these all together in a saucepan over the fire, and keep stirring it one ivay all the time till it is thick. Use it as a poultice loarm twice a day till the swelling breaks, dress \\ith it in the same manner till the wound is perfectly cleansed ; then spread the same cold as a salve on white leather, and use it as a plaster till the wound is healed. This is a most excellent recipe for boils or swellings in man and beast, which require to be brought to a head and healed. For bad cuts or bites, fomenting first with some warm liquor from the flesh copper, and a small quantity of salt dissolved in it,_ is the safest and surest way to ensure a cure ; and this alone, with the dog's tongue, will be sufficient in many cases. In others Fryar's balsam, with an equal proportion of brandy, may be applied.
In flinty countries, where hounds' feet are much bniised, I have known huntsmen adopt the barbarous practice of cutting the ball of the foot, by which means the hound is totally inca- pacitated from working for some days, at least. Foment first with warm water or liquor until the inflammation subsides, and then apply some spermaceti or elder ointment ; on the following day alum or salt water to harden the foot.
For sprains or rheumatism the following is a good recipe : — 3oz, of spirits of wine, 4oz. of spirits of white lavender, 4oz. of oil of origanum, and ^oz. of camphor.
The best food for hounds is unquestionably good old oatmeal, a stock of which should be kept in hand. The best time to lay it in for the ensuing season is about Christmas, when_ it is generally cheapest. The Irish and Scotch are considered superior to the English. If pressed down in casks, or placed in good binns, it will keep well for a twelvemonth or two years. I have tried wheat meal, Indian corn, and barley. These may do in the summer months, but hounds cannot work upon them in the hunting season as upon oatmeal. No race of men are more hardy, or can do more work than the Scotch labourers, who live chiefly upon this food ; and it has been ascertained that oats contain more muscular matter than wheat. The coarser the oatmeal is, the better ; it should be well boiled for an hour, stirring the while, to prevent its catching at the bottom of the copper. I had once a lazy feeder, who used to let the meal boil sometimes without stirring it, and the consequence was nearly fatal to himself, as from this neglect the copper burst, and scalded him severely. Other feeders I have known who con- tinued pouring in oatmeal, until it became so thick that they
106 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
could stir it no longer; but tliis makes a sad hole in the master s pocket. A certain quantity should be given out daily, and I would recommend you to keep the key in your own pocket. One pound of good old oatmeal is sufficient for any middle-sized hound. Less will do with small hounds, when well boiled, with the addition of meat and broth. The thicker the pudding is made, the more liquor it will take when being mixed up.
It is the custom in some establishments to take all horses, dead or alive, diseased or healthy, which are brought to the kennel. I need scarcely observe that, if you wish to keep your hounds healthy, you must not feed them upon unv/holesome food ; and I would recommend you not to give any horses which have died of disease to your hounds. Purchase the horses for the kennel, and keep them for a week or two before they are killed. In some localities dog horses are scarce, in others almost too plentiful; the a.verage price is from fourteen shil- lings to a pound. Some huntsmen, when flesh is scarce, give graves : I would nearly as soon give poison. It is the most foul, heating food that ever was destined for the stomach of a dog. The insides of sheep, well washed, and afterwards boiled until quite tender, are not only a good substitute for horseflesh, but better and more nutritious food than half the horses which are used in the kennel.
The huntsmen or feeders in large establishments having the perquisite of the dog horses, i e., skin, bones, &c., are often induced to take in horses unfit for food, and in greater numbers than necessary. The skin of a horse is worth from six to eight shillings, the bones from two shillings to half-a-crown, and the hair something also. The huntsman of a scratch pack of harriers once told me he kept his hounds for next to nothing. Living in the neighbourhood of two large towns, in a coal dis- trict, he could buy a dog horse for about ten shillings. The skin he sold himself in the market, for which he obtained from 7s. to 8s., and the bones and hair made 2s. more, so that the flesh cost him nothing, and upon this alone, during the greater part of the year, his hounds subsisted. This was a very economical way of keeping hounds, but my brother fox-hunters will hardly agree that a pack of fox-hounds should be similarly managed. Baw flesh, it is well known, will soon make a very poor hound fat, but you Cfinnot work upon it in the hunting season. I have, however, often given it to bad feeders and old hounds to improve their condition, when not required to work.
In the summer the feeding hour should be rather late, say four or five o'clock ; hounds will then be more likely to remain
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 107
quiet during the night. I have before remarked that I always gave my hounds a little thin lap in the morning about eight o'clock. When feeding, there is no necessity for either hunts- man or whipper-in using a whip. I have often seen huntsmen, and I believe it is their usual practice, to feed by the whip as much or more than by the voice. You see them standing at the door, pointing with the whip to each hound as he is called in ; and hounds, in their eagerness for their dinner, with their eyes fixed upon the huntsman and his whip, often mistake a sign made for another as intended for themselves, and get a good cut for their pains. I had always some very thin switches or light hazel sticks, not thicker than my finger, kept in the feeding house ; but never allowed a whip to be used at dinner hours. I threw the door open after looking well over the lot of hounds I was about to feed, and then called each hound by name dis- tinctly as he was to come in ; if one rushed in unbidden he was ordered back again, and if he did not obey, the whipper-in or feeder gave him a gentle reminder with the switch. Hounds are very sensible animals, and soon understand what is required of them, if their master is quiet and steady with them, and does not get out of temper. In Beckford's time, huntsmen used to flog their hounds whilst feeding tliem to teach them their names, and he quaintly observes, "that if they had not always a bellyful one way, they seldom failed to get it the other." The confusion 1 have also witnessed at feeding time in some kennels was disgusting. I shall only observe, that any man who cannot feed his hounds without knocking them about with the whip, frightening the timid and dri\dng the others in and over the troughs, is not fit to hold the situation of huntsman. It is not my wish to exact too much or more than I think any man of moderate common sense can attain to, but nothing can be done with dogs or animals of any kind in the way of instruction unless common sense is combined with quietness and cool decision, without violence or any exhibition of temper. The best plan for most huntsmen to pursue (and it is one I in- variably adopt myself) is to feed only five or six couples of hounds at a time. The feeding troughs having covers with hinges, can be kept on or let down at pleasure, and the food will remain warm enough during the whole time of feeding. I generally allowed an hour for feeding the whole pack, and walking them out, and it ought not to be done in less time»
108 nOESES AND HOUNDS.
CHAPTER XVm.
*'Pood should be proportioned to work," and regulated according to the season — Tissues of the body exhausted by violent exercise — Illus- trations of mode of treatment, and making of the "puddings" — Ne- cessity of air and exercise — Walls of kennels to be frequently whitewashed — Means of preventing fleas, ticks, and dust — Proper kind of straw to be used — Use of neatsfoot oil superseded by cleanliness — Use of sulphur — Frequent brushing highly useful — Precautions to be taken in washing dogs — The use of the warm bath after hunting doubtful, as also the prac- tice of swimming dogs in ponds and rivers — Example of the latter — Causes and treatment of eruptive diseases — Vacations and commencement of training season — Cub-hvinting — An anecdote — I^umber of hounds necessary.
In the treatment of horses and hounds, the maxim "^/^aZ/ooc? should he fvopoHioned to work,'' ought to be steadily kept in view, and there is a fact in connexion with the feeding of all animals, of great importance to be attended to, well known to scientific cattle breeders, that warmth is to a certain extent equivalent to food.
The animal body may be compared to a furnace, which must be kept up to a certain temperature, and, according to the ex- ternal heat or cold, will the furnace require more or less fuel, that is, food. We know also by experience that we are more hungry, and can eat more in cold weather than in hot. Upon a cold frosty day in winter a glass of hot brandy and water after dinner would make a man feel only comfortable ; but the same quantity of hot and hot in summer would throw him into a vio- lent perspiration and make him feel «^?icomfortable. The quan- tity and quality of food necessary to keep an animal in a certain state of condition will vary according to the circumstances under which he is placed, the temperature to which he is exposed, or the amount of exercise he receives. Violent exer- tion exhausts the tissues of the body, and this is the reason why the flesh of a hunted hare is particularly tender. From these facts and experiments will be seen the necessity of feeding horses and hounds during the winter months as highly as pos- sible, and keeping them warm also. They have to contend, at the same time, v/ith cold without, which diminishes the vital heat, and the exhaustion of the bodily tissues or matter within, by the severe exercise of hunting. In other places I have advocated a more liberal and rational treatment in feeding hounds during the hunting season than is adopted in many ken- nels, and I now adduce some additional facts in support of my theory, or more correctly speaking, practice.
HOESES AND HOUNDS. 109
ThroiTgliout the many years I kept fox-hounds, they were always fed in the season upon the thickest and strongest food. When the hunting season is conchided, the pudding may be reduced by a liberal allowance of broth, and in the heat of sum- mer, nettles, cabbages, and mangel wurzel will very much tend to keep the hounds cool, and save the stock of oatmeah A pack of fox-hounds have very little respite from their labours, and in some kennels barely two months in the year are allowed them to recover from the effects of the past season, during which they can be said to be at rest. These are the months of May and June ; but in some countries it is still, I believe, the fashion to kill a May fox ; but, taking the average of the hunting coun- tries, we may assume these two months to constitute the period generally assigned for quietude and relaxation from all work.. The young hounds are now supposed to occupy the chief time and attention of the huntsman, as tlie hunting packs require only sufficient exercise to keep them in health. By the aid of alteratives and vegetables, mixed with their food, there is no necessity for either bleeding, dressing, or severe doses of physic ; rest is what the old hounds require most, and this they should enjoy uninterruptedly for these two months at least, and if lightly fed, they will not put on too much flesh.
I have always been an advocate for keeping hounds, both young and old, out in the air as much as possible during the summer, walking them out five or six times a day, a practice which tends greatly to their health, and the cleanliness of the kennel also. The walls should be white-washed frequently, which will prevent ticks and other vermin harbouring in them ; and with clean straw changed every third day, there will be little fear of the hounds being annoyed by fleas, which are always generated by filth. There is an idle practice with many feeders of leaving a certain quantity of the short straw on tlie benches as bedding, and then adding clean straw to it ; and thus it is suffered to remain often for some time until it becomes a perfect hotbed for the production of fleas. The dust also works its way to the hound's skin, and induces itching and mange. Every morn- ing, when the hounds have left the kennel, the bedding should be thoroughly shaken up into one corner, and the benches well brushed over before it is replaced, and every third morning the whole cleaned away, and fresh straw put on. This requires to be particularly attended to during the summer months.
There is also a great difference in the straw. None of course but wheat straw should be used, and that should be of a coarse description, and not much broken by the thrashing machine. These may appear trifling matters, but they are of much more
110 HOESES A^-D HOUNDS.
consequence than many suppose. There is no necessity for ru1> bing a dog all over with neatsfoot oil, as I have seen recom- mended, two or three times in the year, if these little trifiesare attended to. In a well conducted kennel of fox-hounds, ticks and fleas have no chance of existing to any extent, if they da at all, and, although persons ignorant of the great attention here paid to cleanliness might suppose these vermin would be con- stantly generating amongst such a number of dogs when lying and sleeping together, they would be surprised to find the coat of a well tended fox-hound more free from this nuisance than a lady's parlour dog. With the aid of a little plain sulphur sprinkled down their backs, which is to be thoroughly brushed out again on the third morning, clean straw, a healthy kennel, with "the occasional use of the white-washing brush on the walls, our fox-hounds are seldom troubled with such unpleasant visitors.
The brush I consider a great auxiliary in promoting circula- tion and keeping the skins of hounds as well as horses, in a clean and healthy state, and the oftener it is used the better they will look. "\Mien requiring cleaning the brush should be dipped in spirits of turpentine. It ^^ill not occupy much time to brush over twenty couples of hounds, and this I used to have done in the summer months, whilst they were out of the kennel under the shade of trees. My old kennel huntsman, who lived many years with the late Mr. "Ward, generally carried a brush in his coat pocket, and employed his leisure time in making his favourites look smart, by brushing them over when walking about the park. He was very attentive and particular as to the good appearance of the pack, as we had many visitors to the ken- nel during the vacation time, and, if any particular hound did not look clean enough to suit his fancy, the wash tub was put in requisition, and a thorough good scouring with soft soap and hot water administered. The hounds subjected to this ordeal were, however, wiped thoroughly dry afterwards, and then brushed and combed with a small tooth comb, which the old gentleman always carried in his waistcoat pocket, and I sus- pect, applied as well to smooth down his own grey locks.
In those days the warm bath after hunting was not in fashion, at least in our kennel, and I have stated elsewhere that, after having fairly tried the experiment, it was given up, because in the cold winter months I considered its use attended with more injury than benefit to the hounds, simply for this reason, that they could not be thoroughly dried afterwards, except at the expense of much more time and labour than could be con- veniently spared. That which cannot be well done is scarcely
HORSES AND HOUNDS. Ill
wortli while to do at all. The foot bath, however, was always used freely, and the brush when the hounds were dirty. Swim- ming in ponds and rivers I have also heard highly extolled as conducive to the health of dogs, but I cannot say that my expe- rience has led me to any such conclusion, but quite to the con- trary one. A cold bath or two occasio7ialli/, during the summer months, can do no harm, but the practice of swimming dogs often proves prejudicial to them. This I saw proved to demon- stration one season with my own pack. The summer was a hot one, and my old huntsman, although no water fancier himself, thought it would do his pets good to have a dip every other morning, or at least twice a week. He carefully avoided bringing his own nose in contact with this to him obnoxious element (and it would have hissed again like a red hot poker if he had), iDut walking the hounds over a bridge upon which he stationed the whip to prevent their returning, he called them across the stream, and this was repeated two or three times each morning. They had then three miles to return to the kennels, by which time the hounds were tolerably if not quite dry. In the autumn, after all this swimming, the hounds broke out in spots, and became so mangy that they required to be dressed and physicked, and again in October we were absolutely obliged to stop work, and have recourse to another dressing, and the free use of alterative medicines before we could get their skins clean from eruptions. Several were attacked with canker in the ear also, which I have always considered as a species of mange, originating from the suppression of the proper secretions of the body, an overheated system, the use of improper food, or checked perspiration of the skin ; for, although we know that dogs chielSy perspire by the tongue, yet there is always an invi- sible action of the pores of the skin, which any sceptic may be easily convinced of by the effluvia which arises from a mangy lot of dogs huddled together in some unhealthy kennel.
For all eruptions of the skin, mange, and canker in the ear, alteratives are the chief remedy, and without their use no per- manent cure can be efiected. I have used for this purpose sulphur and cream of tartar, equal parts of each, antimony and ^thiop's mineral, with a dose of castor oil or syrup of buckthorn afterwards on the following morning. In the summer and autumn months, when the weather was hot and sultry, Epsom Baits were generally used in my kennels, both as medicine and in smaller quantities as alteratives.
With the month of June the holidays, or rest-time, with the old hounds expired, and in July we commenced training them again for the hunting season. We began with two or three
112 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
hours' exercise witli the horses every morning, gradually ex- tending the time and distance, walking first, trotting after- wards, and then winding up with a good canter across turf. When, after a brisk gallop over the downs, the hounds' mouths shut almost immediately upon pulling up, we then considered them in tolerably good wind and condition to commence opera- tions in cub-hunting. For this purpose our home country was as severe and trying to hounds as could well be selected, the hills being nearly as steep as the roof of a house, and the coverts abounding in blackthorn, so that we were obliged to Lave them in thorough good trim before encountering these difficulties. In case of the hounds slipping away with an old fox, there was little chance either of one being able to stop them in a hurry, there being scarcely any drives in the woods where we might view a fox, or get to the hounds. There were no little isolated spinneys, where we could pick up a brace of cubs in half an hour or so, as is the case in many countries, or fine, flat, open woodlands, but all our cub-hunting coverts were of the roughest and most uncomeatable description, and for tearing hounds to pieces, as bad as gorse brakes. In such places hounds could not be stopped, and if they found an old fox they would have their wicked way with him, for half a dozen miles or so, be- fore we might have it in our power to get up with them, often streaming away across the country, through standing barley, over which I have had many a gallop ; but our farmers, almost all to a man, were of the right sort, and never made complaints of an outbreak of this kind.
Upon one occasion we had, at the commencement of cub- hunting, as severe a day as often occurs in the regular _ hunting season. On the outskirts, and just adjoining our neighbour's country, there had been a litter of cubs bred, in some pretty little brakes, lying nicely together, and far away from any other woods, and as both Jim and myself were of opinion that they were in rather a ticklish situation, and not likely to remain there very long, we resolved on paying them a visit as early as possible, expecting an easy day and an easy prey; we accord- ingly took all our young hounds to rattle these cubs about, but we were destined to catch a Tartar in the shape of an old fox, and the dressing he gave us was not easily forgotten. We had drawn all the other coverts blank, when, at the end of the last brake we had to try, an old fox went immediately away, and at first we were unable to stop the hounds ; but, as he merely took a short ring and returned to the coverts, we thought we might probably manage to catch him without any very great exertions, and we had no other place to draw. The scent was not
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 113
particularly good, and we had about an hour's work badgering about the coverts; then the old gentleman, not relishing the hustling we gave him, went away over the open fields into our neighbour's country, and, taking a wide circuit, made his point for some other small brakes, about two miles distant from where we found him. Here the scent improved, and we were congratulating ourselves upon the prospect of the speedy ful- filment of our sanguine hopes in eating him, when a fresh fox interposed to save his life, and away went the hounds up wind, as hard as they could tear away for about five miles, before we could get up to stop them. When we did so, neither Jim nor myself were in a very agreeable mood ; we therefore kept our thoughts to ourselves for awhile, looking over the hounds to see if there were any missing. They were all right. " Well, sir," said Jim at last, "this is an awkward piece of business, with all the young hounds out too, to be done in this manner, and that litter of cubs ! I thought how it would be with that man that looked after them so well. The young hounds wont be much the better for this morning's work any way." " That's just my opinion, Jim, if we leave off in this manner ; so come along, we must have that old fox's head to finish with." " It can't be done, sir, I am afraid," replied Jim ; " we have five miles at least to go back to the brakes where we changed, and by that time he may be five miles another way." '" Very likely," I said, " but I will try and get up with him again." So oft' we went. Our hunted fox, having nearly enough already, was not sorry for the shady shelter of the wood on this hot day, and there he waited our return. We were soon at him again, and, after two or three quick turns, he broke away, with the hounds close in his wake, for the coverts in which we had first found him in the morning, and there we at last finished him off, much to' Jim's satisfaction, and all parties concerned.
^ Taking the time of year and the heat of the day into con- sideration, it was a tough piece of business for young hounds, which had only been out three or four times before. We had been at work on and off for more than seven hours, and had our hounds not been in good hard condition, we could not have overhauled this hardy old fox. A small quantity of Epsom salts was given the following morning, and in a couple of days the hounds were all right again.
The lesson of this day, though a severe one, was not lost upon the young hounds, and they gave us very little trouble afterwards ; our general practice, however, in the cub-hunting season was to stop from an old fox, if possible, and stick to the cubs ; for a hard day without blood, if prejudicial to an old pack
I
114 HOKSES AND HOUNDS.
of hounds, is much more so to the young. Having gone so far in the business, on the above occasion, I knew it would not do to leave off beaten. After a severe day at any period of the year, but especially during cub-hunting, it was our custom not to feed heavily upon the hounds' return to the kennel ; they had then a certain quantity, and were fed again in three or four hours' time. During the early part of the season, in our home country, I had generally a meal of whey reserved for them at a farm-house, on their way home from hunting, which is both cooling and refieshing in hot weather. In many hunting establishments the number of hounds is often too large for the country, and this is one reason why they are fed so lightly, not having sufficient work to keep them in proper condition with- out very thin food. I had rather keep fewer in number, feed higher, and work them harder, by which a great saving in oatmeal would be effected, and I am quite satisfied better sport ensured. Young hounds cannot well be hunted too often, as long as they hold their condition, and then three days a week are not too much for them. I have heard a very good sportsman say that he never let his young hounds rest as long as they could get oft' the benches, and sometimes had them turned out when unwilling to go. This was carrying the thing too far, but the other extreme is equally bad.
To prove my assertion, I may mention an instance which came under my own observation with a pack of hounds some few years since. Money being then of little consideration with the master, a very large body of hounds had been kept up, just twice as many, or nearly so, as the country required, and their sport had never been very particular. Being, however, subse- quently offered a large price for a certain number of couples, he was induced to part with them, and his pack was reduced from nearly eighty to about forty couples, and still he continued to hunt three and four days a week, never being able to take more than eighteen couples into the field. With this short comple- ment of hounds, well fed and often hunted, they had better sport than for many preceding seasons, and killed more foxes. We all know that some countries lame hounds more tlian others, but, in my opinion, fifty couples of good and efficient hounds, taking young and old together (brood bitches and stud hounds being excepted), are a sufficient number to hunt any country in England four days per week. I know a first-rate gentleman huntsman who was induced last year to part with some of his hounds for a high consideration, and he has been working through this severe season, with barely thirty couples, three days a week, and in a country where foxes are not very
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 115
easily brought to hand. Moreover, he has killed more foxes, and enjoyed better sport, than any of his neighbours.
CHAPTER XIX
Eounding and education of young hounds — How to avoid their nin- nint^ deer — Mr. Ward's practice — Severity not necessary — Good behaviour of the author's own pack through a preserve — Exercise highly essential — Cub-hunting — A noisy whipper-in of no use — Earth-stopping — Wages to earth-stoppers in different parts of the country — Different breeds of foxes in England, France, and Germany.
The young hounds should be well over the distemper, and ac- customed to go without couples, before they are rounded ; the loss of blood from this operation is sometimes excessive, and I once lost several young hounds from their being rounded before thoroughly recovered from the effects of distemper. It should not be deferred too long, however, and a cool day should be chosen for the purpose. The hounds should be fed early in the morning, or they will become sick and faint from loss of blood, and perhaps eat nothing afterwards on that day.
Preparation for the hunting season now commences. The young hounds will be kept separate from the pack until about a month before the campaign opens. In the meantime they are supposed to have received their proper education. When for the first time taken among deer, it is safer to have them in couples, to prevent mischief. If you have no deer yourself, permission may be easily obtained from your neighbours to al- low your young hounds to exercise an hour or two once or twice a week in their parks. They will soon become accustomed to them ; and the huntsman, by crossing them over the scent, will instruct them not to stoop to it. The scent of the deer is the sweetest of all game, and I have often seen young hounds, even so late as March, when they ought to be quite steady, flash away at a wild deer, although they would never think of run- ning them in a park. It was a general rule with the late Mr. Ward, whose hounds were proverbially steady, never to allow, even in the hunting season, more than four or five couples of young hounds to go into the forest at a time, or into any coverts where deer were known to resort. Prevention is better than cure, and every precaution should be taken to keep a pack of fox-hounds steady to their own game. I remember seeing a tame doe in Mr. Ward's kennel, which fed out of the same
I 2
116 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
trough with the hounds. I had also, when I first commenced keeping fox-hounds, tame rabbits and a hare wliich lived in the kennel with the hounds. I had a great deal of trouble with these hounds, coming, as they did, from several kennels, to pre- vent tbem killing the rabbits, but by my constant attention and watching, they soon found out that they were forbidden fruit, and the rabbits and hounds became friends. Having at that time little to do, I tried many experiments with hounds, and I could make them do almost anything I told them. If any of my readers imagine this was effected by the whip, or harsh means, I beg to undeceive them — no severity was ever_ had re- course to. Others may say it was only waste of time and unnecessary, and that hounds can be made quite steady enough without any such trouble. This I admit ; but my situation at that time was a peculiar one. I had a lot of draft hounds got together from different kennels, with which I had to commence a new country unaccustomed to fox-hounds, and with scarcely a fox in it.
There were many large game preservers, and one in particu- lar, who had some very fine coverts in the heart of the country. When I called upon him, and asked his permission to draw his coverts for a fox, he appeared astonished at my impudence, and said he was quite sure there was no such animal as a fox there, and he could not allow his pheasants and hares to be driven about and killed by my rough dogs. I told him my hounds were much better bred than he supposed, and were too polite to touch his hares, if requested not to do so. Upon this point he was very incredulous, saying, that although my hounds might not run his hares, they would chop them up if they came in their way. "Well, sir," I said, "I will make an agreement with you, and it is this, that if one hound I bring with me kills a hare, or even snaps at one, I will never ask to draw your coverts again, and you yourself shall be judge." This proposal seemed to tickle his fancy, and he at once agreed to it, think- ing, I have no doubt, that he should get rid of me and the hounds too. A day was fixed for a private rehearsal, and I ac- cordingly made my appearance before his house with about sixteen couples of hounds. The old gentleman (being a grey- hound breeder himself) came down to look them over, seemed pleased with their appearance, and ordered his pony round to accompany me to the scene of action, which was some small coverts with high underwood (always a ticklish place for riot), and literally swarming with hares. I saw, by a quiet smile ex- changed between the master and head-keeper, that they con- eidered this to be the first and last appearance of my hounds
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 117
on this liitlierto forbidden ground. They had laid a trap for me, by taking me first to this hollow covert, but they were, like some other clever people, caught themselves. When ready for action, I coolly asked the old gentleman how long he wished me to take in drawing this particular wood, as I would keep the hounds there as long as he pleased, having intended them to be at his own disposal the whole day. " Not longer than necessary," he replied. As soon as the hounds were thrown in, the wood seemed almost alive with game ; I never saw be- fore or since such a quantity in so small a space, — the hares rushed about like mad in all directions, running against each other and the hounds, and one or two screamed out. " Halloo," said the under-keeper, who was with me, " they have killed one or two hares, I'm sure." " No," I said, " they have not ; it is only your bellows-headed brutes trying to knock my hounds oif their legs, and then crying out because they are hurt." After searching in every direction, no dead hare, however, could be found, and when I had let the hounds run over the whole covert, every corner of it, I called them together, and brought them all out. for their faces to be inspected, that any marks of blood might be seen if they had offended. The old gentle- man appeared satisfied, and the keepers looked blank. " Well," he said, "you have won the day." "No, sir," I replied, "I have only won half an hour yet — the day is yours, and your keepers may catch us tripping before it is dark." "No," he said, " that shall not be ; I like both your conduct and your hounds too. Take your hounds home now, and if you have nothing better to do, and can dispense with bachelor's fare, come and dine with me tliis evening." I did so, and from that time an intimacy subsisted between us until the day of his death, which was deplored by all his acquaintances, rich and poor, since, notwithstanding his partiality for game, he was as kind and good-hearted a man as ever lived. Permission to hunt his coverts was a passport also to others, and at public coursing meetings and other places he always gave me and my hounds a good character.
Whether hounds are strictly steady or not, in these days, is of little consequence. Fox-hunting is now established upon a different footing. Public opinion with some men is every- thing, and there is many a man who wishes fox-hunters and hounds at the bottom of the sea, obliged to meet them with a smile, and openly give orders to his keepers to preserve foxes. His secret orders are another affair.
Young hounds cannot have too much exercise ; they should go several miles a day, in every direction roimd the kennel, to
118 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
make tliem acquainted with the country ; through towns and villages wliich lie in their way, and to all the places of meeting. Tliey may also draw plantations and small coverts where hares abound, or be taken through warrens. They should be crossed also over the track of hares, when they are not in view. By such means young hounds may be made handy and tractable be- fore hunting commences, and the better they are instructed, the less trouble they will give afterwards. Begin cub-hunting as early as you can. Draw off about twelve couples of your old and stanch hounds, more if they can be spared, and put them and the young together, to form a pack. This is far preferable to putting a few couples at a time into the body of the pack ; and by this arrangement you will prevent the one and two sea- son hunters from being again unsettled. The old steady hounds will by their example soon teach the young what they are to do, and by Christmas this pack will become as steady as the other. It will also save your three and four seasoned hounds from summer work. I generally began cub-hunting early in August; in some countries you may begin earlier. Take your young hounds the first time to an easy place, where there is a good litter of foxes, and not much riot. The whipper-in should first examine all the earths, to see that they are properly stopped, for they are often opened by badgers and fox stealers, after the earth-stopper has left the covert. Then throw your hounds quietly in and let them work themselves ; don't be in a hurry, and allow no hallooing and hustling. Young foxes, at this sea- son of the year, are weak, and easily brought to hand ; there is no occasion, therefore, for a huntsman to be in a hurry. If there are rides in the coverts, where the young hounds can oc- casionally catch a view of their game, you may give them a turn every now and then ; but if your hounds are well bred, they will generally join with the cry after the first ten minutes, and in that case they are better left alone. The whippers-in will be so stationed as to check them from running improper game, and that is all that is required of them. Allow of no hallooing and cracking of whips, which will serve only one pur- pose— to frighten the young hounds and disgust the old. When a hound is running riot, I have often heard a whipper-in halloo- ing with all his might, and cracking his whip, and I can con- ceive little Mischief safe in the high covert, chuckling within herself and saying, " All that is very fine, Mr. Jack ; but I don't care two straws for your cracked voice, and I shall have my fun out."
Now, T have known a quiet sensible man go down at once to where the riot was, without saying a word, wait quietly his
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 119
opportunity until little Mischief thouglit tlie coast was clear, and had come out into shorter wood, and then pounce upon her like lightning, with one or two cuts of the lash. Instead of rating her at the top of his voice, with a considerable quantity of damson jne in addition, he would merely tell Mischief to leave -that fun alone, for the next time she did it he would break half the bones in her skin, I have known such a whipper-in, when the young hounds were all in a charm, running riot together, sit as quietly on his horse as if nothing was the matter, until he saw they were in his power ; he would then dash at once in among them, like a hawk into a flock of birds. I have heard him, also, when he could not get at them, telling them what they might expect when they met. His usual rate, "What next, I wonder, hey, you mischievous curs f in his strong, angry voice, was generally a sufficient hint, and all were quiet. He never struck a hound unnecessarily, nor mistook Jupiter for Juno, and did not very often get out of temper; but when he did strike a hound, it was to such purpose that he did not soon forget it. His look, too, and manner, when not pleased, were too decided to be mistaken, but I never heard him crack his wdiip once in a week.
An idle, stupid fellow, with a good voice, is one of the greatest nuisances that a pack of hounds can be exposed to. He fancies he has always something to do, and something to say ; with not sufficient tact to catch hounds when at riot, and punish them in the act, he generally waits his opportunity to vent his ill- humour upon them when out of covert, or perhaps when assem- bled round the huntsman. Such a fellow will do much more mischief than good : draft him at once. A whipper-in has no right to strike a hound out of cover, much less when flying to hi^ huntsman for protection. His presence ought to be his security. If young hounds will not come out of cover when called by the huntsman, it is the business of the whipper-in to go into the covert and drive them out ; not stand outside halloo- ing, that his musical voice may be heard.
In cub hunting there is no necessity to eat up a whole litter of cubs at once, as I knew a famous Leicestershire _ huntsman boast of doing. One or two at most are quite sufficient to kill in one day. Young foxes will often get tired altogether, after the hounds have been running and changing them for an hour or two. There is no merit in killing them then ; therefore, when your hounds have caught one, after an hour's work, take them home. That is quite sufficient for the first day. After the young hounds have been out two or three times, and begin to know their game, j^ou may then take them to large woodlands,
120 HOKSES AND HOUNDS.
where they will have more work to do. The more they scratch their faces, the better they will turn out in the end. By hunting the large coverts during the months of August and September, you will not only break your young hounds in, but foxes wdll fly from them in the season and give you better chases. Every litter of foxes, however, should have a turn before October. It will teach them to get out of the way of shooters and their dogs, and make them seek other places of refuge.
It has been asserted by some masters of fox-hounds, that main earths being generally known to poachers as v>^ell as keepers and earth- stoppers, are unsafe places for cubs to be bred in. They are, however, seldom laid up in such places. The vixen generally deposits her young in some bye earth or large rabbit pipe, away from the main earths, to which, when a month or two old, they will often remove. Foxes which have been bred underground will find earths somewhere, or use drains, from which they may be much more easily taken than from a large head of main earths. Stopping up these large places of refuge for the whole season, as suggested by some writers on fox-bunting, is, in my humble opinion, a very objectionable plan ; your foxes will then go wide away into your neighbour's country, or seek shelter in less secure places. The larger a head of earths is the better. They should all and always be kept open, unless when required to be stopped the night before hunt- ing, and invariably be opened again the same evening, and every pipe cleaned out.
The earth-stopper, or keeper, who has the charge of these main earths, should be well paid for his trouble in looking after them, and it is the business of the whipper-in to pay them a visit occasionally, to see that no tricks are played. It is no such easy matter to get a fox out of a strong head of earths. Poachers do bolt them into purse nets with a good dog, and sometimes a large net is set up all round the earths, with sticks and bells ; but it takes time to do all these things,^ and a good earth-stopper should visit the earths once a day, either going or returning from his work. A man who has a large head of earths to attend to, ought to receive five shillings at least for each stopping out at night, and half-a-crown for putting them to in the morning. As all our sport depends so much upon this work being done properly, it is good policy, if no better motive exists, to reward these men handsomely, as it is in their power not only to pay themselves by selling foxes, but also to spoil a day's sport by carelessness or inattention. Much will, of course, depend upon the country you hunt, and the master of the coverts, whether lie is at heart a real well-wisher to fox-hounds or not. In some
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 121
countries the fees to keepers and eartli-stoppers form a very- heavy item in the expenses of the establishment, which the master has to bear. In others a separate fund is raised for this purpose. In some clay districts, such as the Roothings of Essex, foxes are often bred above ground, in old hollow stools, or laid up in gorse coverts. These foxes are always the best and straightest runners, trusting to their stoutness and knov/ledge of country to beat their pursuers.
There are three breeds of foxes common in Great Britain. The large light-coloured greyhound fox, generally found in the north of England, Scotland, and Wales, — also on the wild hills of Devonshire, and in some other counties ; the bulldog fox, dark-coloured, with a large head ; and the cur, a small red fox, to which I think we are indebted to our Gallic friends the other side of the Channel. There are, of course, mixed breeds to be found in every county, but these three are, I think, or were, distinct species. The greyhound fox has almost disap- peared, where some years ago he was well known, and the large importations of French foxes have certainly proved a very poor substitute. They cannot or will not run, and lie down when the least blown in the open, until the hounds are upon them. They are also always prowling about the farm-yard, and do more mischief than they are worth.
When commencing a new country many years ago, I obtained some foxes from Germany — and a hue lot of cubs they were — in colour and size resembling the old greyhound fox, but much thicker in their coats and larger in their heads. They came over from Frankfort in the bottom of an old boat, a lid being made to it, full of air-holes, and they reached me more than one hundred miles from London in good health and condition. After having kept them a few days in a large airy barn, I had them taken into the best part of my country to some strong earths, where I appointed a man to look after them and feed them regiilarly every night with rabbits, at nine o'clock. These my whipper-in had to cany twice a week in a sack, fifteen miles, from the 1st of June to the 1st of September.
Young foxes, if turned down in a strange place, require regular feeding every night till they can catch their own prey, which is not quite so soon as some people imagine. It is quite true that young foxes, in their natural state, feed upon beetles and mice, but cubs turned down, if not regularly fed, will wander away anywhere, and be soon starved to death or killed by sheep dogs. Should they, however, escape such a fate, and contrive to exist, it is ten to one but they become mangy, and ruin half your good foxes. The mange in foxes is very different to the mange in
133 HOBSES AXD ^0T:^1>s.
dogs : with tlie former it inyariably proves fatal, and is very contagions. Of the dnties of hnnt^men and wliippers-in in my next j what thev sJiould, and what they sJiould n':>t be.
CHAPTER XX.
On t'-- -■-;^ ---—■' ari obiracter of a t'onrsmas — iC^takes of young 1 — > ^-'-'i Ti:s; of hoTHids -will kill foxes by themselves — G f-^n rn^e bad hxmrsmen — Laid up ilL and mj Tr_.-:Tr-^:i snan — Field pleased at first — Sc<:'n wanted my
rfrj!r:i — ~ir - reg-jmrnj mv place — ^Anecdote oi John Ward —
A i:':i- r^:-c:^ : ..riied whipper-in — Jack and the Gh«5St.
A HI Msww who is to be entrusted with the chief direction and management of the pack, which is very mnch the custom in the pr^ni day, I need scarcely remark, should be a man of undoubted g<x)d character, and strictly sober. He should be young, active, and intelligent, with natural talent for his busi- ness : quick, without ever being in a hurry : quiet, but decisive. A good horseman he of course must be. Tnis does not mean a hard ?iarei/ dar^y rider, but one who. without distressing his horse, can always be where he ought to be — with his hounds. If he has a g<>jd voice so much the better ; but a noisy fellow is my abomination. He should be good-tempered and quiet with his hounds, giving them time always to make their own ca.st ;irst. before he at^mpts to interfere. We mtist make all due 'allowances for the esciiement inseparably connected with a fox-chase, and it is therefore more re^^uisite to have a man with a cool head at that most critical peric*d, the first check. I have seen huntsmen &3 flurried at an unexp>ected check, that they were all abroad, catching hold of the hounds in their hurry, without allowing them time to make their own cast, and carry- ing them off at once, to make a scientific display of their mis- called genius. Others, who are jealous of being overtaken when having a good start, will commit the same blunder by over haste, and in trying to beat the field only beat themselves. More haste less sr^eed,
I once heard of a very dashing huntsman, who hunted a pack of hounds near one of our learned Univemties, and whose field was often greeted by the sons of Alma Mater. These young gentlemen being out for the day, and reqtiiring a good gallop to digest their Latin and Greek, generally tipped the huntsman pretty freely, and they had their burst accordingly; for Joe
A5D HOr^TDi 123
wonld give them a rattling cast forward when the aeent £dle«], or, pretending he heard a halloo, go full tilt to the next cor&t^ two or three miles oft We cannot put old heads on Yoang f^MxMers; and yoong
htrntsmen the first seas-^n -will often commit aU kinds ci Um^ ders. Their situation is a novel one. and, natmaDy «ioiig}i, thev try to exhibit their genius. This desire to diatingnifth themselves will generally ojoI down, or it ought to do so, after the novelty has worn o:£ It is very landable to end£a:voiir to gain the good opinion of their master and the gentlemen of the conntry l^y the display of every talent they may po^ess ; but this may h-e carried too far. A conceited huntsman is a mon- strons nnisance. An observant man will soon find out tJbat a good pack of honnis know their business better than he can teach them, and will allow the honnds to display thdr graiiiis before he displays kU. It has been asserted by high antfaGsity that a piack of honnds, if left to themselves, wonld seldom kfll a fox. My opinion is. that a really good pack of hounds would seldom miss one. Everything depends npon the system pwr- sned, and the education of the pack. Hie present systrai of lifting hounds to halloos and over fellows, naturally disposes them to be iudiffCTent about a bad scent Expecting assistance either firom a halloo or a cast forward, they will give th^Dselres little tDjnble in working out the line of scent over bad groand ; and I Lave seen them looking up at their huntsman, as nradi as to say, " There, we have done enough : now yon must help ns." Let these honnds change masters, and receive no assistance^ they wonld soon put their n«D6es down. and. although at first make but a poor fight with a flying fox. they wonld soon work thrc»uo^ difficulties, and learn to depend nj^K^n their own exer- tions. Well bre*! hounds will always get fDrward with the scent, and make the most of it when it is foiling. A little assist- ance wiU go a long way. but it never should be given until absolutely required, which is very seldom.
It does not necessarily follow that a first-rate whipper-in will make a first-rate huntsman — very often the reverse. A really good whipper-in sometimes makes a wretched huntsman, Hieir duties are widely diSerent, and their genius or talents are to be employed in a very different direction, I knew a capital whipper-in who refused to accept a huntsman's situation, and his reason was not a bad one, " I have been now," he said, ** many years in my present place as first whipper-in, and am proud to say have given satisfaction to my master and the gen- tlemen, and kn-jw my business tolerably well : but if I t«x>k a himtsman's place, and failed, which is very likely. I should not
124 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
like to go back again to be wliipper-in." This man reasoned rightly, and knew himself better, perhaps, than he then thought. It so happened that the establishment in which he had acted so satisfactory a part as whipper-in, was soon afterwards broken tip by the death of his master. The huntsman retired, and being very strongly urged by the new master and the country gentlemen to hunt the hounds, he reluctantly complied, but his forebodings came true ; he failed in his new situation as hunts- man, and after a year's trial gave it up in disgust, and retired upon his earnings. This is not a solitary case.
It has been asserted by Beckford, that a first whipper-in should be able to hunt the hounds occasionally — in fact, be a second huntsman. This I admit should be the case ; for a whipper-in, who has had many years' experience, and been looking on at the game so long, must be a monstrous goose not to be able to handle the cards at a pinch, when the hunts- man might, from accident or illness, be unable to be at his post.
I have known, however, a good deal of mischief done in a very short space of time by one of these would-be huntsmen ; it happened with my own hounds. From an accident, I was laid up for about a month in the heart of the season, and of course my first whip was obliged (not very reluctantly I fancied) to fill my place. He was one ot the best men in that capacity I ever had, or almost ever knew, but too hasty and impatient to make a good huntsman, before he had cooled down a little. The hard riders of my field were very fond of him, and in high glee (so much for gratitude) when they heard of my being laid on the shelf for some time, and Master Jem to play first fiddle. " Now," they said, " we shall have it all our own way ; with the S(iuire on his back, and Jem with the horn, wont we have some clipping bursts, and no hold hards, with a kill in the open, after a twenty-five minutes' burst !" I gave my whipper-in cer- tain advice as to his behaviour with the hounds, but I could see he was rather too much prepossessed with his own anticipated grand performances to pay much attention to it, and he left my room for his first essay, with grand ideas of what he should do. Evening came, and Jem to make his report, but no fox's head. Scent was bad, and the hounds would not attend to him. " Never mind," I said, " this is only what I expected ; better luck is coming."
The next fixture was in our best grass country, with a good flying fox or two in it. Having cautioned him again not to be in a hurry with the hounds when they came to check, Jem set out on liis second trial. Wlien he returned it was very late,
I
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 125
and, as I expected, he had had a good day. Upon his appear- ance in my room, I asked, " What sport ?" " Oh, sir," he said, " we have had a capital run." " Well," I said, " and you have brought his head home this time, I hope." " No, sir, I am sorry to say I have not. We had a capital burst over the grass up to the hills, and were running into him, as everybody thought, in the open, when, after leaving the last hedge on the edge of the downs, the hounds suddenly threw up, and we could never hit upon him afterwards. I made a wide cast, but could not recover the scent, and I cannot think what became of him." "Well," I said, "I think I can. Whilst you were making your wide cast into the next parish, the fox being per- haps blown, and having laid himself down in the ditch, gave you the slip, Master Jem ; that's all about it." " Well, sir," he said, " 1 think you are right, after all. We were rather hasty, I must confess, and some of the hard riding gentlemen would have it that the fox was forward ; but I wont listen to them another time."
For a month Jem had it all his own way, but his high- wrought expectations were not realized. Few foxes' heads returned to the kennel door, so few that his fast friends began to inquire a little more after the old squire's health. They had, however, occasionally a fair day or two, and, upon one occasion, the thing they had been expecting to have every day — a burst of twenty minutes, as hard as they could go, with a kill in the open. The whoops, I am told, were something extraordinary upon the accomplishment of this feat, but it ended in a row. One of Jem's fast friends, a sporting doctor, who always rode fast and furious, happening to beat Jem in pace, was up first, and jumping off his horse, dashed in among the hounds for the brush, and began laying about him with his whip. This roused Jem's ire, who was second in the race, and perhaps on that ac- count not in the best of humours, and he retaliated upon the doctor's shoulders. A fight would have taken place but for others coming up and interfering. The doctor was so irate, that he threatened to report Jem's conduct at head-quarters ; but I heard nothing more of it, both being too much excited at the time, I believe, to know what they were about.
Towards the end of the month, calls from my sporting friends became rather more numerous, and several sat some time with me, seeming very anxious to know when I should be well enough to take the field again. " Oh !" I said, "in about another month ; but you don't want me, you have Jem all to yourselves. By the bye," I said, "I have a strong idea that I shall find the hounds wonderfully improved." " Oh 1" they said, " Jem is all
126 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
very well, and a capital wliipper-in, but, someliow or other, we don't get on quite so well as we thought, and we want you out again." Although not much flattered, I thought it necessary to make my appearance as soon as possible, and I did so imme- diately I could sit in the saddle. My first fixture was to draw some rather large woods, where there were plenty of foxes, and I was most cordially greeted by my expectant friends once more at the covert side, all so glad to see me. " How do ye do, old fellow — hope you're all right — can't do without you !" and all that sort of trash. I am too old a bird to be caught with chaff. We soon found, and had a brace or leash of foxes on foot. For the first twenty minutes or so the hounds rattled away as usual, but after that I saw two or three at a time stand out in the rides, when they came to a momentary check, and looked about. As soon as the ground was rather foiled, more did the same thing, and presently the whole body came to a stand, with their heads well up. Then a halloo from Jem — at it again for a short time ; then a scream from somebody else — to him again ; so the thing went on for nearly an hour, and, I must confess, I was as sulky as a bear with a sore ear.
There were the same hounds in appearance I had been so proud of only a month before, and what were they then ? Jem took pretty good care to be out of hearing distance, but I met with liim at last. Just as I did so, another halloo from the top of the covert. "There, sir," he said, "he is gone away at last." " No," I said, " he is not, at least not m?/fox ; and now one word with you. I am huntsman to-day, not you ; now mind what I say. The hounds shall not leave this covert until you hear my horn outside. They shall go to no halloo but mine, if ten foxes break covert ; they shall be stopped every time. These are my positive orders. You know your duty as whipper-in — do it." Jem, seeing how matters stood, murmured something about a good run spoilt, which I told him was my concern, and not his, and executed my orders. Still the screaming went on, as soon as any fox made his appearance at the edge of the wood, and being at one time in a ride very near the outside, I heard one man exclaim, " I'll be hanged if I don't halloo till he does come." In a moment I was outside, and riding up to this gentleman, I said, " Now, sir, I am come, pray what do you want with me V " All I have to say, sir, is," he replied, " that a fox is gone over that field, and your whipper-in stopped the hounds, saying such were your orders," " Very true, sir, such are my orders." " Then, I suppose," he said, " you are going to keep the hounds in covert all day, and spoil our sport." "No," I replied, "I am not, although you and others have nearly spoilt my hounds by hal-
HORSES AN-D HOUXDS. 127
looing and driving for the last month ; yet I mean to give you a run by and bye, if you have patience, but I will have no more hallooing. My hounds are running one fox, which I intend to stick to, and you are hallooing another." I returned to my business with the old fox, which I had seen several times before the hounds, and by riding with them through the wood, high and low, I kept them at him, and we had it soon all to ourselves, without another fox remaining. The scent improved, and find- ing his quarters too hot to hold him, the old fox at last broke away over a fine grass vale, and we ran into him in the open. My noisy friend directly came up, and said he was sorry he had ofl:ended me by hallooing, and thanked me at the same time for the run we had given him. " Now," I said, " I will show you the fox you wished me to follow in the morning ; he is only gone across a couple of fields into another large wood, where I think we shall get upon him again, and you will then see whether you or I know most about spoiling sport." We accordingly went to this covert, and soon got upon him, but, having had a tolerable dusting in the morning, he showed no disposition to try his old quarters again, even across tw^o fields, and we soon disposed of him. Congratulations now poured in, and we went on satisfactorily after this day. Jem quietly settled down to his work as usual ; in fact, I think he was not sorry to do so, his debid as huntsman not having quite satisfied either himself or friends.
After a few years more he obtained a first-rate place as hunts- man, which he wished, however, to decline, and would have done so, but for my pressing and almost forcing him to accept it. The month's probation he had had with me was not lost time, for he had good sense enough to see the errors he had committed by over haste and excitement, and he is now hunts- man in a large establishment, where, I think, he cannot fail to give satisfaction. There are, however, many first-rate whippers- in who know they are not likely to make huntsmen, and they show their sense by sticking to their own line of business. I have known many establishments where huntsman and head whip were both growing greyheaded together.
As I have before remarked, weight and height ought not to be of so much consideration. Character and talent are the first requisites. Unless a lad has naturally good abilities and a de- cided taste for that line of life, he will never, with all the instruction he may receive, turn out anything extraordinary. He must also have decision of character and command of tem- per, with sober and industrious habits. In my time, I have had several pupils in this line, but only two ever turned out to my
128 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
satisfaction. There are many temptations thrown in their way, and therefore, unless they have decision of character to resist them, they will certainly fail. I once wrote to the famous John Ward for tne character of a whipper-in who had left his service ; his reply was in these words, and quite sufficient to satisfy me: —
"Dear Sir, — In reply to your letter, I beg to say, that if Jolin B n
had been worth keeping I should not have parted with him.
"Yours tridy, J. Waed."
Whippers-in should be cleanly also, but not conceited. My father once cured the conceit of his whipper-in, for a time, at least, in a very summary way. Jack was a spruce lad, but had rather too high an opinion of his good looks, and one fine morning, having a new and dandy pair of top-boots on, he could not keep his eyes oif them. The governor told him to mind his business and not his new boots, or he would have them blacked over, tops and all, the next day ; but it would not do. Jack had never been fitted so nicely before, and he could not help admiring them notwithstanding. The hounds were running in covert ; Jack, galloping along on the outside with his legs stretched out and head down, at a sudden turn came full tilt against the governor, who was riding in the contrary direction, and he would have unhorsed him, but my father, having caught a glimpse of Jack coming along, had prepared for the charge, and met him with such a facer from the double thong, that he knocked Jack clean out of the saddle, and spoilt his good looks, for that day at least. This cooled Jack's conceit for some time ; but, being a good-looking youth, the ladies of our establishment below stairs did their best to spoil him.
Jack had also a rival, in the shape of a footman, who often tried to frighten him with stories about ghosts. Our house, being an old-fashioned structure, was of course haunted, as all such places are supposed to be. One dark winter's night, when Jack was doing up his horse after hunting, Mr. Thomas
Eroposed to the fair ladies to try Jack's courage by exhibiting imself as a ghost at the stable-door. He accordingly shrouded himself in a long flowing robe, as those worn in the East, for which purpose the tablecloth sufficed, and rubbing his face over with phosphorus, sallied forth to frighten Jack into fits. Arrived at the stable-door, the ghost commenced a low moaning. Jack listened, but, as he told me afterwards, he could not make out at first where it came from. " The wind," thought Jack— another groan. "No, 'taint wind; 'tis one of the horses in the other stable." Jack went to see, thinking he had got the
HORSES AND B.OVKDS. 129
fret. No, he was all right. "Well," thought Jack, "something outside it must be. I'll look out ; who's afraid '?" Jack wasn't ; but certain ideas about ghosts did obtrude themselves notwith- standing, and I have a notion Jack was far from being easy in his mind on that score. Jack peeped cautiously out, saw some- thing white, and quickly popped his head in again. " 'Tis one at last, sure enough !" thought Jack, and his hair began to feel rather uncomfortably stiff on his head — in short, his hackles began to rise as his courage began to fall. " Well !" thought Jack, " this wont do, at any rate. I must get out of the stable somehow, for it is near supper time, and I shall be laughed at by Mary. I'll have another peep." Another groan, rather louder than before. "Come," says Jack, "matters is getting rather serious ; something must be done." Jack didn't fancy opening the door by any means again, so he thought of the key- hole ; looking through cautiously, he could only see something white, but at that precise moment the ghost could not suppress a chuckle, to think how he was frightening poor Jack. "Well," thinks Jack, "I didn't know that ghosts laughed as well — I have it now, 'tis that fool Thomas. Well, Mr. Thomas, I'll see if I don't make you groan to some purpose presently ;" so Jack takes hold of the twitch, a short stick witJi a bit of cord at the end. " Now for my game." He accordingly opened the door very cautiously, as if afraid to look out, and the ghost, em- boldened by success, popped his head in with a "boo !" "Take that for your boo, then," said Jack, and down came the twitch with all his might upon the ghost's head ; a real groan followed, and down went IsLr. Thomas, tablecloth and all. It was a settler. Jack dashed a bucket of water over him to bring him to, and the discomfited Thomas made his appearance at the supper table in a pitiable plight, and with a broken head into the bargain. Thus ended all about the ghost stories, and Jack rose in the estimation of the fair for his courage. This affair, however, rather increased Jack's conceit, and my father threat* ened to make out his travelling ticket more than once or twice. At last it was done, and poor Jack left us all, in sorrow. In despair he enlisted in a marching regiment, which embarked for India, and we never heard of or saw him again. Alas ! poor Jack, how many a gay and gallant lad like thee, seduced by that phantom. Glory, has left his bones to moulder in a foreign land!
130 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
CHAPTER XXI.
The duties of a wliippev-in as to earths — Second whip ; youths too fond of using it — How an old sportsman usually broke them in — The Pastor and Farmer Coulter — Tom, my whipper-in — Patience required in a master of hounds — Heading foxes — Every man out not a sportsman — Temper must be restrained in a master ; swearing quite unnecessary— Myself, when young, and Farmer Steers — On the yeomen and farmers of England; injudicious and unjust abuse too frequently levelled at them.
EvEEY man who lias read Beckford must remember the anec- dote of Will Crane, who swore at his whipper-in because he did not get forward when the head earths at Daventry were open. Many may think the huntsman to blame ; but as it is the espe- cial business of the whipper-in to carry out the orders about earth-stopping, he must have known what earths were open and what stopped, and when a fox is taking a line for a well-known head of earths it is his duty to put forward to the place.
I have heard of various duties required of a first whip, but a famous Leicestershire squire, who once hunted the Melton country, set his man to draw a gorse covert on foot. The hounds were not working to his satisfaction, and he hallooed out to his whipper-in, " Come, Jack, get off, and scratch your legs a bit." For a second whipper-in it has been said that any lad will do who can smack a whip. The smacking a whip is the last accomplishment I should require in any young gentleman who aspired to the honour of distinguishing himself in the profes- sion of the noble science. No greater nuisance can happen to a pack of hounds than a lad who has acquired the knack of cracking a whip well. He is perpetually seeking opportunities of displaying his skill, and old Boxer would as soon almost have to deal with a rattlesnake. On foot he does not care much about the urchin, and gives him to understand by surly growls and bristles up that he had better keep his distance, but on horseback he is out of Boxer's reach, and is a perfect tyrant, flicking him in the legs when he wants to stop behind for cer- tain purposes, and trying to ride over him into the bargain.
An old sportsman I knew well had a very good plan of break- ing in lads for whippers-in. Upon putting a whip into his pupil's hands for the first time, he generally gave him just a taste at starting, with " Well, Jack, does it hurt f — " Oh, yes, sir, it do uncommon." " So I thought, my lad ; now mind you don't use it too often with the liounds, for they can feel as well as you." Then, if he saw one riding his horse too hard up hill
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(and his happened to be a very hilly country), he would give Jack a bye-day on foot. I have seen Jack puffing and blowing like a grampus up the hills, and the squire urging him to greater exertions when he was ready to drop. " Oh ! sir, I cannot go no faster, I'm bio wed already." — '* Oh, you are, are you, Mr. Jack ? then I suppose you will recollect that your horse may be blowed as well as you another time." These practical lessons generally had the most decided effect ; the threat of repeating the dose proving sufficient to check any little ebullition of temper, either with '>vhip or spur. Nothing like practical illus- trations with some minds, whose comprehensions cannot or will not take it otherwise — as the worthy pastor, who could not make Farmer Coulter understand the nature of^ a miracle without a personal experiment.
Farmer John had often pestered his worthy rector for ex- planations about miracles, but he never could quite get at the gist of the matter ; so, bothering him one morning again, on going to church, the doctor told Mr. John Coulter if he would wait in the porch after service he would give him_ a most con- vincing proof, as every other had failed. Accordingly, having disposed of his canonicals, the worthy rector quietly approached the porch, where John was waiting for the exjjlanation, Mr. Coulter was looking musingly into the churchyard, with his back to the door, when liis pastor quietly approaching, lent John such a kick in the rear as nearly to lift him off his legs. " Oh dear, sir, how you did hurt." — " Well, John, it would have been a miracle if I had not — are you satisfied now what a miracle is ?" — " Quite, sir," replied John ; " but next time don't ye kick quite so hard."
I was obliged to employ a similar argument once with a second whipper-in I had, who was occasionally addicted to taking rather more of aqua vitae than was good for his health or understanding. My first whip being sent out on business, Tom was left in charge of the hounds, with strong injunctions not to leave the kennel until his return. It was during the summer months, and rather warm weather. Some gentlemen came to see the hounds, and Tom, having performed the part of master of ceremonies to their satisfaction, was by them invited to take a glass at the public house, that they might suck his brains a little about the hounds. Tom took a tolerable supply of suction, as much, or rather more, than he could carry home quite comfort- ably, and made for the kennels again. Here, having little to do, he thought he would employ his time in putting the old and young hounds together, to judge himself how they would look. Happening to pass by at the time, and hearing a great deal of
k2
132 HORSES Am) HOUNDS.
growling and noise among the hounds, I stepped in, and there was Mr. Tom in the midst, surveying them witli much apparent satisfaction. " Wliat the deuce are you about with tlie hounds, Tom ?" I said ; " and how dare you set them all by the ears in this manner 1 you are drunk !" " No, sir, I'm not ;" said Tom; " I only wanted to see how they would look together ;" and he began to grin idiotically. " Now, Tom," I said, " drunk you are ; tell me where you have been, and go home, for here you shall not stay another moment." " I aint drunk," repeated Tom, " and know what I am about very well." " Then," I said, "we'll soon prove that beyond dispute;" so I gave him a gentle push, and down Tom went to grass without delay. " Come, sir," said Tom, "I wont stand that." "No," I said, "that's clear enough, you can't stand it, and that was only a push that a boy of ten years old would have stood ; but," I said, " look out now for squalls, for I'll repeat the dose if you don't tell me at once where you have been making yourself drunk in this shameful manner in the middle of the day." Putting my fists up, Tom did not require any more forcible arguments of this sort, but said at once, "Well, sir, I wont deny it any longer, I am drunk ;" and he then told me the story about the gentlemen taking him to the inn, and plying him with brandy and water. "Well, Tom," I said, "there is some excuse for you, and I think the gentlemen, as you call them, much more culpable. Go home, and go to bed, and if you take a cooling draught which I will send you, nothing more shall be said this time at least."
Tom, although only under-whip, was quite as old and big a man as myself; but I do not wish to justify my conduct in striking a servant at aU. I was out of order as well as Tom, and so I felt afterwards. Boys, however, must have a practical lesson or two to break them in, and some will not do without many such. A wiser head than mine has laid this down as a rule, and there are few who will not sometimes require it.
Masters of hounds are often abused for their quickness and impatience in the field. Having been one myself, I may, from experience, say that they are often placed in situations which require almost the patience of Job. I allude to those particu- larly who hunt their own hounds. Those who look on at the game cannot feel as those do who are eagerly engaged in it. See a man on a good scenting day with a good fox before the hounds trying to break away, but headed in every direction by some coffee-housing fellows, smoking their cigars or talking politics, while he is working like a slave to show them the sport they do not deserve. The fox breaks, perhaps, for half a field ; some outrigger heads him back again, and very often a good fox.
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is thus killed in covert whicli would have left the members of a cigar divan far enough in the rear had they given him a chance. I have known some men head a fox back because they were actually afraid of a run. It is quite true, although it sounds strange. It is absurd to suppose that every man who makes his appearance at the covert side is a sportsman. Some go for one reason, some for another ; but there is not one man out of twenty who either knows or cares anything about the hounds or the sport. Thus a gentleman huntsman with one aim in view, to afford satisfaction to all, not only finds little or no assist- ance from those who ought to accord it, but is often foiled in all his endeavours, and called a fool into the bargain. A young gentleman who had mounted his scarlet for the first season, was once finding fault with my performances, and turning to an old and experienced fox hunter, said, "I don't think that chap (meaning me) knows anything about his business." " How the deuce should he ?" replied my friend ; " he has been all his life nearly at it, and I never heard he was considered a fool, either at school or college ! !" This satisfied the young gentleman, who had been rather unsuccessful in his little go the last term, and had left Oxford in disgust because it was too sloiv a place for him.
Some masters of excitable temper cannot help giving a bit of damson pie sometimes, but it is better left alone ; andif a man cannot hunt his hounds without swearing, I should advise him to let others do it who can keep their temper. I once, when young and ardent, administered a dose of this kind to a very worthy farmer, without at that time knowing who he was. We were running the only fox left in that part of the country, and he was trying to break where this man had posted himself with some others. I had hallooed to them before to leave the spot, but they either did not hear me or understand what I meant, and at last one of them turned the fox back, right into the hounds' mouths. I could hold it no longer, but out came a rattler at Farmer Steers for a fool. " What's that you are saying, young gentleman V cried the farmer ; " I didn't come out to be d— d." The rejoinder w^as on my lips, " Then go home and be d — d," as a certain squire once said to a sporting tradesman who was doing mischief in the New Forest ; but I checked myself and said no more. Not so, however, the farmer, who was well to do in the world, and lived on his own farm. He talked it over pretty freely after- wards, and was in a great rage, declaring he would notice me off his land, and kill every fox in the country. This he need not have added, as the one we had just eaten happened to be the " Last of the Mohicans"— just thereabouts.
About a fortnight after this occurrence I went again into the
134 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
same country to try every inch of covert, hearing another fox had been seen. Farmer Steers having cooled a little in the meantime, and being although a great man a good-hearted one as well, came out to the place of meeting, but looking very much offended. There was a large assemblage of bold yeomen, on good-looking horses, who civilly took off their hats as they came up to look at the hounds ; but Mr. Steers approached not, and was eyeing me with fixed attention from a little distance. His friends went up and shook hands with him, and I could see sometliing was said in reference to me ; but Farmer Steers shook his head. I guessed how matters stood, and acted upon the hint without hesitation. Going straight at once to where he was sitting with his friends, I held out my hand to him and said, "Come, Mr. Steers, it is not my wish or disposition to make enemies where I ought to make friends, and I will not hunt this or any other country without the goodwill of the farmers as well as the landlords. I was wrong in a moment of excitement to swear at you the last time we met, and I can only say I have been sorry for it ever since. Will you shake hands T " Will I % — yes, I will, young gentleman, and more than that, I was in the wrong as well, in spoiling your day's sport. I have thought of that since, or you would not have seen me out to- day." Joy lit up the faces of all around at this happy recon- ciliation. All was satisfaction, and I heard many exclaim, " That's right, I like him for it," for Mr. Steers was about head man in those parts, and possessed a small fox covert, which at that time I was not aware of. From that day the farmers proved themselves my stanch and unwavering friends. For many, many years they supported me "through thick and thin," and I can say with truth I shall always remember them with feelings of the deepest regard.
There is no finer race of men on earth than the honest, true- hearted yeomen of England. In all fox-hunting countries they are the first to suffer, but the last to complain. Quicquid delirant reges 'plectuntur Achivi. Their wheat is trampled to pieces, young clovers often ruined, fences broken down, and their poultry carried off by foxes : this and more they put up with, without whining about it to their landlords. Are they not entitled to some consideration? Let every master of hounds bear in mind these things, and remember that the farmers are entitled to civility, at least, and more respect than is often paid them. I always treated them with cordiality wherever I met them, either in the field or the city, and they repaid me with interest. Many a good litter of foxes was carefully looked after by them, and young hounds sent home in blooming con-
HORSES AND HOUNDS. . 135
dition, free of expense; a cordial welcome offered also to myself, horses, and hounds, whenever I approached their houses ; but of this I did not often avail myself, as time was pressing, and I made a point of never stopping anywhere until the business of the day was over. Many of them in those happy days had all their well-earned enjoyments around them — and why should they not ? Are tradesmen and shopkeepers alone to have their days and hours of recreation, and farmers, for- sooth, who work as hard, or harder than any, to be always plodding and working at the plough tail 1 Forbid it, common justice I I like to see the cultivator of the soil mounted on a good horse, and taking his day's amusement, which are not many in a season ; but what are the remarks which often un- justly assail them ? "Look at your tenant,_Mr. So-and-so; he is mounted on as good a horse as yourself; times must be good, or his rent too low."
Who ever heard of a farmer, however, becoming a millionaire by farming, or saw one sitting in the House of Commons 1 But from every other trade there are representatives in that house. Builders, bakers, tinkers, and tailors, cotton spinners, brokers, railway jobbers — not Jews yet, nor Turks, but infidels and heretics enough, and why not farmers 1 " Oh, they are repre- sented by the landlords, are they T The next election will, I think, tell a different story. I hope to see some of niy friends, the farmers, representing their own body ; and I will engage they can give as good an opinion on most matters _ as many honourable members who are now guiding the destinies of this once great country. There are hundreds of clever men out of this great body of agriculturists whose diffidence alone has hitherto kept them in the background. They are not the stone-hearted brutes which their enemies would have the world believe them ; nor would they, taking them as a body, feed upon the vitals of the poor to make themselves rich.
Can the pretending and canting philanthropists of the present day place their hands upon their hearts and say with truth, that the whole and sole object of their advocating certain mea- sures has been for the benefit onli/ of their poorer brethren, without the slightest reference to their own advancement ? Why, then, are the honest yeomen to be taunted only with motives which are foreign to their nature, and to be likened by one raised from below their own rank by some fortuitous cir- cumstances, to the clods of the valley? The farmers of Old England are not the enemies and oppressors^ of the poor, but their friends. Their motto ever has been, " Live, and let live ;" not perish, ye degraded and half-starved workers at the loom.
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that your masters may ride in gilded coaches, or live in glitter- ing tinselled palaces. The farmer and his workmen have one common and united interest; together they rise for their morning work, together bear the heat and labour of the day, together rejoice or repine, as things go well or ill. No hard taskmasters are they ; nor spurn from their door the old man who has become grey-headed in their service. Together master and man are seen approaching the house of God on the Sabbath morn, and side by side they are often laid in the narrow house appointed for all living in the evening of that day when all the trials and troubles of tliis world are ended. Such was the case in olden times, and such are the feelings which still exist between the farmer and labourer. The present raceof farmers may not labour with their hands so much as did their fathers, but their heads have little respite. Their hearts are still in the right place — the mantle of integrity has descended unsullied from father to sons ; and their boast- yet is, and I trust ever will be, in the words of the old song, " that it still from a spot shall be free."
CHAPTER XXIL
Hour of feeding — Difference of food and treatment — Animal food necessary — Number of hounds to form the hunting pack in field — On drafting hounds — One fault not to be overlooked — In what the strength of a pack of fox-hounds consists — Pack of hoimds that hunted hare and fox — Horses and hoxmds of old school — Pack dividing, and each killing their own fox.
Having now settled what the qualifications of huntsmen and whippers-in should be, I shall proceed to treat of the qualifica- tions of the hound — the hour of feeding, number of hounds requisite to form the hunting pack, and other details. The general hour for feeding in most establishments is about eleven o'clock — the prevailing opinion being that hounds should be sharp set (as the term is) before hunting. They have thus four- and-twenty hours before they commence work, and often to wait for nearly thirty until fed again ; for, supposing they kill only one fox in the day, what is that among twenty couples of hounds, the usual complement in the field? Hardly a taste for each.
From long experience and observation I am satisfied that fox-hounds, if treated differently, would last much longer than they usually do under this half-starving system of the present
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day, and not so often be beaten by their afternoon fox. Tlie time of feeding should, in my opinion, depend upon the distance hounds have to travel before hunting, and the hour at which they generally commence drawing. There is also another considera- tion, whether they are carried to the place of meeting in a van, or have to travel on foot.
The hour of meeting in the present day is generally about eleven o'clock during the regular hunting season, with most of our great fox-hunting establishments. In that case, when a van is kept, hounds may be fed about twelve o'clock the previous day, but when they have to travel on foot, I should feed them at two o'clock in preference to twelve. Dogs being carnivorous animals, and possessing strong powers of digestion, require animal food to sustain them in full strength and vigour to the period allotted to the life of the canine race. We have only to compare the duration of life in the spaniel, pointer, or any other species of dog which is accustomed to his liberty, and fed indis- criminately with flesh, bones, and offal from the butcher's shop or the kitchen, with the life of a fox-hound, and what is the result ! One is worn out and drafted generally before he attains the age of seven years, whilst the other is still almost in his prime. The age of a dog I compute from twelve to fourteen years. The difference between them I attribute to the difference of food and treatment. I shall be probably met, however, with the observation, that fox-hounds work much harder than any other species of dog, and, therefore, are sooner worn out. This I cannot quite admit ; but, were the case so, it would be an additional reason for different treatment.
All huntsmen know that hounds which are kennel-sick, or lose condition without any ostensible reason, if let run about for a few weeks recover their usual strength. Look also at the brood bitches ; although suckling perhaps a full complement of whelps, they soon become full of flesh, and even very fat. Now, what is the reason of this alteration ? Simply this — the dog at liberty picks up bones, scraps, &c., and the bitches are generally fed twice a day, and get flesh occasionally. Animal food is as necessary to keep dogs in full health and strength as oats are to keep horses in condition. I shall be told that fox-hounds have plenty of animal food with their meat ; but in what state is this animal food presented to them ? When it is deprived of all the uices and nutriment it once contained, i. e. boiled to rags. I now that the broth or liquor, as it is termed, is nutritious, but the food of hounds is generally mixed up too thin. The day before hunting, at least, their food should be given as thick as they can eat it, and were it always so prepared during the
l
138 HORSES AND HOUNDa.
hunting season, I am satisfied most packs would give a better account of their afternoon fox. When I kept fox-hounds they were always treated in this manner, and, as I have before stated, had always a little thin lap for breakfast, being fed regularly twice a day through the year. The result of this treatment was, that my hounds lasted for many years longer than they usually do : and although we had long distances to go, and once or twice a week left off generally more than twenty miles from the kennels, I never saw them beaten. Moonlight rides were very frequent, but the hounds were up to the mark, and returned home cheerfully, with their sterns well up. They have been running as late as twelve o'clock at night, in large woodlands, where we could not stop them, the owls giving view-halloos all round us. Beckford truly remarks, " A half-starved hound will never kill an afternoon fox." We often see in BelVs Life extraordinary accounts of runs, twenty or thirty miles, but they want the finish. It is no use distending the stomachs of hounds with a quantity of liquid. They require the greatest amount of nutri- tious matter, combined in the smallest quantity.
The number of hounds to form the hunting pack in the field should not exceed 20 couples ; 16 or 18 are quite suflicient, the efficiency of the pack not depending upon numbers, but the individual merits of each hound. Young hounds of the first season are seldom of much use, and often do a great deal of mischief ; they must not, therefore, be considered as rendering any service, or conducing to the strength of the pack, but be rather treated as lookers-on. Never take out too many young hounds together — four or five couples are enough at a time — until they are become quite steady. Some young hounds are slow to enter, and I have known them remain at the horse's heels for months, without showing any disposition to join the pack. Such are often drafted by the huntsman as useless, but 1 have found them turn out better in the end than those which have at once set to work. Precocious talents do not often stand the test of time so well as those of slower development. There is only one fault for which I should at once draft a young hound : his being noisy or too free with his tongue — this fault generally increases with his years, and is, in my opinion, the greatest a hound can possess.
Having an aversion to sending my brood bitches long dis- tances to other kennels, it was my custom to take a few couples, or even the whole unentered lot of young hounds, from a kennel with which I wished to cross, with the prospect of one or two of these young hounds proving of service to me after- wards, and I had thus an opportunity of judging from my own
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observation of the qualities they possessed, instead of trusting to the representation of others. I derived great benefit from this course of proceeding, in many instances ; but I once had a lot of young hounds sent me from the Cheshire kennels, some years ago, so thoroughly noisy, that, although they, were fine, good-looking hounds, and in appearance what fox-hounds ought to be, yet I was obliged to draft the whole of them for this cause. The first day I took them out cub hunting, some began throwing their tongues as soon as they entered the covert, where there was no game of any kind ; these I put away at once, and the rest followed.
I had, however, great luck on other occasions. From Lord Fitzwilliam's kennels, Seabright sent me one season four un- entered hounds, three of which turned out excellent, and I bred from them all, the produce being not only clever, but as good hounds in their work as any man ever possessed. Two of these hounds from Lord Fitzwilliam's became very great favourites, and never left my kennel. In many large establishments the breeding system is carried on to a very injurious extent, and there is little cause to wonder at young hounds proving faulty, when the characters of their parents have never been fully ascertained.
Beckford justly remarks, " That too large a body of hounds is a very useless incumbrance" — it is not only a very useless and expensive incumbrance, but the hounds cannot be suffi- ciently worked to prove any excellences they may possess. It is said that great talents are called forth by great occasions. Many hounds are seldom tried sufficiently to prove their real characters, before they are bred from, if good-looking, and in the present day good looks are often taken in lieu of, or as an acknowledgment of, good deeds.
I think I have before remarked that hounds should never be used before they have passed through two seasons at least, and their characters have become thoroughly established. ^ I have heard of nearly a hundred couples of whelps being bred in some large establishments in one season. Where such is the case, there must be a good deal of casualty work. The strength of a pack of fox-hounds consists in the number of three and four seasoned hunters, and to keep up this, you must enter a suffi- cient number of young hounds each year. The distemper varies very much according to the season ; it is, therefore, the wisest plan, when you have a good lot of young hounds safe over the distemper, to keep as many as you can. By putting them with a certain number of old hounds you can form two distinct packs, promoting the young, as they become steady, to your best
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lot. Young hounds whicli are very riotous the first season I have often found turn out tlie best afterwards. We must recol- lect that at their walks they have little attention paid them, and are at liberty to follow any game that comes in their way, but, by quiet and decided treatment, they will soon be broken from these bad habits.
A very experienced and clever gentleman huntsman told me he never cared about his young hounds running hare ; he said he generally left them alone, and when they had their fun out, as he called it, without encouragement, they very soon found out their mistake, and became steady to fox of their own accord. This latitude is somewhat extensive ; I am not, however, pre- pared to assert but that there is a good deal of reason in it. Dogs are sensible animals, and soon discover what they are required to do. If young hounds would always break them- selves within a given time, we might allow them, as my friend said, to have their fun out, and I have no doubt they would become steadier afterw^ards, by finding out their own mistake : but this would only happen in the event of their not getting the hlood of the hare, for, if allowed to kill their own game and eat it too, I have an idea that on a blank day with fox they would have recourse to their old pastime, particularly as hare is more delicate eating. The steadiest fox-hounds, wdien puss comes in their way (out of sight of the whipper-in) in high cover, will have a sly snap at her, and, as the Irishman said, " small blame to them " wdien as hungry as hawks. Beckford relates an instance of extraordinary discernment in a fox-hound which joined his pack of harriers one day, and hunted and ran with them as if he had always been accustomed to that game, but when he saw this hound with his own pack he was perfectly steady from hare.
In bygone days my father had a pack of fox-hounds with wdiich he hunted both hare and fox ; they commenced the sea- son with hare, as foxes were then scarce in the country, but after Christmas they began hunting fox, and were from that time to the end of the season steady to a fox scent, often passing through woods where hares abounded without taking any notice of them. These hounds were of Lord Egremont's blood, a famous sort in those days, and could run as well as hunt.
It is tlie fashion to abuse both the horses and hounds of the old school ; the first are supposed to have been poor, slow, half- bred animals, and the hounds as never having been able to go much faster than turnspits. In answer to this, I can only state I have heard my father say, that in his younger days he never kept a horse which was not quite thorough bred and had been
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trained as a race-horse ; but he had more than assertion to prove this, in tlie sliape of about twenty cups and plates which had been won by his own hunters.
It is the custom with many huntsmen to take out a large body of hounds into woodlands at the beginning of the season ; there is no objection to this when foxes are plentiful and you do not wish to break away. They may be chopping and chang- ing nearly the whole day, sometimes the body of hounds holding to one fox, but more often split into several lots, each pursuing their own game, until hounds and foxes are nearly all beaten together. A good long woodland day, with blood at the end, is of great service to young hounds, as it shows you what they are made of, and hounds that are not afraid of scratching their faces in the covert will seldom disappoint your expectations when they run over the open. When, however, the regular sea- son commences, I would not exceed twenty couples even in the largest woodlands. They are more likely to hold together than a larger body of hounds, and when foxes run their foil, which they will often do, the ground is less tainted ; and even should they divide, eight or ten couples of good hounds are quite enough to kill the best fox that ever wore a brush. I have known on more occasions than one my pack divide, and each kill their ovni fox. I had also three hounds which once broke away after one fox, whilst the pack were running another, and without any assistance, or an individual with them, they ran their fox through several large woods, a distance of ten miles, and killed him by themselves. This would disprove the asser- tion made by some, that a pack of hounds, if left to themselves, would seldom account for their fox. Really good hounds would seldom miss one. In the days of my strength and prosperity I would have backed any five couples out of my pack, barring the first year's entry, to find and kill their fox by themselves, with- out any assistance, throughout the season, taking bad and good scenting days together. Hounds are too much hallooed and hustled in the present day to admit of their being intrin- sically good, nor are they allowed sufiicient time by many hunts- men to exliibit the good qualities they may possess.
142 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
CHAPTER XXIIL
Place of meeting — "Where it is best — The master should keep and follow his own counsel — Fox without a brush — Run with the same, and death — Hour of meeting to be strictly attended to — The proper place for first and second whip — Confidence of hounds in a huntsman; cruelty and roughness utterly misapplied — Different ways of drawing — Foxes, like dogs, sleepy in windy weather.
Having now disposed of the business of the kennel, as well as having treated of the number of hounds necessary to form the hunting pack, we will follow them from the time of their leaving the kennel in the morning until tliey arrive at the covert side, or rather, I should say, the place of meeting ; for the covert side should never be fixed upon as a place of meeting, for many reasons. In the first place, if you meet at the covert side, the chances are much against your finding a good fox there ; he will be disturbed by people passing by or through the covert, and leave it before the hounds are thrown in, or, being upon his legs some time before the hounds commence drawing, they will be hunting a stale drag to get up to him, whilst he is taking ad- vantage_ of some hedgerow, to leave the covert and his pursuers far behind. It is difficult to keep foot people out of a wood where the hounds are to meet ; and poachers will take advan- tage of it, either to open the earths, or catch your neighbour's game.
The place of meeting should be a mile or two from the covert you intend drawing, and so situated, if possible, as to avoid always the same line of woods, or knowing hands will wait at the covert-side until the hounds come, and not go to the place of meeting at all. I was often asked, when I had made my fixtures at certain places, the line I intended to draw, but my reply generally was, that I could give no positive infi)rmation, as so much depended upon circumstances over which I had no control ; as, for instance, our running into any of those coverts before the day fixed, the quarter the wind might be in, ifec, &c. Occasionally, to oblige gentlemen who came from a long dis- tance, I have departed from this rule, but, as a general practice, it is the best plan for a master of hounds to keep his own counsel, and not pledge himself beforehand to any particular line, which, when the time arrives, it may be most inconvenient for him to pursue. There are, however, exceptions to most general rules, and it is sometimes necessary to break through our pre-concerted plans to satisfy the complaints of farmers, or
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 143
suit the convenience of some stanch patron of the noble science, by going out of our way to draw a particular covert which they may be anxious to see drawn. There are many tricks played upon masters of hounds, and sometimes the day s sport delayed or spoiled, by acceding too often to such appa- rently reasonable requests, but which may be dictated only by the most selfish motives. I have been made the tool, or rather the fool of, sometimes, to drive the game from one man's pre- serve into another's. Farmers also have taken me away to avoid having some particular field trodden by the horsemen, so that such deviations should be adopted with caution. He who tries to oblige all will find himself in the same predicament as the old man and his ass.
There are, however, some few real sportsmen with most packs of fox-hounds, whose recommendation may be listened to, and who are not likely to mislead you by any selfish considerations. I received a letter once from a young and promising nobleman, now, alas ! no more, who was a very zealous supporter of our hunt, informing me that a fox without a brush had been com- mitting sad havoc in one of his tenant's farmyards, and had taken up his abode in a neighbouring spinney. Foxes were not over abundant in those days, and I knew we had no such animal belonging to our country. I therefore wrote in reply that I would with pleasure make the appointment. We met accordingly some distance from the covert, and as soon as the hounds were thrown in, the chicken-killer quickly broke covert, and sure enough the appendage so much coveted by the ardent followers of the chase was wanting. I saw at one glance, as he broke away, that he was a traveller — a large dark-coloured fox, high upon the leg, and the strides he took convinced me we should have some trouble to handle him. Making directly for a large wood, in which there were some strong earths, most probably the residence of the lady he had travelled so far to visit, he tried them first as a place of refuge, but finding them closed, with ' no admittance here," he went straight away into my neigh- bour's country. The first unusual feat he performed was, in- stead of taking to the water, to jump on to a coal barge which was moored in a canal, and jump off again on terra firma with- out wetting himself. This artful dodge satisfied me he was no common customer, but a wide-awake gentleman up to a trick or two. My whipper-in, who brought me this intelligence from the bargeman, thought him, I believe, somewhat of a necro- mancer, and his long face expressed his doubts of our success- fully grappling with so knowing a performer, and without a brush too. " Never mind," I said, " keep with the hounds^ and
144 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
I think we shall see what he is made of before the day is over." Over the canal we steered away, and soon came to a nasty brook, with deep water and hollow banks. Four or five of us came to this about the same time. There was no leisure to look about for good places, the hounds being over and racing away a couple of fields before us, so at it we went ; and a proper scrambling and splashing ensued. ]\Iy horse's footing gave way just as he was taking the leap, and I had to perform in and out clever, which I fortunately accomplished, but only three of us showed on the other side ; there was no time to render assistance to those buffeting with the waters, as the hounds were now out of sight. On, on they went over a si)lendid vale country, with very stiff fencing, having it all to themselves, for catching them was out of the question. After, however, about forty minutes' hard running, we got up with the hounds in a large plantation, with a piece of water in the middle, where our artful friend had just tried another dodge to shake off his pursuers, by run- ning first all round the lake, and then swimming right across it. This feat seemed to confirm Jem's preconceived ideas of his being something out of the common run of foxes, and my im- pression is, if left to himself, he would rather have declined any further dealings with Bobtail. "Come, Jem," I exclaimed, " none of your old woman's fancies ; have at him again — Bell- maid has hit him off; forward, my lads, forward, away." The hounds joined like lightning together — one crash through the plantation, and over the open — cheerily, ho ! steadily, cheeringly, on we go ! Not an inch of the country did we now know ; the field were scattered to the winds, and Jem and I had it all to ourselves. Expecting a serious affair, we held steadily on with the hounds, agreeing to help each other out of difficulties, Jem keeping just a respectable distance behind me, with no dispo- sition to play first fiddle to this queer-looking dancer ; and I felt quite sure he would not desert me if I got into trouble. Another twenty minutes or so (for we had no time to look at our watches) and we came to a few small coverts, where, our fox taking a turn or two, we had just time to breathe our horses, and one or two hard riders came up as well. One, a stanch friend to hounds, and a general favourite with all the neigh- bouring packs, now became of great service to me from his knowledge of the country we had run into. " Well, squire," he exclaimed, " this bob-tailed son of a gun has led us a proper dance, and I thought I should never get up with you again. Where have you been?' "That is more than I cau tell you," I replied ; " but had he gone straight on, instead of bearing away to the right into these woods, the chances would have been
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HORSES AND HOUNDS. 145
against your asking me this question just yet." The hounds were now away again. "Oh ! he is a thrusting scoundrel," ex- claimed my friend Bob ; " he's got some go in him yet, and I have an idea it will be a moonlight affair." " Nonsense," I said, " he can't stand another forty minutes, after the pace we have been going. Now, Bob, lend a hand, for Jem's half afraid of him, and Tom is lost ; we will try to handle him before two o'clock, unless I am out of my reckoning altogether." We had now a fine fox-hunting country before us, with large enclosures, but sadly in want of drainage ; the scent became merely a holding one, which we were not sorry for. The fox, in Bob's opinion, was now making his point for a large covert, in which he thought w^e should change. Fortunately there were no earths there : I therefore despatched Jem to get forward to the other side of this wood as fast as he could, and my friend Bob kindly undertook his place. " Now," I said, " we shall be all right if he will only wait a bit, when he reaches Rushmead." For- tunately for us he did so ; the hounds soon got upon good terms with him again in the covert, and made the wood crash as they rattled him round and round. Bobtail was, hoAvever, game to the last, and he tried to break away twice where Bob and I had stationed ourselves, in the direction of a long string of wood- lands, which it was my determination, if possible, to prevent him reaching, as we were sure to change there, and the coverts extended nearly three miles in continuation. Knowing his in- tention, I posted Bob out of sight under the hedge, with direc- tions to let him get clear of the wood one entire field, and then to halloo and ride like mad. I then joined the hounds in covert, and Babtail, finding the course clear, broke away; we were not far behind him- and Bob played his part to perfection. Before the fox had crossed the first field. Bob was after him from his hiding-place, hallooing like fun. The artful dodger stopped and hesitated one moment whether to return or go on : that moment of hesitation sealed his fate. The hounds were coming tearing out of covert, and, hearing Bob's hullaballoo, caught sight of the poor chicken-killer, and had him down before he could again reach the wood hedge. I did not tell Bob this was just the trap I had laid for him, as we were a very long distance from home, and my horse had had quite enough of it. All stratagems are fair in war, and Beckford says, "A fair fox-hunter and a fool are syno- nymous terms." Having made acquaintance with the large wood- lands in perspective, upon a former occasion, when I was treated to a concert by owls, I had no great fancy just then to a second treat from their harmonious voices, and was obliged to use a little stratagem to dispose of Mr. Bobtail before he had quite
L
14(5 HOUSES AXD HOUNDS.
run his course out. Jem could scarcely believe it, he said, when he heard my shrill whoo-hoop from the other side of the covert, but the hounds' baying soon satisfied him that his foe had licked the dust, and he came crashing down through the wood in ecstasies of delight. ^ Few were up to witness the finale of this gallant fox, the majority of our field being scattered in all directions. Having then nearly thirty miles to return home, I thanked my friend Bob for his services, and we commenced our homevrard journey. This fox could not have run over much less ground than twenty miles, and, by the time we reached the kennels, horses and hounds had quite enough for one day.
When a fixture is once made, no deviation from it should be afterwards admitted. In these days, real sportsmen often go very long distances to meet a good pack of hounds, and make their arrangements accordingly. It is, therefore, very unfair to disappoint them. Whatever the hour of meeting may be, it should be observed with punctuality, and although occasionally you may give a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes to those expected from long distances, it should be borne in mind that your punctual friends are cooling their heels, and their horses shivering perhaps in the cold all this time. I have seen hounds waiting for more than an hour beyond time, in expectation of some great man coming down by rail, who never arrived after all; and you may suppose a great deal of dissatisfaction was ex- pressed, both by looks and words. The expectations and con- venience of the majority of your field should not be sacrificed to accommodate ever so great a man, and I never would wait more than half-an-hour for any individual, her most Gracious Majesty alone being excepted.
Upon one occasion I gave mortal offence to a great duke, or rather, I should say, to his flatterers, by not waiting beyond a certain time, when he was expected to honour my fixture with his presence. I certainly gave him a very reasonable allowance of time, and at last, his servant expressing a doubt of his coming at all, I commenced drawing, but in the direction he was ex- pected. There were one or two despicable sycophants out, how- ever, who represented my conduct as an intentional disrespect to him, and the seeds of animosity were thus sown by these artful knaves to suit their own purposes, which afterwards pro- duced a pretty good harvest of discord throughout the country.
In going to the place of meeting, tlie first whipper-in should be some distance before the hounds ; the second a long way be- hind them. Some huntsmen like to have the hounds cooped up, as it v/ere, all around them. It looks better to see hounds in a compact body, but it is, in my opinion, very objectionable to
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 147
keep tliem under such unnecessary discipline. They will, when let loose from the huntsman's presence, then begin to find them- selves at liberty, and, like boys just out of school, run riot. Con- fidence in the huntsman begets confidence in the hounds. This I have seen exemplified in many instances. Hounds which are continually kept in, and harassed by whippers-in, are seldom steady when left to themselves, and out of the reach of the whip.
I cannot too often impress upon huntsmen and their assist- ants, that undue severity is not only shameful to those who practise it, but always fails to ensure that willing obedience upon which the steadiness and efficiency of a pack of fox-hounds entirely depend. I was looking over a lot of hounds a short time since, got together by a friend of mine, and there were no less than three unentered hounds from one kennel, which had each lost an eye. These hounds had been put forward to enter, and been broken in before they came into my friend's posses- sion. He and I both attributed the loss of their eyes, being all gone on the same side, to the whip of some brute of a whipper- in, who deserved to be nearly flayed himself. The manner in which dogs and horses are treated by some miscreants, is a dis- grace to liuman nature. The chief blame, however, rests with masters, who will employ savages of this description. If one gentleman is responsible to another for the conduct of his servant, when insolent or guilty of reckless conduct, surely he will be held responsible for that servant's cruelty to the dumb animals entrusted to his care. One can generally form a toler- ably accurate opinion of the master from the man. The servant of a real gentleman — that is, one by principles and feelings a gentleman, not by money and adventitious circumstances — will, to a certain extent, reflect his master's character, well knowing that his situation depends upon his proper deportment. Show me the servants, and I can pretty well tell you the character of the master.
Time being called, and the coffee-housing business over, we will now proceed to the business of the day. If possible, the huntsman will of course draw up wind, save and except where he has some very smaU spinneys or gorse coverts to draw, from which a fox cannot get away without being seen — here he had better give his fox every opportunity of finding the hounds before they find him, or the chances are, that he wiU be chopped before well upon his legs.
In windy weather foxes as well as dogs are most sleepy, and on such days they may easily be caught napping. I was once drawing a very thin plantation on the downs, in fact, just letting the hounds run through it, on our line to other coverts, when
l2
148 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
looking forward, I saw a fox curled up fast asleep under a low stunted fir tree, and the hounds nearly all round him. Although going down the wind, he had not heard our a])proach, and for- tunately the hounds had not winded him in his kennel. Callmg them immediately to one side, as if to leave the place, I turned short round, and gave the fox a cut with my whip before he jumped up. The hounds, however, soon caught sight of him, and a proper race we had for about fifteen minutes before he was pulled down, on the open downs, without a fence. There were some severe falls in this short space of time, for it requires as good a hand and as good nerves to ride well over open dowub, as it does to cross a vale country. Some of our hard riding vale gentlemen got to themselves astonishing falls, without knowing why or wherefore. The fact was, they had pumped the wind out of their horses at starting, and then meeting with a few old cart tracks across the down, barely visible before they could
fmll up, the consequences might be easily anticipated, particu- arly with horses not accustomed to such crossings.
CHAPTER XXTV.
Draw where you are most likely to find a fox — Morning best time for scent — Fair X'^'^y to a fox, contrary to Beckford's opinion — No hallooing and whooping on first finding — Most likely places to find foxes early in the season — Hounds spreading wide — Upon drawing coverts and the places and business of whippers-in— Famous hound from Sir T. Mostyn's kennel — Mr. T. Pahner and " Drops of Brandy" — Dinner at his house — Deputy — Old favourites never neglected — Anecdotes of " Old Pilgrim."
The first business in fox-hunting is, as an old and stanch friend to this sport once expressed to me, to draw at once those places where you are most likely to find a fox. The day often turns off unexpectedly, and, generally speaking, the morning is the best time for scent. The hounds are also fresh, and a good hard running fox is much more easily disposed of satisfactorily before two o'clock than after that hour. I have no objection to give every fox a fair chance for his life at starting; no mobbing and hustling as soon as he is upon his legs ; but let him be fairly found, and go fairly away, and then, my masters, cratch him if you can. Bcckford, perhaps, might call me a fool for giving any fair play at all ; but it is the only way to ensure good sport, and make good hounds. If, when a fox is first found,
HOESES AND HOUNDS. 149
the himtsman begins hallooing and screaming, the whippers-in following suit, and half the field joining in the hue and cry, your fox will be headed back ; the hounds becoming wild with excitement, will dash over the scent, and, "Act 1st," a failure. A good fox will make his point, after all, so you may as well, and better, let him have it at once.
In the early part of the season, when the hazel coverts are disturbed by nutters and shooters, the most likely places to find foxes are in the short underwood of two years' growth and gorse coverts. In fine weather they will often lie in turnip fields and hedge-rows. When hunting begins, crafty old foxes generally resort to such out-of-the-w^ay places, and that is the reason they are so seldom found, the young foxes always falling the first victims. In drawing large coverts, the huntsman should try first the most likely part of them, which will depend in a great measure on the day. In stormy and windy weather foxes will resort to the most sheltered situations; but there are always favourite spots in all coverts where they are most likely to be found, and these are of course known to every huntsman who is acquainted with his country.
When thrown into covert, I like to see hounds spread wide, and draw eagerly ; not one should be at the horse's heels. Some men have a trick, and a very bad one it is, of keeping a few couples of idle hounds dangling after them, ready for a start, or to throw in when the fox crosses the rides. Such a practice is very injurious to the hounds so employed, and will make them careless and of little value, when hard work is before them. Some huntsmen also allow the first whipper-in. to hunt the hounds in covert, or rather to help draw with them, for what rea- son I could never yet discover, except to save themselves trouble. Such is not the business of a whipper-in, and more tlian that, he has no right to speak even to a hound in covert, unless to stop or rate him. When the hounds_ are drawing large woodlands, the place of the first whipper-in is forward in some drive, ride, or crossing, in the direction the hounds are trying — he will be as silent as a mouse, and watch not only with his eyes w^ell open, but ears also, to see and hear all that is moving. Wlien the hounds cross over, he will again shift his ground quickly but silently, and take up an- other position, where he may observe all that is going on. Should he view the fox cross over, he will of course halloo, and when the hounds are once settled to the scent, his duty is to be away again elsewhere. When drawing small coverts, spinneys, or gorse, the place of the first whipper-in is outside, in that spot from which, without being seen himself, he may
150 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
command the west and most extensive view, not far from the point where foxes generally break, but not too near it.
When the business of the day once commences, the whipper- in is to recollect that, like a sentry, he is then on duty, and he should, if any begin talking with him at his post, respectfully but firmly decline further conversation until off duty again, when the fox is gone away.
The place of the second whipper-in, when the hounds are drawing, is not too far from the huntsman, and at the tail of the hounds ; not to ride in upon them, but to be ready, in case any loiter or run riot, to stop them at once, and put them forward to the body of the pack. Hounds should not be hurried when drawing, but have plenty of time, and room as well, or you will draw over many foxes in the course of a season ; and the under whip must be given to understand that he is to keep at a respectful distance, and never interfere unless his interference is positively required. When the fox is found, the second whipper-in will keep as near the hounds as he can, and be prepared to attend to any directions he may receive from the huntsman, and when the fox breaks away, he must bring on the tail hounds if any remain in covert. The duties of a second whipper-in are by no means very agreeable, but he must be content to perform them, and the better they are done, the more pleasure he will derive himself, and render himself more eligible for advancement in his own or any other establishment. By being quick and active in getting the hounds out of covert, he will soon overtake the huntsman, and see as much of the fun as any one else ; should, however, his business be done slovenly, and any hounds be left behind, he will have to return and bring them on. This being enforced by the huntsman, Jack will take more pains for the future.
When the hounds go away with their fox, the first whipper-in will be with them, ready to assist the huntsman, or attend to any directions he may give. Should the hounds come to a check before the huntsman gets up, he will let them make their own cast, but he is not to interfere with them further, unless the huntsman is quite out of sight. Many first whips think it high fun to get away with the hounds at first starting, and hurry them on, to show their own cleverness in having a burst without the huntsman. On this account there is often great jealousy between the two. It is impossible, in some cases, for the hunts- man to be with the hounds when they first break covert, and the whipper-in has therefore an advantage over him in this respect, of which some are not slow to avail themselves, to the prejudice of the huntsman. For instance, when hounds are
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 151
running in a large covert, it is the duty of the huntsman to be near them ; but when the fox breaks, it is impossible for him sometimes to be close to the hounds, having, perhaps, to crash through several acres of underwood, or to take the nearest ride leading to the point where the fox has gone away.
The first consideration with a pack of fox-hounds is to draw well and steadily, but there are days and occasions when the best hounds may show slackness ; in wet and bad scenting days, and where game is scarce, they v/ill become more indifferent. It is then the huntsman's place to ride with them, and encourage them in trying the thickest parts of the covert. Hounds also out of blood soon become out of heart as well. A famous master of hounds, who hunted a part of Wiltshire for many years, used to say he could always tell, by drawing his hounds round a gorse covert, if there was a fox in it, and when the hounds showed little disposition to dash in, he concluded there was no fox there. In the early part of a good scenting day, I think in nine cases out of ten, hounds will generally show whether a fox is at home or not, but I should not depend upon their opinions after two o'clock, or in bad weather.
I had once a famous hound for drawing, who had a peculiar instinct in pointing out where foxes lay. I never saw it so developed in any other, except his two daughters, which were as good as their father. He was a rapid dashing drawer, seldom putting his nose to the ground, but you would see him examining the twigs or reeds as he passed, and going straight to the fox's kennel. It seldom required more than ten minutes for his survey of a covert of a hundred acres, and when satisfied there was no fox at home, he quickly re-appeared outside the covert. During several years he never deceived me, and was considered by the whipper-in as infallible. He would also tell if a fox had been in the covert, or had passed through it, by throwing his tongue once or twice in a short concise way, and then coming away. This hound (one of the first fox-hounds I ever possessed) I obtained from the kennel of Sir T. Mostyn, who hunted the Oxfordshire country (now belonging to Mr. Drake) for many years — his sire, the Duke of Beaufort's Rallywood, and his dam, Mr. Ward's sort. I had him, with eight couples of other hounds, in the autumn of the year 1822, when pursuing my studies at Alma ]\Iater.
At the end of the term, instead of travelling by road, I com- menced my homeward journey across country with these hounds, mounted on a fine old hunter, which I picked up at Oxford. I had intended reaching Marlborough the first night, but the days then being short, I was fain to ask a night's lodging at the
152 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
farm-house of a genuine old English farmer, where I had once before passed a night, when on a shooting excursion. In a cold, disagreeable November evening the hospitable roof of my friend. Mr. Thomas Palmer, of East Garston, near Lambourne, presented itself to my view, and, although I had only met him twice before, I felt assured of a welcome reception. Being but a lad when I first became acquainted with him, I rather doubted whether he would recollect me at all ; but there was no alterna- tive, I must either obtain shelter there, or pass the night in some barn on the downs, for the shades of evening were gathering fast around me. I accordingly put a bold face on the matter, and, approaching the house, asked if the master were at home. He soon made his appearance, but did not immediately recollect me. At this I was not surprised, as a few years had altered my appearance. "Well," I said, " Mr. Palmer, if you do not recollect me, do you remember the old tune of ' Drops of Brandy ? " " Come along, sir ; I remember all about it now. Here, Jack, Thomas, come and take this gentleman's horse." The last place of our meeting had been at a ball, given by his landlord to all the tenantry, and after being quite tired with quadrille and waltz tunes, he had begged me to get up a country dance, to his favourite tune of " Drops of Brandy." This, after some little persuasion with the ladies, and an explanatory whistle to the musicians, who pretended they had never heard of such a tune, I at last eifected, to the great delight of my old friend, who?.e heart and soul seemed in the dance, although too far advanced in years to join in bodily exertion. I fancy I can see him now, with his jovial, good-humoured face, snapping his fingers, and cheering us on when flagging. To please him I kept it going as long as I could hold six or seven couples together, in which 1 was kindly assisted by one of the young ladies of the family ; but we were at last fairly beaten, and from that hour I have never forgotten " Drops of Brandy."
Having seen my horse snugly provided for in a good warm stable, with plenty of assistants to rub him down, I accom- panied my worthy host to the house, where a good dinner, under the able superintendence of Miss P., as she was always called, was soon provided for us, and we sat down to enjoy ourselves, and talk of the days of " Auld Lang Syne." Drops of brandy were not forgotten, with which, after my long and cold ride, I was not sorry to renew my acquaintance, when, after dinner, we drew round to the fire, and settled comfortably down in our easy chairs for the evening. We retired to rest at a late hour, and, what with discussing a bottle or two of Miss P.'s good orange wine, and tlie few drops of brandy afterwards, my
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 153
slumbers were prolonged to a rather late hour on tlie following morning, much to the delight of my good-natured host. Soon after breakfast I was obliged to take leave of the worthy- Mr. Thomas Palmer, whose name, I have no doubt, is still remembered in those parts with esteem and regret, as one of the good old school of English yeomen now fast passing away.
Taking my route over the Downs, with the hounds all m couples, except this one dog named Deputy, and a favourite old greyhound, a hare suddenly jumped up in view, and off went Deputy, Avith the greyhound after her. I checked back the other hounds, and rode on to the top of the hill to see how this affair would end, little expecting my old friend Nimrod could manage a Down hare, wliich are generally both stout and fleet. A severe course ensued up and down the hills, the fox- hound coming in for his turn occasionally ; and at last, to my great delight, they managed to overhaul poor puss. No sooner had this feat been performed, and the hare safely deposited in my valise, strapped to the pommel of the saddle, than a party of coursers made their appearance, in search of the very hare which I had just snugly stowed away. She had been found sitting by a shepherd, who had gone off to give intelligence to the coursers, whose sport I had thus unfortunately marred. It so happened, that one of the party was a friend, to whose house I was then wending my way ; and, after dinner, when relating the circumstance, and regretting the run they had lost, I told him the hare was quite at his service, and I would send her to him the next morning. He thought I was joking, at first, and would scarcely believe that, with a single greyhound, assisted only by a fox-hound, I could have mastered one of their famous Down hares. Deputy's schooling was not improved by this outbreak, and I had some trouble afterwards in breaking him from hare, but in the second season he became quite steady to his own game, and was my right hand for several seasons after- wards. Witli the scratch pack T had then got together, he was my chief authority for a fox, and the moment his tongue was heard, the other hounds would instantly fly to him. To those who have never had the pleasure of forming a pack from the hete- rogeneous elements, in the shape of hounds drafted from other kennels, the comfort of having one really good and active dog to depend upon, can scarcely be appreciated ; but this hound was truly my Deputy in every sense of the word, and I could not have deputed my authority to an abler assistant.
This hound, so long a favourite, never quitted my kennels ; and I must here plead guilty to an impeachment which has often been laid to my charge, of being over soft (as my friends
154 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
used to term it) towards animals in my possession. I never parted witli an old favourite, whether horse or hound ; many of the latter, when worn out by hard service, were continually about the premises. They had a warm house to go into at night, next the boiling house, and i^lenty to eat, and I have no doubt they enjoyed their ^^ otium cum dignitate" as much as any old pensioners in Greenwich Hospital. With good living and no work, they certainly did become most extraordinary looking figures, very much resembling aldermen in appearance, and their very looks gave a flat contradiction to the recommendation of my friends, to put those " wretched old animals out of their misery.''' Having spent the best of their days in my service, and done their utmost to aff'ord me pleasure, I always considered it at least my duty to aftord them that protection and refuge in their old age w^hich they so well deserved ; and, notwithstanding the taunts often received from other friendly masters of hounds, nothing ever induced me to alter that fixed principle — at my hand, or by my orders, their lives were never required. Upon hunting days, during the season, these old hounds were always shut up, to prevent their following the pack ; but in the cub- hunting they could always do as they liked, and they generally honoured us with their company upon those occasions.
An old hound I had, called Pilgrim, showed most extra- ordinary sagacity one day, which may be considered rather too romantic to be true, but I vouch for the fact. He was out with us in the early part of the season, w^lien we brought a fox to our home coverts, and ran him to ground there in a large rabbit pipe. As we tried on for another fox, the earth was stopped up, but not finding again, I returned home and fed the hounds. Old Pilgrim was with us then, and the terriers, which, after feeding, were, as usual, let run about. This was about two o'clock in the day. At four o'clock I went down to see the hounds again, and, not finding either the terriers or old Pilgrim in their usual sleeping apartment, I made inquiries where they were. No one could tell ; but the feeder had seen them, about an hour previously, in the yard together. We searched and looked everywhere for them, but in vain. It being a fine after- noon, and having nothing to do, I walked across to the covert where we had run the fox to ground in the morning, to see if he had scratched his way out again, as some loose stones only had been thrown into the earth. Great, indeed, was my sur- prise, when I discovered old Pilgrim lying at the mouth of the pipe, having removed all the stones, and dug a hole nearly large enough to hold himself : greater still was my surprise, when upon listening at the earth I heard the two terriers inside at the fox ! The old dog wagged his tail, and gave me a knowing
HORSES A>'D HOITSDS. lOD
look, as much as to say, " that will do, we shall soon have him out," and I was so much pleased with his cunning that I resolved he should not be disapyjointed. I accordingly hallooed to a man I saw at work, and sent him home for the whipper-in and a spade. We soon dug the fox out, and carried him home in a sack, Nothing could exceed the delight of the old hound when he saw the fox safely bagged — ^he danced and jumped about, and led the way in high glee, as much as to say, " here he comes I this is my doing." Having dep>osited the fox in a safe place, the old hound appeared quite satisfied ; but when it became dark we turned him loose again.
There is nothing extraordinary in the hound going again to visit the jilace where he had seen the fox run to ground, but the mystery is how he prevailed upon the terriers, which had not been out that day, to go with him. Instinct, in dogs, is very nearly allied to reason, and tliis dog must have considered that he could not get the fox out without the assistance of the timers • and, but for my appearance on the scene, I have no doubt tney would have succeeded in their object, as the pipe was not deep, and the soil sandy.
Upon another occasion we had been running a fox for some time, with an indifferent scent, and at last, getting up to him in a small spinney, he made directly for a park wall, over which he went, and all the hounds ; but to old Pilgrim this was a stopper. Without hesitation, however, he made round to a cradle stile, a long distance off, and got up in time to have a taste of the fox, which we ran into in the middle of the park.
CHAPTER XXV.
Laws of fox-huntiiig — The whole question a lex non scripia, but a matter of custom — How countries are formed and held — Coverts — Ei^ht of master to dispose of them — Eight- to draw a neighbouring covert — 31anner ia which coverts mav become lapsed — Twenty, if not seven veai^' undis- puted possession, a legal title to a country — !Mj. Assheton Smith and the Craven country — Sir John Cope, in Collingboume wcxkIs — The right of earth-stoppiug — On running into a neig-hbour's country — Necessity of goodfeehn^iu neighbouring himts, propriety of forming a club, analogotia to the Jockey Club, for the decision of disputes as to title of cotmtry — Lord Hawke's attempt — Advantages of the existiaglaws of los-hunting — Tricks of keepers in destroying foses by vermin traps.
It may not now be out of place to make a few observations on the laws of fox-hunting. Where, then, is the law or the rules which govern fox-hunting to be found ] Xo where. It is a ?^
156 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
non scripta. We have rules for Cricket Clubs, rules for the Prize Ring, rules for the Jockey Club, and rules laid down for every other national game or amusement ; but no written rules for that most popular and national amusement — Fox-hunting. Upon what basis, then, do the laws of fox-hunting rest, and by whom are they recognised? They stand upon a. foundation which is admitted even by the common law of England to be good and valid — custom ; and that custom is considered suffi- ciently binding and obligatory upon every master of fox- hounds, who not merely calls himselj] but is virtuaUy a gentle- man. The tenure upon which hunting countries are held, I may set down as threefold. That occupied by individuals as sole masters; secondly, by clubs or committees; and thirdly, that held upon sufferance.
I may here be met by some large game preservers, who will say, " I repudiate your fox-hunting laws altogether, and will have none of them. Vermin-killers, indeed, to dictate to me, and parcel out my woods and lands as they please ! the old feudal laws again." Not a bit of it, my friends of the trigger ; wait a little, and you shall have a full hearing, and ample justice done to your cause also. But to my subject now. Countries held by individuals as sole masters have generally been formed by themselves, at their own expense, and so con- ducted with the approbation and consent of the owners of coverts, and handed down often as almost entailed property from father to son ; in other cases they have been made over to a successor, appointed by the late master, who has a right to do so, or to dispose of any portion of his country to a neighbouring pack, either in perpetuity, or on sufferance, to draw certain coverts for a limited time. The rights of clubs or committees, with subscription packs, are of a similar nature, except that, in some countries, these rights are delegated to the master of the hounds for the time being. In others, the master of the hounds is entirely restricted to the hunting department ; the manage- ment of the country being retained in the hands of the club.
The first and great rule of fox-hunting law, as recognised by all masters of fox-hounds from time immemorial, and acted upon by gentlemen, invariably, up to the present time, is this — " That no master of hounds has a right to draw any coverts belonging to another hunt or country, witliout his neighbour's permission." We admit that landed proprietors have a right (if they think proper) to kill foxes, and prevent their coverts being hunted at all by any fox -hounds, by the law of the land, or game laws; but, by the law of fox-hunting, they cannot take their coverts away from one hunt and give them to another,
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except under peculiar circumstances, as the following : — Coverts and countries may become lapsed by non-usage or abandon- ment, the death of the master, or his ceasing to keep hounds, without the appointment of a successor. In these cases, the coverts, by fox-hunting law, are placed at the disposal of their proprietors, and they can dispose of them as they think proper. Coverts may become lapsed by any master discontinuing to draw them for seven years, or by his allowing another pack to hunt them, without remonstrance or interference, for that period. In these cases the master of an adjoining pack, with the consent of the proprietors, may take possession of these coverts, and they will become an integral part of his country. It has been held that twenty years' possession of a country, without inter- ruption, or interference, or stipulations of any kind, constitutes a legal title to that country. There can be no question of this ; but I maintain that seven years' possession, under the same circumstances, is a sufficient bar to their being reclaimed. How, otherwise, would nearly all the hunting establishments of the present day stand? What alterations and divisions of countries have taken place since the days of those Nimrods of old — Noel, Corbet, and jMeynell 1 Where one hunting establish- ment was formerly kept there are now four or five, I might say more than these. It was but fair and reasonable, that, when one master of fox-hounds possessed more country than he could by possibility effectually hunt, a part of it should be given over to a neighbouring hunt, and this course has been pursued gene- rally with mutual goodwill and mutual benefit ; but it is presumed that masters of fox-hounds, being always considered gentlemen and men of honour, are incapable of acting either unfairly or aggressively towards their neighbours, and upon these principles only can the laws of fox-hunting ever stand. However extended a country may be, so long as the master continues to draw the coverts contained in it, if only once in the season, he cannot be lawfully dispossessed of any portion of that country without his consent ; nor can another master of hounds, even at the solicitation of the owners of coverts, take possession of any part of it.
I have heard Mr. Assheton Smith quoted as an example of one who has set the laws of fox-hunting at defiance, and has acted contrary to their rules, in annexing part of the Craven country to his own. From my recollection of the circumstances of the case, which took place some years ago, I do not think such an accusation is founded on facts. My impression is, that the successor of Mr. Ward in the Craven country gave certain large coverts, far distant from the Craven kennels, but near to
158 nORSES AND HOUNDS.
Mr. Smith's house, to the latter gentleman. Much angry dis- cussion took place in consequence of this act. On one side it was contended that Mr. Horlock had a right so to dispose of those coverts, as being not necessary to the Craven hounds, and seldom drawn by them ; on the other, that the Craven Club had the sole right to dispose of the said coverts. The independent representative of a subscription country has undoubtedly the same powers as the sole master, and I should say his acts would be binding upon his successors. Mr. Ward's successor main- tained that he had a right to dispose of these coverts to Mr. Assheton Smith; and his view of the case was confirmed by the proprietors of them. It must be admitted that, unless masters of hounds possessed certain discretionaiy powers of giving or lending to other masters coverts which are not indis- pensably necessary to the efficient maintenance of their own hunt, half the hunting countries, as now established, would be torn to pieces. There is no unfair aggression by one master upon another in such a case as this, and no breach of fox- hunting law. Fox-]iunters ought to assist each other as much as possible, and contribute to the general amusement of the country. No real injury has been done to the Craven country by Mr. Assheton Smith's establishment, but, on the contrary, much good. The large woodlands, which in Mr. Ward's time were visited only occasionally by his hounds, are now regularly hunted nearly once a week. Foxes fly, and afford good chases ; such was not the case formerly. I can remember when JVIr. Ward invited Sir John Cope to come down, at the end of the season, and hunt some of these outlying woodlands; and proper badgering work it was to get a fox away, even for a few fields. In the month of April we were one whole day in CoUingbourne Woods, with Sir John's rattlers, and did succeed at last in killing a fox, but it was nearly dark before this feat was accom- plished, and then not without some little stratagem.
There are also coverts held on sufferance, which can be reclaimed by the original hunt ; also neutral coverts, which are drawn and stopped by two packs, by mutual consent. There is also the privilege attached to some hunts, of having the earths put to in the morning in some particular coverts belonging to the neighbouring country ; but, as a general rule, no master of hounds has a right to interfere with his neighbour's earths. It has been assumed that, when a fox is running into another country, and making his point for a well-known head of earths, the whipper-in may get forward, and stop those earths ; but 1 cannot admit the justice of any such pretended law. A fox found in one country, and running into another, generally
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speaking, is running home, and belongs to tlie country lie is running into ; you may catcli liim, if you can, before he reaches your neighbour's earths ; but if he reaches them he is considered safe, and you have nothing more to do than to take your hounds away. Were a whipper-in permitted to ride forward and stop the earths, the huntsman might choose to find a fresh fox in his neighbour's coverts, and, knowing the earths to be stopped, take that opportunity of killing him there.
There is often a great deal of jealous feeling between hunts- men of neighbouring packs, and often, I regret to say, with the masters themselves, which ought not to exist. " Do to others as you would they should do unto you" is a maxim which should never be forgotten. He who takes an unfair oppor- tunity of doing an unfriendly action towards his neighbour, I care not in what relation of life, may rest assured that, sooner or later, " with the same measure he metes to others, it will be measured to himself again." If you run a fox into your neigh- bour's country, you may follow him as long and as far as your hounds can own the scent, but you have no right to cast them into any of his coverts, if the hounds cannot hold the line of scent into them. It is but an act of courtesy, if your hounds are running into your neighbour's country, with an indifferent scent, and likely to disturb coverts which he has fixed to draw the same week, to stop your hounds at once, and return for a fresh fox. Friendly acts like these are sure to be appreciated, and will tend to strengthen those good feelings which should prevail with brother sportsmen.
Having been myself a master of fox-hounds for many years, I know how necessary it is that a good understanding should exist between adjoining hunts, and I have also seen the ill effects of a contrary feeling. The enemies of fox-hunting are not slow to take advantage of any rupture between masters of hounds, and a little flame, when adroitly fanned, will soon become a devouring element, and the whole country be involved in a general conflagration. It is much to be regretted that a club has never yet been formed by masters of fox-hounds, such as the Jockey Club, to whose decision disputes might be referred . -when there existed any just grounds of questionable legality — as to occupancy of, or title to country. Such a club was attempted some few years since by Lord Hawke and other influen- tial and well-disposed masters of hounds, but soon fell to the ground, from the want, I should say, of an active secretary, who ought to have first been appointed, to carry such a measure into effect. Masters of hounds have generally their hands full of business, and dislike taking upon themselves more; but,
160 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
were a secretary appointed at first by a certain number of influential masters, wliose oflice it should be to write letters, and obtain the consent of the masters of £ox-hounds generally throughout the country, I think the plan would succeed, and a club be formed which might be inferior to none in point of respectability, and the high station in life of many of its members.
I tliink it will be admitted by even large game preservers that the laws of fox-hunting are rather a protection to them than otherwise. Were it in the power of every owner of coverts to choose his own pack, what endless confusion would ensue throughout the length and breadth of the land. The law courts would be fully occupied every term with actions of trespass, and nearly every man at enmity with his neighbour. English- men are, constitutionally, I may say, fond of the chase, and the noble science has many more advocates and devotees in the pre- sent time than it has ever before possessed. The current has set in, and seems so strong in that direction, that it would be hope- less for individuals, however powerful, to endeavour to fight against it ; and that man must possess^ a very narrow and selfish mind indeed, who would needlessly interfere with the amuse- ment of the many, when it costs himself very little or nothing. It is far better to' have respectable establishments, with gentle- men, generally, at their head, founded and conducted upon honourable principles, under the long-established law or custom of fox-hunting, than a lot of scratch packs, quarrelling and squabbling in tlie country, which would be the case were the old laws of fox-hunting done away with.
Many game preservers are secretly, though not perhaps openly, hostile to fox-hunting, because their keepers inform them that the foxes devour half the pheasants. Should there be a bad breeding season, or Mr. Keeper appropriate rather more eggs or birds than usual to his own share, all are put down to the account of the foxes. The old story of two of a trade never agreeing is exemplified in this instance. The fox commits sad havoc with what the keeper considers his especial perquisites, rabbits, and consequently he never lets an opportunity escape of traducing his enemy. Keepers will also persuade tlieir masters, if they can, that vermin cannot be kept down without steel traps — which they know are pretty sure to catch foxes ; but their masters little think that they will catch pheasants and hares with even more certainty than foxes. I took a keeper some years ago from rather a suspicious place, but, as he had a very good recommendation, I determined to give him a trial. The first thing he asked for were some steel traps, to catch the
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vermin. Tliose, I told liim, I never allowed. "Pray, sir, if it is no offence, may I ask why you object to their being used T " Simply," I replied, " for this reason, that they will catch more foxes and pheasants than they will vermin." " I assure you, sir, that I can set them so that I can catch both vermin and rabbits, but never injure foxes or pheasants." " Well," I said, " you must be exceedingly clever, and I will test your ingenuity." I gave him some traps, accordingly, which I desired he would set in one particular part of the covert. The next morning I visited these traps in propria persona, before my learned keeper had arrived on the ground. In one of them was tlie toe of a fox, and in another a pheasant's claw. Mr. Keeper was rather taken aback at the exhibition of these trophies of his skill, and, I need hardly remark, there were no more traps set. Finding he had one to deal with quite as wide awake as himself, or rather more so, he never attempted to play tricks again ; and he lived with me for many years afterwards, always keeping me plenty of game and plenty of foxes. A man who cannot destroy vermin of every description without using steel traps, or laying ground baits with poison, is not worthy to be called a keeper. I will in my next give a few lessons to game preservers and keepers, how they may keep down vermin^ without either injury to foxes or pheasants.
CHAPTEE XXYI.
On game preservers — ^Food of foxes not confined to game — The real wild, good fox not a frequenter of hen-roosts — Old woman an J fox " in a cradle,"
at Castlecoomb — Dainty taste of foxes in relation to Lord 's venison
■ — Another story, equally true, as to their taste for pork — The real story — Foxes less gluttonous than is usually believed — A novus Jiomo — The battue system— Severity in the prosecution of poachers — Comparison between the battue and the fox-hunt.
I WILL now endeavour to point out how game may be preserved and vermin kept down, without having recourse to those most objectionable means generally resorted to for their destruction, steel traps and poison, which have been considered by ignorant keepers as indispensable to that purpose. I would also, with aU due submission, beg to remind large game preservers, that it is quite possible for them to have an abundant supply of game for their own and friends' amusement, and also to keep a few foxes for their sporting neighbours in scarlet.
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162 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
It is quite an erroneous opinion that foxes subsist entirely upon hares, rabbits, and pheasants. From long acquaintance with and careful observance of their habits, from the time they first leave the earth, where they have been bred as cubs, I have been enabled to gain a tolerably correct insight into their mode of living. When a boy, I took great pleasure in watching the proceedings of a litter of cubs, which were laid up in a small brake, about two fields from the house in wdiich I then lived. In the evening, during the summer holidays, I used to go down about eight o'clock, and sit under a tree, near the earth, to watch their gambols. As the sun dropped below the horizon, they made their appearance at the mouth of the earth, looking cautiously and stealthily around them (my position was always under the wind, or they would immediately have detected my presence among them); after running in and out for a few minutes, and looking round in all directions, they commenced play, by jumping about like kittens, rolling on the ground and pulling each other about, playing hide and seek behind the bushes, and performing all kinds of antics. In an instant, if alarmed, they would rush to the earth again, from which, in a few minutes, they would cautiously emerge, and sit up to listen. If all was still, they then proceeded a short distance to watch for black beetles, which commence their flight in the evening. Upon hearing the buzzing sound they make when striking the ground, their attention was instantly directed to the spot where the beetle fell, and a scramble ensued for the dainty morsel. Many fell to their share during the evening. Mouse hunting also "^ seemed a favourite amusement. It is astonishing the quantity of beetles and mice which are devoured by young foxes. They are the only game almost they have the power of catching, until the month of August — the larder, of course, being supplied during their infancy by their mother. Now, it may scarcely be credited that the place where these cubs were bred (and there was a litter there for many seasons following) was our chief preserve, and abounded in game — rabbits swarmed — yet I never saw a rabbit or any head of game killed by them during all the seasons they were bred there. The earth was in a brake, just opposite a large covert, and in the dell between, a grass field, which in the evening was nearly covered with rabbits. The young foxes would often go down, and skirmish with them round the bushes, but their general hunting ground was above the earth, in search of mice and beetles.
It is a well-known fact, that foxes seldom prey at home, and I have often seen the old vixen go straight through all this host of rabbits, away over the hill, and return in about half an hour,
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 1G3
with a rabbit in lier mouth, to her litter. When I kept fox- hounds, there was a farmer, whose house and farmyard stood within one • field of a very favourite covert, which produced always one, and generally two litters of cubs every season. He told me he never lost any of his poultry by them ; and, what was more extraordinary still, that one summer one of his hens hatched a brood of chickens in the wood hedge, not a hundred yards from the earth where the cubs were bred, and brought them all safe home. Some people may fancy I am romancing, but I am doing nothing of the kind. The state- ments I make are perfectly true. My own farm-yard was sur- rounded by coverts, in which I had two or three litters of foxes bred every season ; and although poultry of every kind roamed at large about the fields, we seldom missed a fowl, duck, or goose.
The really wild fox does very little mischief either to game or poultry ; but I must admit that the Gallic importations play the rogue in a hen-roost occasionally. Tliere are certainly dis- tinct species of foxes, and their habits are different also. My brother fox-hunters may think it a strange thing for a master of hounds to do, but if a farmer complained to me of a fox visiting his hen-roost, I gave him directions to shoot him, if he could, well knowing he must be either a cur or mangy. Does itever occur to game preservers that their pheasants are roosting in the coverts long before foxes are stirring, and that a fox leaves the wood as the shades of evening fall, and hunts for Ms game in the open fields ? I do not mean to say if a ivounded bird falls in his way he will not cf«t;ch him — he would be a fool of a fox if he did not — but the chief food upon which foxes subsist are rabbits, mice, beetles, and even frogs. Hares will, of course, fall in their way occasionally ; but, as the hare is fleeter of foot than the fox, it is her own fault if she does not escape him._
Some old women, not in petticoats, believe foxes will destroy anything and everything short of the human species ; and one veritable old woman believed this also, and was nearly frightened to death on account of her habhy, as will appear from the following run, chronicled some years ago, and which, for the amusement of those who like to read good runs, even although they have taken place in bygone days, I copy literatim : —
" February, 1794. — On Saturday, the pack of fox -hounds belonging to the Duke of Beaufort unkennelled a fox at Stanton Park, which they ran so sharp, that Eeynard was obliged to take refuge in a small cottage at Castle- coombe, where he entered, and jumped into a cradle (out of which an old woman had, but a few minutes beiore, taken an infant). His clamorous foes soon rushed in, and seized their victim ; the old woman not a little affrighted at these unexpected guests."
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164 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
In a provincial country, not quite so many years ago, a noble- man was persuaded by his bead keeper that the foxes, not satisfied with killing half his game, had actually become so fas- tidious, that they required venison for their suppers, and had commenced an onslaught upon the fawns in his park. My lord, not being a fox-hunter himself, althougb professing liberal opinions in politics, without any particular inquiries, seized upon this lame story as an excuse to commence operations against the foxes, and, accordingly, orders were issued from bead-quarters for their destruction forthwith.
A fox hunting squire, whose lands and coverts adjoined, and w^ho also possessed a herd of deer rather more numerous than bis noble neighbour, took great umbrage at this wanton destruc- tion of foxes upon so sballow a pretence ; and seized the oppor- tunity, at a public dinner, where many sporting gentlemen and farmers were present, of commenting upon such a liberal pro- ceeding. All expressed their astonishment at any one believing such a cock-and-bull story, but they were still more surprised when the squire exclaimed, " True, gentlemen, quite true, upon the word of the keeper. No one will believe what ravenous brutes these foxes have become ; dainty dogs, not satisfied with venison for supper, but the villains must have bacon for break- fast, and I expect next, they will have one of my Scotch bul- locks for Christmas ! You may judge, gentlemen, of the lengths they will go, when I tell you that one of my tenants came to me with a very long face yesterday, and said he hoped I would give orders directly for the foxes to be shot, or he must give up his holding. 'Why so, John Grubber? ' Because, sir, there's no standing 'em any longer ; I don't mind a fowl or two, or may be a goose at odd times, but that don't suit 'em now-a-days, they be come so ventursom like, and strong with it too, you wouldn't believe it, sir.' 'Well, then, John, what are you driving atl Out wdth it.* ' Well, sir, you wont believe it, nor any one else, but this is all about it. I were awoke yesterday morning, quite yarley like, just as it were getting grey light, by a desperate scrimmage and squalling in the pig-stye. Says I to ]\Iary, my missus — you knows Mary, sir? 'Quite well, John, and a good housewife and missus she is, too, and a comely-looking one into the bargain.' ' Well, sir, I says to missus, " What the dickens is the matter with the grunters ?' " Nothing the matter Avith them, John, they are only rubbing one another up a bit ; do ye lie down again." Just then such another squeal, which Mary couldn't help hearing as well. "Odds bobs," says I, "this'll never do ;" so out 1 jumps out of bed, and throws open the window as looked into the yard, and what d'ye think I sees,
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sir ? Why, you wont never believe it ; there, a great big fox, a jumping over the pig-stye hatch, witli a pig of ten score on his back— there now !' " Shouts of laughter followed the squire s story. "Well, gentlemen," he said, "I have not done yet. John Grubber's story about the pig is quite as true as my lord's keeper's about the fawns."
" Now, gentlemen," exclaimed a jovial farmer, " as the squire has broached the subject, I think I can throw a little more light upon it — this story of fawn-killing, I mean. I happen to live just outside my lord's park, and rent some land and a small brake as well, where a litter of foxes is very often bred ; and there was one there this last season, when all this work was made about them. Meeting with old John, the earth-stopper, we went down together to the earths. In searching about, we found some fish-bones, which puzzled old John exceedingly, but I had little doubt they belonged to a turbot, and said so. ' Dang it,' says John, ' why, measter, they ban't turned fishermen as well, be they ? them sorts of fish don't swim in fresh water, I guess, either.' ' No,' I said, ' they come from the sea.' ' Well, then,' replied John, ' 'tis a tolerable trip from this to South- ampton Water, and farther than I would go for the best dish of fisli that ever came out of sea or river.' ' Very likely, John, but you don't know that a turbot is considered a first-rate fish, and seldom seen but at great tables. Many of them are worth a guinea a piece.' ' Ah, indeed,' says John, ' that alters the case ; but how on earth could the ould vixen come at it f My answer to John and to you is, the old vixen became possessed of the fawn's foot, as well as the fish bones, by picking them up, one in the park, and the other on the ash-heap, behind the big house. I dare say you have heard, gentlemen, of the story of the medical student and symptoms. A learned doctor took his pupil with him to visit a patient, whom he accused of eating oysters, and severely reprimanded him for it. Upon their return, the pupil asked the doctor how he could tell his patient had been eating oysters. ' Simply enough,' replied the doctor, ' from the symptoms — I saw the shells under the bed.' This hint was improved upon considerably by the student, and had nearly cost him a broken neck, as you will hear. The doctor being otherwise engaged, sent his pupil a day or two afterwards, to visit the same patient, who was a farmer, well to do in the world, and none of the mildest of tempers. Our young practitioner (remembering all about the symptoms) looked about ; and under the bed, seeing a bridle and saddle, accused the sick man of eating a horse ! ' What, sir,' exclaimed the sick man, starting up in his bed, ' eat a horse !' ' Yes, sir, I repeat
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it,' replied tlie student. ' The deuce you do ; then here goes for an ass,' and he kicked young spiiptonis down stairs. So, gen- tlemen, by the same rule, our foxes must become sea-fishermen as well as deer-stalkers."
Much applause followed the farmer's storj^, although not a very 7iew one ; and these sayings and doings being repeated at head-quarters, did not fail to extort a reprieve for the foxes, and we never heard any more of their aldermanic feasts. Ridicule will tell where remonstrance fails. I shall, perhaps, be told of the quantity of hen pheasants taken off their nests, which are always laid by the keeper to the charge of his rival. It may not be generally known that, by a wise ordination of Pro- vidence, whose care is evident over all his works, that very little scent belongs to birds when sitting on their eggs, the heat of their bodies being attracted downwards to their nest. Two seasons ago, I had a partridge sitting on seventeen eggs, within twenty yards of a wagon track, which led to the farm-yard ; and, although I passed close by the nest almost daily, with several dogs, they were never attracted to the spot, and the bird hatched all her eggs.
Foxes are by no means heavy feeders, half a rabbit generally sufficing for their single meal, and, as they do not indulge in breakfast, dinner, and supper, however many bad names may be given to them, they are free from the charge of gluttony. When more food falls in their way than they can make use of at this one meal, it is carefully stowed away in a hole scratched in the earth, and covered over for another night. On my first keeping fox-hounds, I thought more of preserving foxes than game, and our home coverts near the kennels were kept quiet, to ensure us plenty of foxes, for cub-hunting and bye-days. I had one keeper only, who was not allowed to cany a gun, and his chief business was to look to the earths, and keep up the wood hounds. Under this man, foxes, pheasants, and other game increased pari j^xxssu. In one season I had no less than four litters of foxes bred and reared in an extent of small coverts, not exceeding a hundred acres. Twenty or thirty hares might be counted out at feed in one field, as many pheasants, and rabbits innumerable.
When the kennels were removed, these coverts fell into other hands, and their present possessor, as a novus homo generally does, when first becoming a landed proprietor, commenced a vigorous war (with the assistance of a man, said to be a su])erior keeper) against vermin of every description, foxes included, by trapping and poisoning, right and left indiscriminately, all that came in his way. Neither did he stop short in shooting his
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neighbour's do^s either, if they dared to set foot on the land of his high mightiness. He very nearly succeeded in r»oisoning a poor man also, who, finding a part of a rabbit laid upon the ground where he was working, took it up, with the intention of carrying it home for his supper ; when, having fortunately some suspicions in his mind, he threw it to his dog instead, wliich, soon after eating it, fell dead at his feet. And what has been the result 1 that there is about one-third, or not so much, game in these woods, after such grand proceedings, as when occupied by myself, with only a woodman to look after them.
It is the fashion in the present day to abuse the game, and large game preservers, as the cause of supplying the county gaols with inmates. It must be admitted that the battue system is carried to such an unwarrantable length, that it has very naturally excited the indignation and contempt (I use strong terms, but the occasion justifies them,) of every reasonable person. I shall be told that every lord of the creation has a right to do as he likes with his own. Quite true — of course he has in this free country. He has a right to butcher, in cold blood, five hundred or a thousand poor wretched tame phea- sants, driven up into a corner, that his name maybe blazoned forth in the paper by some -VNTetchod sycophant, as having performed a praisewoiihy feat. And yet, if some unhappy wight, though starving, with a wife and family, upon six or seven shillings a week, should by chance appropriate one of these birds (whose blood his rich neighbour has been shedding by the wholesale in mere loaiiionnes?, for amusement only) to satisfy the cravings of hunger, he would be condemned to two or three months' im- prisonment in a loathsome gaol, and his wife and children con- signed to a workliouse, his name branded for ever as a poacher and ofi'ender against the laws of his country! How fares it with the great game preserver — has he not broken the laws of his Creator by wanton barbarity, and the wanton shedding of the blood of his creatures ? The illiterate man, who, in some cockpit at St. Giles's, kills, or rather maims a hundred rats within a given time for a bet, with his dog, is not half so repre- hensible as the battue man. Such an act naturally excites the disgust of every right thinking mind ; but one has ignorance to plead in excuse for his conduct, the other has not.
Pretty good for a fox-hunter to run on in this strain ? Is not fox-hunting quite as barbarous an amusement as pheasant butchering? Not quite, I think; but without assuming to justify the one, which has many excuses, it is difficult not to condemn the other. To a real sportsman the mere killing of the fox is no gratification. His running to ground or running
IG8 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
away is a relief to many, for he lives to run another day. The excitement and ardour of the chase, and its healtll-gi^dng exer- cise, are its chief attractions, and I think there can be no ques- tion if a fox had his choice of being hung up in a steel trap all night by his foot, j^ierced through and through, and torn nearly off in his agonizing endeavours to escape, or to be found by the hounds (taking his chance of good or bad scenting days), and to run for his life, which he would select. In one case, eight or ten hours' excruciating torture, before the brute of a keeper arrives, to beat his brains out with a bludgeon, or destroy him by a more lingering death — in the other, " horce momeiito clta mors venit aut victoria Iceta"
CHAPTER XXVIL
On the destruction of vermin ; traps and other contrivances for destroying them — The marten, polecat, stoat, weasel ; difference between the two latter — Mistakes of gamekeepers — Owls comparatively useful; hawks and kites not to be spared — Conmaon house cat, crow, magpie ; methods of entrapping them — The battue system may be allowed, but not defended — Every country gentleman may preserve his game, and yet exercise the greatest liberality and forbearance — Anecdote of a notorious poacher — Other stories illustrative of the troubled state of the country during the author's younger days.
I NOW resume my pen for the purpose of giving a few instruc- tions in the destruction of vermin, hawks, crows, magpies, &c. It may not be amiss to particularise the different kinds of animals and birds which prey upon game generally, their time of breeding, habits, and haunts. Foremost in the list, as most destructive, stand the polecat, stoat and weasel. The marten has become almost extinct in many of our provincial counties, but is still to be found in the north of England and Scotland ; it is one of the most beautiful of this species of animals — almost a fox in miniature. In its head and ears it resembles a fox, and also in its tail, which is thick and bushy. The marten was formerly much sought after for its skin, which was considered very valuable, and on that account, perhaps, its tribe has been so much diminished in this country. There are still, however^ large quantities of these skins imported from Canada.
When a boy, I remember hunting the marten in some thick woodlands, with a pack of harriers, when other game was scarce. They generally held to the thickest part of the covert,
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giving tlie lioimds a good opportunity of scratching their faces, and, when tired, ascended a tree, or went to ground in the rocks.
The polecat, stoat, and weasel are the most bloodthirsty of all vermin, living almost upon the blood of the animals and birds which they destroy. Eabbits are their chief prey, which have little chance of escape, as they not only seek them in their bur- rows, but, when driven out, hunt them by scent, and seldom lose their game. It has been said that weasels and stoats form themselves into packs, for the purpose of running down hares and rabbits. This is partly correct. I have myself seen a litter of young stoats, with their mamma at their head, in hot pursuit of a rabbit ; and so intent were they on their sport, that, although they met me in full career in a narrow lane, they paid no attention to my presence, but went on with the chase ; neither did I (struck with the novel sight) interfere with them. In the winter season, however, I have seldom seen more than two together. Their method, in killing hares and rabbits, is to seize them behind the ear; and so firm is their hold, that no efforts of the poor animals can remove their remorseless enemy. They then suck the blood, gnawing into the vertebrae of the neck or brain. In this state the rabbit is abandoned, and a fresh pursuit commences. " Catch a weasel asleep" is rather an old saying, and a tolerably correct one. They are an ever-rest- less, busy, meddling race, and I have met with them at all hours of the day, and nigiit too. Where rabbits are scarce, they hunt the hedge-rows in fields for other game, and nothing comes amiss to them. Hen pheasants and jDartridges, which often make their nests in banks or under walls, fall an easy prey; young leverets are equally helpless.
I must here, however, make some distinction between the stoat and the weasel, which are often confounded together as one species. They difier both in size, colour, and length of tail materially. I know only of one species of stoat, but I have certainly seen more than one species of weasel. The stoat is yellow on its back in summer, and often white in winter, with a long body, rather large ears, and a long tail, with a black tip at the end, the throat and belly being a yellowish white. The weasel, on the contrary, is not half the size of the stoat, although in bodily shape resembling him. He is of a brown colour on the back, his head more angular and ears shorter than the stoat, stands shorter on the legs, and has a short tail. There is one species of weasel so small that it can easily follow mice in their holes ; and one of these, not long since, I watched into a mouse's hole in an open grass field. Seeing something
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hopping along in the grass, which I took for a large, long-tailed field mouse, I stood still, as it was approaching my position, and when within a foot or two of the spot on which I was standing, so that I could have a full view of the animal, a very- small weasel appeared and quickly disappeared again in a tuft of grass. On searching the spot I discovered a mouse-hole, into which Mr. Weasel had retreated.
It should be borne in mind that, as the stoat lives chiefly upon rabbits, game, and birds, and is a great enemy, therefore, to the game preserver, yet the weasel, preying upon rats and mice more particularly, is especially a friend to the farmer. An owl and a weasel in a barn will kill more rats and mice than half-a-dozen cats ; for, while the owl is watching and pouncing upon the mice which appear above ground, the weasel is pur- suing them below.
In the keeper's catalogue of vermin, which, of his own making, like a lawyer's bill, is a pretty long one, the bird of wisdom, as well as the bird of ill omen, is j)nt down as a debtor. The plea against the owls, however, is upon a parallel with the accusation against those poor, harmless animals, hedgehogs, which are gravely accused of not only sucking eggs, but, by some, of milking cows as well. The owl never leaves his place of shelter until the shades of evening are falling; and although a young rabbit may occasionally be justly laid to his charge, he seldom oifends further against the game laws ; and the great service he renders farmers and the public generally in destroying such quantities of mice, ought to ensure his pro- tection. Against hawks and kites I admit a true bill ought to be found — but spare the owls.
Polecats and stoats have their young in the months of March and April, producing five or six, and sometimes seven, at a litter, which are laid up in an old hollow tree or rabbits' hole in a dry bank, in cracks of rocks, and old walls. The best traps in which these vermin may be caught are the wooden boxes, called in some countries witches, and the common figure of 4, with a stone tile. As they almost invariably have their runs by the side of hedges and walls, the wooden box is a sure trap. These boxes may be made of any size, and I have used them constantly. Mine were made wdth both ends open, and two falling doors instead of one. They were placed first for a week or ten days quite open, without being set ; and when afterwards set, seldom failed to produce some tenant of the weasel tribe, safely, though harmlessly, secured. I have seen them also used on a large scale, to catch rabbits. The wood bounds being made good, holes were made at certain distances in the bank,
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in wliicli these boxes were placed ; and, by allowing the rabbits to pass through them for a few days, until accustomed to the run, they were, when set, a sure -and safe trap. By visiting them several times in the evening, many rabbits were caught, and the traps were then thrown open for the rest of the night. When these wooden traps are set in the runs of weasels or stoats, a bait is seldom necessary, as these vermin are naturally very inquisitive, and pry into every hole they find open. With the figure of 4 trap a bird recently killed is the best bait, placed on the horizontal stick which combines the trap ; the falling stone or tile may be sufficiently heavy to kill instantly any of these smaller variety of vermin, or even a cat. The common house cat, when once accustomed to the woods, is never after- wards of any service as a mouser, and makes great havoc amongst all kinds of game ; the sooner she is disposed of then the better. Crows and magpies may be easily cauoht, by placing a piece of carrion — part of a dead sheep or rabbit — in a pollard tree or on the ground, with strong horsehair nooses upon and around the bait, secured by a strong piece of twine, either tied to the limbs of the tree or pegged down to the ground. In the breeding season, also, their nests are easily found, and the old birds may be shot, by waiting their return to them in the evening. Kites and hawks may be destroyed in the same manner, without torturing them in steel traps, or destroying them by poison, for which there is no excuse.
Although entertaining a strong prejudice, in which I am not singular, against the battue system, yet I am by no means an enemy to the moderate preservation of game, for the use of the landed proprietor and his friends. Neither is the preservation of game, on liberal principles, any nuisance. As all landed proprietors are not fox-hunters, they require relaxation and amusement as well as their neighbours, and, in the winter season, hunting and shooting are the chief inducements to remain at their country seats. A country gentleman, with a generous heart, may have as much game as he requires for himself and neighbours at a very trifling expense, and without supplying the county gaols with many inmates. I never had more than one keeper for many years, and there was always as much game as I required for the house, and my neighbours as well; and, although the parish was large in which I lived, there were very few poachers in it. In the course of twenty years I do not think I ever caused more than two or tliree offenders against the game laws to be corrected; and those were incorrigible vagabonds — mauvais snjets in every respect. The tenants on the property were never refused hares or rabbits
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whenever they applied for them ; and when game of any kind was shot on their land, a certain portion was always left for them, so that they became interested in its preservation. Neither were the poor forgotten. If any man wanted a hare as a present, he was never refused, or a couple of rabbits for him- self In covert shooting men were employed instead of dogs for beaters. At the close of the day the rabbits were laid out, and each man received according to his family, with a shilling also for his day's work. In my shooting and coursing expe- ditions, during the dead months, I was never without attend- ants ; though not invited ; they knew they were not unwelcome, and all shared in my good or bad luck. Such a course ensured me plenty of friends, and all were interested in the game. I can only say I had more, very much more, than I ever could make use of, with all these recipients to boot. Independent of my own land, adjoining occupiers would allow no one to tres- pass upon their holdings. Their general answer to any marau- ders was, that the game belonged to the squire, and no one else should have it. Poachers, therefore, had little chance with so many keepers.
In my father's time there was a notorious poacher in an ad- joining parish, not our own, who would occasionally make a swoop upon the hares at night, and, not satisfied with his exploits, boasted of them as well. He had been overheard to say, he should have some hares out of a certain field, not far from the house, as soon as the corn was cut ; and have them he would, notwithstanding all the squire might do to the contrary, and that " they called him master." This information was given to the governor, who merely replied, " Oh, very well — we shall see who is master, perhaps, one of these days." On the night the corn was cut, my father went out with his gun, about ten o'clock, and, as there was a row of trees running at right angles up to the gate of the field, which was surrounded also by a high wall, he could approach the spot without being seen — it being a dark night also. Standing behind one of the trees, he quietly awaited the approach of Mr. Jim, who soon came, and set his net at the gate, whilst his companion went to the other side of the field with the dog to drive the hares into it. For a few minutes all was still, Jim being stationed behind the gate-post, when down came a hare, rushing into the net. Jim was down upon his hands and knees in a minute upon the hare, exclaim- ing, " Squaak, squaak, is it, my dear? 'Tis no use your crying out, for the squire can't hear you, and you calls me master now." " Wait a bit," says the governor to himself; " I shall put in a word or two presently, my boy." So he takes a few steps back-
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wards, and, at about sixty yards distance, as Falstaff says, he " lets drive " at Jim's seat, which was exposed by his stooping position, and a particular patch of white corduroy attached. The uproar that ensued was indescribable almost. It was Jim's turn now to cry out, which he did with a vengeance ; and, scrambling over the gate, he ran away from the field as fast as his legs could carry him, leaving, in his confusion, both nets and hare behind. The governor, having coolly re-loaded, approached the spot, took up the hare and nets, and carried them home. " Who is master now T soliloquized my father ! The next day it was all over the parish that Jim had met with a sad mishap in the night, but he would not tell hoiv, and was obliged to take to his bed ; his wife having some trouble to pick the shots out.
In a few days, however, he was all right again ; and happen- ing to meet the squire, he asked him what had been the matter. " Oh, sir," said Jim, " you shouldn't have done it ; it were too near, it were, and 'twere like hot pins running into me." "What's the fool talking about T said the squire ; " I suppose you got drunk coming home from market, tumbled into a black- thorn bush, and then fancied some one had been peppering you." " Oh, no, squire, 'twernt no fancy, and I warn't drunk, and if I had, the tickling I got would soon a sobered anybody ; but I wont be caught at that game any more, you may depend on't." "Very well," said the squire; "keep to your good resolu- tions, and here's a plaister to heal your wounds this time."
Those were troublesome times, and we did not stick at trifles; being obliged sometimes to take the law into our own hands. As a boy, I never went to bed without having a gun loaded Tinder my pillow, and a terrier sleeping in the room. We lived in a solitary house, far away from any village ; and, as highway robberies were frequent, and housebreaking going on pretty ex- tensively, we were always prepared with dogs, guns, and pistols for an attack. A man was stopped and murdered not a mile from our house, on the high road, and a regular footpad (as they were then called) took up his quarters in a wood not a hun- dred yards from the lodge gates. This fellow actually stopped my cousin, who was taking a walk with her maid, close by the wood in open day ; but his behaviour was so gentleman-like (so she expressed it), that she begged he might not be prosecuted on her account, if even caught. Her account was that, as she was walking along the lane, by the wood hedge, this man made his appearance, took off his hat on approaching her, and, politely apologizing for his intrusion, said he was in sore distress, and obliged to live upon what he could get, he acknowledged dis- Jwmstly but that he had a wife and children nearly starving.
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My cousin, possessing a good deal of presence of mind, said to him, " Then you mean to rob mef "No, madam," he replied, " I never robbed a lady, and never will ; bivt if you will give me any money, I shall feel obliged." " Well," she said, " there is my purse, and I suppose I must give up my watch and rings as well — here they are." Taking the purse, he appropriated the silver to himself, and then politely handed it back to her, with her watch and rings. The servant, being frightened nearly out of her wits, begged him to keep ail, and let them go. He sternly reproved her, and told her to hold her tongue. Then, bowing to my cousin, said he had one favour to ask more before they parted. " What is it T she said. " Only, madam, that you will give me your word of honour that you will not appear against me, should I be taken." " That," she replied, " I willingly give you, and can only regret that one such as you are, of good man- ners and address, should be found pursuing so unworthy a course. You have not robbed me of much, and more I would readily have given you, had I possessed it." " Many thanks, madam, for your kind wishes, and may you never know the miseries I have experienced in life."
Tlie next moment he disappeared into the wood. The ser- vant immediately ran home, notwithstanding her mistress's orders to stop, and spread the news to the other servants, that her mistress liad been robbed. Upon the governor's return, he was quickly apprized of what had taken place, and immediately requested my kind-hearted cousin to give him all the particulars. This she was very reluctant to do, fearing my father would directly send out to take him. " Well, Mary," he said, " you know I always keep my word, and if you will give me the full particulars of all that took place, your hero shall be none the worse for my knowing the secret." The story was then told, and the governor remarked, " That fellow I must see, if possible ; but I give you my word he shall never receive injury at my hands for his conduct to you this day."
About two hours after we had all retired to rest, my father's knock at my bedroom door and the dog barking, roused me from sleep. Jumping out of bed, I asked quickly if anything was the matter. " No," he replied, " but I want you, my boy ; get up quietly, and come down to my room — we must go out." This was nothing unusual ; so I dressed at once, and went cautiously down stairs. " Now," he said, " you will say nothing of this to Mary to-morrow ; but I wish to meet with the man who robbed her — not to injure him, but to give him five pounds, and to see if I can make an honest man of him, for he must have some proper feelings left." We accordingly sallied forth, each with
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our gim, and a couple of terriers to follow liim, should the man run away from us. Carefully and stealthily we crept along, until we reached the road near the wood, where we expected to find him — neither were we far out in our conjectures. He had evidently been there, but had heard us approaching, and he sought the shelter of the wood again, as the dogs immediately dashed off ; but it was so dark we could not follow them, and were obliged to call them back. We searched the wood on the following day, and for two or three nights tried to meet him, but without success ; our hero had decamped. A man, liowever, answering his description, was captured a short time afterwards in a neighbouring county, by attempting to rob a farmer on horseback in the open day, who roused the neighbourhood in pursuit ; and, although the fellow topped the stone walls, as the farmer said, like a greyhound, at first, he was finally run into and taken at last. His fate I never heard.
My father had also a very narrow escape from a highwayman at another time. He was returning home on horseback from a friend's house, where he had been dining ; and on passing' over an open down, through wliich the turnpike road led, he heard some one on horseback following him. Guessing this boded no good, and being unprovided that night with pistols, he mended his pace — so did his pursuer. Being on a thorough-bred horse, he knew he could scarcely be caught, and so put him into a gallop. The highwayman galloped after him. This wont do, thought my father, I must race a bit. His follower raced too ; but, not being able to get up with my father, he hallooed out, " Stop — or I'll blow your brains out." " Blow away, you fool," cried the governor, " I have none to spare." The fellow fired — the ball passed through the flap of his coat, as it flew open in the race, but fortunately without injury. Some short time after- wards the highwayman was caught, convicted, and ordered for execution. He got the governor of the gaol to write to my father, saying a prisoner under condemnation wished particu- larly to see him, and hoped he would come without delay. He immediately set off to the prison, and when the culprit was pro- duced, requested to know what he wanted with him. " You don't know me, then," said the man. " No," replied my father, *' I do not." " But I know you, squire, and I cannot die with- out begging your forgiveness for shooting at you oue night coming over the downs. I did not know until the trigger was pulled that it was you ; but your voice struck me afterwards, and I hope you will forgive me, for it has dwelt on my mind ever since." His forgiveness was soon obtained ; endeavours were not wanting either to procure a reprieve of his sentence ;
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but without effect. The culprit himself had little hopes, as he had done a great deal of business in a short time, and many- appeared against him on his trial. He proved to be a farmer's servant in our neiglibourhood, who used his master s horse, when he had retired to bed, for this unlawful purpose.
I have related these stories to show that these were trouble- some times, and there was a necessity some times to take the law into our own hands. Having now, in my last two chapters, got entirely off the line, I purpose in my next to resume the subject of fox-hunting.
CHAPTER XXVni.
Difficulties during a fox-chase, and best means of overcoming them — Different behaviour of huntsmen to their hounds — Knowledge of the country essential — Difference between foxes eaidy in the season and after Christ- mas— Eelative speed of fox and fox-hound — The run — Death of the fox — The first check the most critical — Mischief of " going to halloos" — • Consequence of so doing — Difficulties overcome by perseverance — A seen worthy of Landseer.
Having found our fox and pointed out the proper positions of huntsman and whipper-in, we will endeavour to follow him over the open, and relate the difficulties which often occur in a fox chase, and the best way to meet them.
As soon as his hounds break covert, it is the place of the huntsman to be with them. He should not be sparing of his horn upon leaving the covert, and this, with a loud cheer or two of " Forward away !" will leave few, if any, stragglers behind. There is, however, a vast difference with huntsmen. To some, who are fond of and cheerful with their hounds, the pack will fly like lightning ; with others, who have a dull, monotonous manner with them, the reverse will be the case. It has been said by Beckford, that when the scent is good, a huntsman cannot press on his hounds too much. This has struck me almost as an absurdity, for we all know that with a high scent you cannot press hounds at all. With heads up and sterns down, high-bred fox-hounds will go as fast as their legs can carry them ; but if horses can press upon them, in such a case, they may go, as the Irishman said, faster than their legs can carry them : that is, they will go clean over the scent for half a mile or so. When hounds run hard, as our term is, it is as much as we can do to keep with them, and the less they are interfered with the better;
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cheering and screaming, at sucli a time, thoiigli often done in the excitement of the chase, generally i)roduce more harm than good, and I have witnessed their ill efiects often. Hounds are wild enough at that time, without any extra excitement.
Upon leaving covert, I like to hear a huntsman cheery with his voice and horn, and it is then of great service in getting his hounds well together ; but when that is done, and the hounds have settled down to the scent, the horn should be still, and the voice too. The huntsman's head has then to be employed, and he should be prepared for casualties.
Knowledge of his country is of essential service to a hunts- man in making his casts, or recovering a lost fox, as they generally take the same line. In the early part of the season, young foxes know little country, and will run short, hanging about the earths and woods where they have been bred. Neither will old foxes, at that time, unless hard pressed, leave their home for any distance, often making wide rings, and returning to the covert in which they were found. A knowledge of these facts will direct a man of observant habits what to do when his hounds come to a check. At this season of the year a forward cast is least likely to recover the scent. After Christmas, and when the clicking season commences, foxes travel very long dis- tances, and afford good chases. If found away from home, dog foxes will run straight to their native places, and, unless hounds are quick after them, there is little chance of their being caught, as, having an object in view, they put their best leg foremost, and do not linger by the way.
Although the hare is much swifter of foot than the fox, yet the latter, having greater powers of endurance, can travel a much greater distance in less time than a hare could. In speed the fox-hound and his game are pretty much on a par, but it is the superior power and condition of the former which enable him to overhaul Mr. ReynaT'd in the long run. I have witnessed many a race with my own hounds in the open, after a fox, but I never, in any one instance, saw them beaten.
I remember, some years ago, we had been running a fox, with a middling scent (never being able to press him), for about thirty minutes, when we came to a check in a road near a large field of turnips, just on the verge ot the downs. Whilst trying to hit the scent ofi, up jumped the fox in the turnips, about 200 yards ofi". In a moment there was such a hullahcdoo and tally-hoing from the field, that the hounds caught sight of their game as he was leaving the turnip field, and away they went, helter-skelter, horses and hounds all together, straight over the open. They gained upon their iox every stroke they took ; but^
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on rising the liill, a gentleman of the neighbouring hunt, into whose country we were running, cried out, exultingly, " See how he is beating them up the hill ; you wont see much more of him on the other side." " Wait a bit, my friend/' I ex- claimed ; " you are deceived about the fox beating the hounds. The fact is, whilst we were running down hill, the distance between hounds and fox, being foreshortened, appeared less than it actually was, and now, going up hill, it appears greater; but we shall have him in a few minutes, and that w^e may see from the top of the hill, for we shall not be with them, that is quite clear." We had plenty of time for this short interchange of opinion as we were working our way up the steep hill-side, which was a regular stopper, and our pace was not much out of a walk. Upon gaining the summit of the hill, the hounds and fox were far away in tlie distance, but so close together, that I exclaimed to my doubting companion, "You need not hurry noiv, the business is over." I could see the leading hound make a dash at the fox, which he evaded only to fall into the mouth of another. The only person near the hounds Avhen the fox was pulled down was the second whipper-in, upon* a thorough- bred mare ; the rest — myself included — were not placed ; in short, we were quite out of the race. When we got together, all exclaimed it was the quickest thing ever seen, and were quite delighted at doubling up, in this first-rate style, an old dog fox in our neighbour's country. Being then at least twenty- five miles from the kennels, home was the next order of the day. The first check that occurs is often the most critical. The fox, being fresh, makes the best use of his legs, and if much time is lost, he will (if a good one) beat you. Many huntsmen at such a moment will do hasty things, being themselves in a wondrous hurry, and out of temper, perhaps, at such a sudden contretemps. Coolness at such a moment is, however, the best help out of the difficulty. Let the hounds have their own fling first ; the chances are, if the scent is good, that they have gone over it by the fox being suddenly headed — unless a flock of sheep have come in their way, or a piece of fallows ; but a good pack of hounds, if given a reasonable time and full room, will recover the scent by their own natural instinct much more readily than when taken hold of by an enterprising genius of a huntsman, and hurried half a mile oft, to suit his fancy or caprice. Hounds that are often lifted, do not take half the trouble others will, which are left to themselves, in recovering a lost scent ; at the first check which occurs, their noses will be up in the air, instead of where they ought to be— on. the ground.
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Going to halloos is also very prejudicial to them. It encou- rages them to be idle, and to look for assistance, instead of trusting to themselves. It has been said, "that a pack of hounds which will not bear lifting are not worth keeping." I admit this to be the case, but only to a certain extent ; there are times when all hounds require lifting, but if judiciously done, and not often repeated, they will not be injured by it. This is the exception, not the rule ; but I am quite sure that a pack of hounds continually lifted by a harey slavey huntsman are not worth keeping. A huntsman of this description whom I once knew, always up in the stirrups, with his eyes and ears well open upon any emergency, was once nicely caught in going, as he thought, to a halloo. His hounds and self having come to a dead stand, after the exercise of all their ingenuity to little purpose, my friend Joe and his now mute companions were, as usual, looking out literally for squalls. The day was windy, and Joe descried at a distance, as he thought, a man on a wall, with his hat and coat off. This was enough ; in went the spurs, and off started Joe with his darlings, as ready as their master for any such enterprise. Only guess Joe's astonishment and chagrin when, nearing the spot, he discovered an old grey- headed horse, with his white nose poking over the wall. It was a damper, and the laugh of even his most admiring friends could not be repressed. The old grey horse was a standing joke against him for many a long day after, and a horse-laugh was Joe's abomination.
' At particular seasons of the year, also, sundry little urchins are employed in the " alfresco" amusement of bird-keeping, and having little else to do, they spend their time in trying who can halloo the loudest. At such periods it is a ticklish affair going to halloos. This is but a poor resource, after all that can be said in its favour, and a huntsman had much better trust to his hounds" noses first, his own talents afterwards when the hounds fail, and when all these have been fairly tried, he may try what dependence can be placed on a halloo — or try for a fresh fox, which is his dernier ressort
When a fox has been pressed at starting, and has given yon a good run, my plan is never to give him up as long as the hounds can own the scent ; ten to one but that he will loiter somewhere, and if you can only once get upon better terms mth him, you may be tolerably sure he will come to hand • and I always derived more satisfaction in witnessing the hounds working through difficulties and gradually improving upon the scent, than in a burst of thirty or forty minutes, with a whoo- whoop at the end. Any lot of curs, with a burning scent, may
n2
■180 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
race a fox to death, but it requires a good pack of hounds to catch a good old warrior, who can hold on for an hour and a half. To beat such a one, fox-hounds must not only run hard, but hunt as well, and persevere in their work; and there is great satisfaction, as well as great merit, in finishing him off handsomely at last.
I may here relate one instance out of many in which my perseverance through difficulties was crowned with the deserved success. We found a fox in some large woodlands, on a day which was pronounced by the cognoscenti in such matters to be a very bad one for scent, and after a ring or two round the covert, a friend of mine — who, by the way, was a master of hounds himself, only in a different line — said he thought we should not be able to do anything, only, perhaps, be badgering about those woods all day ; and he thought, as there was little prospect of a run, he should go home, having other business to attend to. " Just stay a quarter of an hour longer," I replied, " for, unless I am very much deceived, we have an old warrior before us, and he wont hang about here much longer." " Nonsense," he said, " upon such a day as this, you could not catch a bad fox, much less a good one ; and I have heard you say it requires three good things to catch a good fox : a good scenting day, a good pack of hounds, and a good huntsman." " Very true," I replied ; " of the latter we will say nothing ; of the former we cannot say much at present ; but there is a good pack of hounds out, and I wish you to be satisfied on that point iDcfore you go home." " Very well," he said, " I will wait at least half an hour longer, and see how you go on."
Our fox had tried to break once or twice at the top of the covert, but was headed back by the horsemen and foot people ; his point I therefore knew to be another large covert about a mile distant. Being foiled in these attempts, he at last broke away nearly at the bottom of the wood, making a circuit over the vale, to reach the same covert, in which was a strong head of earths. We ran him pretty sharply over the open, having a turn of the wind in our favour, and dashed up to the earths, which were closed. Finding no refuge here, our gallant game, without more ado, broke away again, and set his head straight for my neighbour's country, resolved to do or die. We ran him for several miles with a moderate and treacherous scent into the heart of the adjoining hunt, and our first check of any con- sequence was at a rather wide brook. The hounds crossed over near a ford or shallow place, where the horses could easily cross as well, and after running to an old stone quarry, they turned short back upon us as we were ascending the hill, and crossed the
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 181
brook again nearly in the same place, one or two favourite liounds only throwing their tongues.
" Hang it," exclaimed my friend, who was still with me, " this can never be right — they are running heel.'' " No, no," I said, " you are thinking of your little currant-jelly dogs at home ; our big-headed animals don't do things in that fashion." Eight, my boys ! for over he went. He tried the quarry hole, but it was shut ; " and now he is away again for another dodge, and perhaps (looking slily at my friend) for another day." " Ay, that he is, old fellow, you may depend upon it; you wont handle him to-day, with all your kno\^dng looks and craft besides." " Come on, then, and see, for he has an hour in him still, and we shall make your old horse cry ' Bellows to mend !' before he is booked ; for catch him I mean if he keeps above ground." Passing through a small brake on the opposite side of the brook, where the fox, I think, waited a minute or two, to shake himself dry, or determine upon his next course of pro- ceeding, the hounds got upon better terms, and began run- ning for a mile or two rather sharply. We then came to slow hunting again, over some ploughed lands, and they all thought it was over, when we crossed a road, down which the hounds seemed to mark the scent. We went on the road for nearly half a mile, trying the hedge as we went, when we met a farmer on horseback, who had been riding some distance on it. Eager inquiries w^ere made, of course, by every one if he had seen tlie fox. "No." "Now," said my friend, " the game is up to a dead certainty, and I shall stop no longer." "Good morning, then; and I will send you the brush to-morrow." " Pshaw !" he exclaimed, and turned away.
My bristles were now up, and I determined to persevere. An old favourite hound threw his tongue in the middle of the road up which the farmer had been riding, upon which a stanch friend to hounds quietly remarked, coming close up to me, " Is it possible that can be right ?" " Yes," I said, " it is quite pos- sible, and now we shall do again." Some of the field going down the road, to save their nags (who had all by this nearly if not quite enough, and some more than enough) viewed the fox stealing away the other side of a plantation before the hounds reached it; and such a row commenced at this unhoped-for light breaking in upon us, that it baffles description, and it nearly baffled the hounds as well. They were soon, however, out of the hwiy hurly, although the fox had gained a consider- able distance by it. Now came the tug of war, for he was as game an old fox as ever wore brush. Down went the hounds'
182 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
sterns and up went their heads, as, catching the scent, they dashed over the fence, running as if they could see him. '' Now, gentlemen, ride — ride as hard as you like, for they will have him in ten minutes."
Such a scene I hardly ever witnessed, with nearly tired horses, which had been coming across some very stiff en- closures ; racing at such a time was out of the question, but the effort was made notwithstanding. Rival jockeys jostled each other at the fences, and the rolling and crushing was tremendous. Two hard-riding farmers in this scramble of a couple of miles or less actually killed their horses — more shame to them ! Mine, I admit, had already enough ; and, knowing this, I did not over-hurry him, seeing also that matters would soon be brought to a favourable conclusion without my further interference. A small plantation sheltered the fox for a second or two, but on the other sidq, leaping a park fence, the hounds caught sight of their game, and raced into him in an open park, pulling him down among a herd of deer, whose company he sought as a last refuge. The deer, being used to the cry of hounds, stood gazing on at a short dis- tance, and it was altogether a scene wortliy the pencil of Landseer — the fox in the hands of the whipper-in, the hounds baying round, men with their hats off, wiping their foreheads, the horses^ which had got up standing alone without their riders, their heads lowered and tails erect, shaking from their exertions — some walking leisurely in, others trying to make a last gallop of it, and the herd of deer in the distance, would form a beautiful picture. We had been nnming this fox from the time we first found him, I should think, about two hours and forty minutes. We had a very poor scent, only sufficient to hold on the line at some periods. But this only shows what perseverance can accomplish. The finish was complete. It was one of those days of which I may fairly say,
Hixc oTim rneminissejuvahlt.
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 183
CHAPTEK XXIX.
Of hounds that run wide — Hunning the foil — A month's hunting in another country — Eun after, and death of a fox that had baffled the huntsman three years — The author treated to the worst fixtures — Death of a second okl fox — Ahvays attended to my hounds' dinner before my own — A sporting divine — Various remarks and anecdotes — Pursuit of a fox running with a rabbit in his mouth.
When hounds run over the open or in covert, they should carry a good head — that is, spread wide, and not tail (as the hunting phrase is) one after another. A pack of hounds which spread wide have, of course, a much better chance with the scent than a long line of hounds following their leader. To whichever side a fox may turn in the chase, one hound or other, when they run wide, will take up the scent, and the body so go on together without being brought to a check. A hound which runs mute, or is a skirter, should be drafted ; they will both do a _great deal of mischief.
An old fox-hunter once remarked to me that there was a wide distinction between hounds running at a scent, and carrying it with them; and there is much force in this observation. A good pack of hounds should go with the scent, and not beyond it, turning always with it — in short, quick hounds ; these will seldom go beyond it. Others dash at the scent, and most fre- quently dash over it. They have then to recover their lost ground. Here lies the distinction between a quick hound and a fast one ; both, perhaps, equal in speed, but doing their w^ork in a different style. The fable of the hare and the tortoise may be quoted as an instance to show what a steady pace, with per- severance, may accomplish. I do not here intend to recom- mend old or bad hounds, that will tye upon a scent — they are worse than useless, and will act as a drag upon the rest of the pack. The superiority of a well-bred fox-hound over other hounds consists in his pushing forward, and making the most of a bad scent. An old southern hound, or harrier, would be bow- wowing over the scent across one field, whilst a fox-hound would carry or follow it a mile in the same space of time.
When foxes run their foil in covert — that is, continue running over the same ground, by which hounds are so frequently foiled, and the scent becomes almost lost — some huntsmen will take their hounds away, and find a fresh fox. I cannot admire tliis course of proceeding ; it may be all very well upon a bad scenting day, or when you may have particular reasons lor
i84 HOESES AND HOUNDS.
showing a day's sport, or when it is very cold, and your field want warming ; but a fox left under such circumstances will only give you more trouble another time, and I would much rather finish him off at once, or make him break covert. Skulking brutes of this description are always getting in the way when not wanted, and I have a great dislike to be beaten, even by a fox.
Some years ago, I took my hounds, by particular invitation, into another country for a month's hunting, and was favoured with not the best places of meeting, merely, I suppose, to try what we were capable of doing. Upon one occasion I was sent to find an old hanging brute of a fox, which had baffled the old huntsman for three years in succession ; and so satisfied was he that he would beat us also, that he bet my whipper-in five shil- lings w^e did not catch him. The bet was accepted, which my man informed me of in our way to covert. Upon arriving at the place of meeting, the keeper made his appearance on a stout pony, and gave me the intelligence that the old gentleman was at home who had beaten Mr. Slowman for three seasons. " You know him well, then, keeper !" " Oh yes, sir, we be old acquaint- ances, and I think likely to remain so some time longer." " Well," I said, " all I wish you to do is, to go with me into the covert, and introduce me to your friend ; I promise you I will stick to him afterwards." " I'll show^ him to you, sir, as soon as ever you begin drawing, and my notion is, you wont forget 'un in a hurry." After the coffee-house formalities had been dispensed with, we proceeded to business, the keeper accompanying me, to introduce us to the old gentleman's quarters. He was at home, and ready to receive us. My whipper-in had learnt all par- ticulars of his tricks the night before, from the old huntsman, who was anything but a teetotaller, and finding this out, he had plied him pretty well with drops of brandy, until he had wormed some secrets out. Jim accordingly told me all about him, and received his instructions how to act.
The tactics of this old fox were to keep running his foil, as the term is, round the covert, with the occasional diveHissement of taking a short circuit in the open, and back again at the old game. We rattled him pretty sharply at first, but he was begin- ning to increase his distance from the hounds, by failure of scent, and I saw, unless we had recourse to stratagem, the game might last for hours. I was also nettled by the keeper riding up, laughingly, and saying, " Well, sir, I suppose you knows the colour of his coat by this time, and w^hether he has got a white tip to his brush." Beckoning to the whippers-in, who were both in a large drive, which ran through the centre of the
HORSES AND HOUXDS. iSo
covert, T gave them orders, one to ride to tlie end of tlie drive, where the fox always crossed over, and keep cracking Jiis whip, but not before he had a signal from me. I then rode down to the point where the fox passed over to the upper part of the covert, with the second wliipper-in. As soon as the fox was well over the ride, I stopped the body of the hounds, leaving only a few to follow him on to the other end. The second whipper-in hustled the hounds after me down the drive ; and giving the signal to the other to crack his whip at the further end, to which the fox had now arrived, we all three dashed straight in, hounds and all, and gave the old gentleman such a meeting that he broke away at once, nearly in view, and we ran into him in the open in about forty minutes. Thus ended our first day in my friend's country, which was anything but satis- factory to Mr. Slowman, who not only lost his live shillings, but somewhat of his credit also, by our mastering this old fox, which had so often mastered him. Being a stranger in the country, they did their best to take me in, and accordingly selected the most distant fixtures, where foxes were rather scarce. Our next appointment was quite at the outskirts of their country, and where another old slyboots was in the habit of residing. He wds, a very cool hand, as the sequel will show, but this time reckoned without his host. The changing from a good scenting country to a bad one is very much against a pack of hounds. Ours had come from nearly a grass country into one almost entirely under the plough, and abounding in flints, by which the hounds' feet were sorely cut and bruised. We were alike all strangers in the land ; and these things being taken into consideration, we had a hard battle to fight, all the odds being against us. We had on our side confidence in the hounds, perseverance, and activity ; and to these we trusted to fight through our difficulties. Halloos, as I have before remarked, I never attended to ; knowledge of the country I had none. We had, therefore, to find our fox, and stick close to the hounds, in and out of covert, being always with them, wherever they turned. Our horses were nearly thorough-bred, and good fencers, but in the fencing department the country was deficient. We had, therefore, no opportunity of 2^ounding our neighbours, which at that time of day we were quite capable of doing, when any stiff work of this kind was before us. A few of our hard riders had gone up with the hounds, just, as they said, to show the natives how to do the trick ; but, much to their annoyance, there were few fences to ride over, and, but for the warm and hospitable reception they met with, would soon have returned back again.
186 HOKSES AND HOUNDS.
A good and jovial sportsman remarked one day to some of the field, " Well, gentlemen, I cannot say mucli as regards tlie hunting part of it, but I candidly admit yours is the best six o'clock country I have ever been in ; and if we cannot go very fast over these flinty fallows, we certainly do go the pace over the mahogany in the evening, and I pronounce your country in that respect second to none." Our entertainers did tlieir best to amuse us, and their hospitality was unbounded. Dinner parties every day in the week ; so that we had rather hard work, taking the day and night together. The foxes also appeared to think a good deal about their dinners, as will appear from the conduct of Mr. Slyboots, whom we found at home on the second day of our meeting. The distance from the kennel was about twelve miles, nine of which we had to grind along on a turnpike road, composed of flints and gravel. I always rode with the hounds to the place of meeting ; in fact, they were seldom trusted to the tender mercies of a whipper-in. We left the kennel toge- ther, and upon our return in the evening the hounds had their dinner always before I had mine. In those days a good dinner had little attractions for me, and I made a point of never dining out on my own hunting days, or allowing my host to wait din- ner on my account.
Arrived at the place of meeting, the first to make his appear- ance was an aged divine, mounted upon a clever and powerful horse, well fitted for the country, and the weight he had to carry over, or rather through it. The reverend gentleman was one of the old school — a good scholar, excellent preacher, of gentle- manly manners ; in short, Factus ad unguem homo, but quite orthodox. Attached to his old theories, and, as a matter of course, a zealous defender of Mr. Slowman, _ his pack, and all the rest of tlie family of Sloes or Slows — either will do — as though, strange it may appear, hlack seemed the prevailing colour in this country, even to top-boots — the tops, I mean — coats and inexpressibles no exception. Mr. Slowman's red coat, or rather originally of that colour, had assumed from long wear the appearance of a dark purple, his boot-tops had received so many dashes from the blacking-brush, that you coukl scarcely tell where the tops ended, or the legs began. His inexpres- sibles, of dark corduroy when new, had now followed suit, and, with the assistance of dirt and grease, had become of a most sombre hue. The hounds, too, were nearly all dark colours also, and the whippers-in as to costume quite on a par with their leader. The country was dirty enough, and taking them altogether, men, horses, and hounds, the most dark looking lot I had ever met with. They had, however, their merits — the
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 187
men knew their business, as they had been rather a long time at it, and the hounds were the finest and cleverest I had ever seen. All they required was another huntsman.
After the salutations of the morning had passed, my reverend friend (who was a good judge of hounds) began scanning my pack over, casting certain lowering looks at the whippers-in, who were rather dandies in their way, and not at all suited to his taste. The hounds, he remarked, were a fairish lot to look at, but not to be compared to their pack; this I, of course, admitted. He then observed that we should find this a dif- ferent country to our own, and must not expect to kill many foxes. " No doubt, sir, we have everything against us, but I hope you will not be able to laugh at us when we leave you." I then asked him a few questions about the coverts we had to draw, foxes, &c., and their line of running, to all of which he gave me every information in his power, but with a sneering manner, which plainly said, " You are no favourite with me." This I of course expected : we all like our own things best, and I little thought to make a convert of one who was a stickler for the old school.
As soon as our field had assembled, which was a large one for that country, all wishing to have a look at the strangers, we proceeded to business, by going to the extreme point of all the coverts, and drawing homewards. After trying some_ small straggling copses, we came to a pretty grassy covert, lying on the side of a hill, where we found Mr. Slyboots at home, and when he had just taken a canter round the place, hewent away at once, and I guessed from his style of going that it might be some time before we should see him again. The day was not a very favourable one for scent, but we followed pretty closely in his wake for about forty minutes into some large woodlands, where there was every p,robability of our changing foxes ; but my whippers-in being both young and active fellows, with a tolerable share of sense, knew their business too well to attend to any halloos in such a case, and although there were other foxes soon on foot, and every one pronounced, of course, to be the hunted one, for no other reason except that he happened to be seen, yet we contrived to hold on our line without waver- ing, and were soon through this large covert, and once more away over the open ; fallows and flints, in almost unvaried suc- cession, presenting themselves to our unwelcome vision, with a green wheat-field occasionally giving us a lifting hand to cheer us on our way. Running hard over such a country, with an indifferent scent, was out of the question.
We were at last brought to in a piece ot turnips, not far from
188 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
a sheep-fold, where the hounds for a moment or two threw up. Observing a shepherd at a short distance, I despatched the whipper-in to know whether he had seen the fox, and what had happened, in the mean time allowing the hounds to have their own way. Something I could see was amiss. The whipper-in galloped back, and told me the shepherd had seen the fox, which had come very near to where he was, with a rabbit in his mouth. *' A rabbit in his mouth, Jim 1 nonsense." — " 'Tis true enough, sir; the shepherd showed me the rabbit, which he took away from him." — "We will hear more of this presently — which way went the foxf " Forward, sir." The check was explained, and holding the hounds about a hundred yards in advance, they settled down again to the scent, and dashed through the turnip field. Jim now came up, and gave me the shepherd's story about the rabbit. He said he saw the fox coming through the turnips towards where he was standing with something in his mouth. The turnips being high, he was not seen by Mr. Slyboots (whose attention was most likely directed to what was passing in his rear) ; that upon the fox coming nearer to him, he first threw his crook at him, but he would not drop the rabbit : he then set his dog after him ; the fox, showing fight, dropped the rabbit, which therefore fell to the shepherd's lot. This accounted for our hounds coming to a sudden check where the dog had hustled the fox. Nothing will so soon baffle a good pack of hounds as such an occurrence ; they at once detect that some- thing is wrong, and will not go on with the scent where a dog has been chasing the fox. Many such cases have happened to me, and I always hold the hounds on until they take to the line again freely.
Jim's story about the shepherd and rabbit bothered me not a little. " Can all this be true, Jim ?" I said. " O yes, sir, I sup- pose it is : it looks all right, but the foxes must be cool hands in this part of the world to carry their dinner about with 'em in that brazen sort of a way. I don't half like this gentleman we're after, sir ; he'll beat us, I am afraid, yet ; but there is one thing in our favour, he don't seem much in a hurry at present, and lucky for us, as we can't make more than a canter of it, over these glass bottles." " Never mind, Jim, we will take it patiently a little longer, until we are off these heavy ploughed lands ; and as I see some hills in the distance straight before us, I think we shall mend our pace when we reach them."
Our fox was a traveller, and kept steadily on over a large tract of land, small woods or hedgerows intervening occasionally, until, to my great delight, we had left the glass bottles, as Jim called them, behind us, and came right upon the open down.
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 189
Here was a change indeed ! The fresh breezes of the hill were as refreshing to ourselves and horses as the soft turf was de- lightful to our hounds' bruised feet. A wonderful change came over us all — the scent improved, the hounds began to mend their pace immediately. An old sportsman coming up remarked that our fox, being now on the hills, was certainly making his point for another large covert in the vale beyond. '* What dis- tance is it, may I ask, and in what direction f " Four or five miles away, and straight before you ; you will soon see it. Skirting a patch of gorse, where our friend Slyboots had waited a little (perhaps to try and catch another rabbit), the hounds suddenly threw up their heads, down went their sterns, and away they rattled, as hard as their legs could carry them. We could now see the large covert in the distance. " Jim," I said, " get forward as fast as you can to that wood yonder, straight as a line, and cut him off from entering it, if you can. If he gains that wood, he beats us; there are many foxes there, and we are sure to change." Jim was off like a shot to his point. Descending the hill, he caught sight of the fox taking a circuit round its base, and, with his cap pointing in that direction, he hallooed out, "Yonder he goes, but I'll beat him." Away spurred Jim, cracking his whip as he went, with his head turned towards the fox, and his cap sometimes held high in the air, as much as to say "We shall have him now." Cheering the hounds with my well-known cry when our fox was sinking (and wdiich was always a peculiar one at such a crisis), their hackles rose, and the race began in earnest. We rattled on for a couple of miles or so over the open, when, viewing the fox running hard for the ploughed land again, with his head now straight for the large covert, which we were rapidly approaching, I saw the time was come for a last effort. Eiding, therefore, to the head of the hounds, cap in hand, with a short tally-ho or two, of which they w^ell knew the meaning, their heads were up in an instant for the rush, and catching sight of poor Slyboots, they ran into him at the first hedge we came to, off the down, and killed him up against an ash tree.
All who were up expressed themselves highly gratified at the run ; but the sporting divine, who had been thundering along on his big brown horse at a certain distance, was not in the best humour with our stealing such a quick march upon old Sly- boots: so he said, "I suppose you call that fox-hunting?' " Something like it, I should imagine," was my reply. " But, pray, sir, what may you be pleased to call it T " I call it, sir, fox murdering !" " Very well," I said, " every man to his taste, but I can give you chapter and verse for my proceedings
190 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
Beckford, who is considered pretty good authority, says, ' that a lair fox-hunter and a foolish one are synonymous terms,' " laying a stress upon the foolish, at which the old gentleman winced a bit ; " but," I added, " I am sorry you are not satisfied. For myself, I can only say that stratagems are fair in fox-hunting as well as in war; and, having had a pretty good dose of your ploughed lands and woodlands, I considered myself quite justi- fied in winding up the affair, just in the nick of time, before reaching that small coppice before us, looking like a hundred acres, at least."
CHAPTER XXX
Instead of a treatise on the art of catcliing foxes, I give an account of some runs in Mr. Slowonan's country — His pack of hounds — Helping them to a fox, not a vixen.
Fox-hunting, although very exciting and exhilarating in the field, is a dry subject to write upon ; and I therefore think it may be more acceptable, instead of labouring to produce a trea- tise, to give an account of different runs which have occurred to myself, and how they have been brought to a favourable issue — without the pretension of affirming that every one should do likewise. I do not by any means presume to set myself up as a paragon of perfection ; but this I may say, that I have had long experience in everything relating to the noble science, and if success is any proof of merit, I may lay some claim to it.
In my last chapter I was guilty of what an old sportsman was pleased to designate as murdering a fox, that is, taking an un- fair advantage of him. It is quite true that I did take an unfair advantage of him, by lifting the hounds off their noses to a view ; but that great authority, Beckford, says, " That hounds which will not bear lifting, are not worth keeping, and that it is fair to take advantage of any circumstance, in certain cases, which will bring you on better terms with your fox." Now, had I been in my own country, which was short of game, the probability is that I should have left the hounds entirely to themselves ; but here the case was widely different. The country I was then hunting was really overstocked with, foxes, except the outskirts, to which I was often sent, as in this instance ; but then we ran back into the heart of the country, where I knew the chances were sadly against our catching the hunted fox.
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ft e had, fortunately, escaped this trial early in the run through some large woodlands ; and, knowing the large covert to which we were running to be full of foxes also, I adopted the only course which, under such circumstances, I could pursue, with credit; to myself and satisfaction to the hounds, which latter, by-the-bye, were always my first consideration.
A pack of fox-hounds, like an army flushed with success, with confidence in their leader, will carry everything before them. I always fought for the hounds, and, by keeping them in blood and good heart, they always expected success to crown their efforts; and I never felt any anxiety on their account. Liberties, such as the one above related, I sometimes took with them ; but they were too good to be spoilt by a dash of this kind. With the exception of my reverend enemy, who was a great admirer of Mr. Slowman, all the field were delighted at the off-hand style in which we finished Mr. Slyboots, and pro- nounced it the best thing they had ever seen. " That's your way, sir," said a sporting farmer, " never mind an old croaker or two — we are overrun with foxes, which I don't care much about, but I like to see some of 'em brought to hand. Will you be out to-morrow again V " No, my friend, that's Mr. Slowman's day; but Friday I shall be at Burton Gate, and hope you will come and see us pull down another." " Ay, that I wdll," said the farmer, " and a few more of us as well."
Jim returned home in high glee, with his fox's head, much to the annoyance of ^Mr. Slowman, who was quite crestfallen at our continued success. In the evening my host reflected bitterly on the bad sport they had experienced with his hounds, which he said he had been assured were the best pack in Eng- land, and for which he had paid a large price, having only that season taken to the whole establishment. " Your hounds," I said, " are everything a man can wish for ; in appearance very superior to my own, and equally good in other respects— if not better ; and to satisfy you that I mean what I say, I will give you the same price for them which you have given, if you like to resign the country at the end of the season." " Well," he said, *' I am sick to death of this bad work, and the country too, and you shall have them." " Agreed, then, if you are in earnest." "Quite so," he replied. "Then," I said, "they are mine." "Will you go out with us to-morrow f "By all means," was my answer, "as I shall now feel an interest in the hounds, and we will have a fox, if I am not mistaken ; and Jim shall go also."
Mr. Slowman, I should have remarked, had not killed one fox for the last month. My host did not wish to give offence to
192 HORSES AXD HOUNDS.
the old gentlemen of the country, by interfering ^\dth their huntsman, wlio had lived there many years with his predecessor, and was a great favourite with them ; and therefore begged I would let him have his own way. " Don't be uneasy on our account," I replied. " Jim and myself will only be amateurs to-morrow, and perhaps may take a lesson out of Mr. Slowman's book; but if we see the hounds likely to be beaten again — (they are now, of course, out of heart already from want of blood) — you must excuse us if we do just step in towards the end of the day, and turn the tide, should it be in our power. You may depend upon our silence and orderly conduct up to this point."
Sending for Jim, I gave my orders for the next day about the horses, and that he was to go also. I could see how pleased he was with this arrangement. Mr. Slowman was rather nervous in the morning, having, I think, taken an over-dose of aqua vitce the night before, and possibly a trifle of hot-and-hot after breakfast. He had the character of sacrificing pretty largely at the altar of Bacchus ; but running a fox over the mahogany and over the open are very distinct affairs ; and he Avho does the first very well will generally fail in the other. No man can drink hard and work hard. I knew two sporting characters once, who kept a pack of scratch hounds, which would run any- thing, from a rabbit to a red deer, and, when no game was to be found, sometimes a red herring — anything for a gallop. These worthies could not ride over a fence without being well primed at starting with strong brandy and water. They would then go at anything ; but as soon as the powder was out, they were all abroad, and could not go on without fresh priming at some public-house — nerves they had none.
Mr. Slowman having marshalled his pack, we all rode on quietly together to the place of meeting, about five miles from the kennel, my attention being occupied with the hounds, in looking them well over, and asking their names. The fixture being a favourite one, we had a good muster ; but I observed that dark colours preponderated over scarlet. My reverend friend appeared pleased to see me accompanying his old favourite, and perhaps flattered himself I was come out to take a lesson, and mend my ways. He was fated to be wofully deceived ; but of that anon. We soon commenced drawing some pretty coverts, not far from the road side. The hounds spread well over the stuff, and in about ten minutes a loud tongue was heard — a fox, of course — the hounds being prover- bially steady. The body soon got together, and rattled their fox merrily through the underwood ; and, after a turn or two
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 193
round the covert, away we went over the open, Mr. Slowman blowing his horn furiously, and dashing forward on his favourite steed, with a triumphant look at me, as much as to say, " That's the way to do business !" My friend, riding up, was also in high glee. " What do you think of this?" " All right," I said, " as to Act No. 1 — quite perfection." " Well, I am glad you think so."
The pace was good for the first twenty minutes ; the hounds ran well together, and seemed bent on mischief, when we came to a small covert, in which was a fresh fox. Here we changed, but their whipper-in not being quite quick enough to the further point, where he ought to have been, could not tell what had happened ; had he been at his post, he would have seen the hunted fox going away. In this small place we jolted about for a few minutes, and then back again to nearly the same coverts we had first found in. We did not hang here long, but went away once more over the open to some large woodlands. Several foxes were now on foot, and Mr. Slowman had plenty of work cut out for himself and assistants. Jim took care to be always near me, as I had told him in the morning we would, if we could see an opportunity, take the game out of Mr. Slowman's hands, and help the hounds to a fox, somehow or other, when he had tried his hand long enough. We kept badgering about this big wood for nearly two hours. The hounds beginning to flag, Mr. Slowman's confidence was nearly oozing out, and his voice becoming exceedingly croaky and ominous of what was to happen ; the horn put into requisition pretty often to keep the hounds together, but there was no energy in the huntsman, and no activity in his men ; they all api)eared thinking more of their dinner than the fox,
A good pack of hounds, out of blood, will and may do all the first part of their business, to outward appearances, perfectly. They may draw well and steadily, find their fox handsomely, and run him for some time sharply ; but a keen observer will soon detect a w^ant of ardour and resolution, which gradually increases, until their hunting amounts almost to indifierence. Such was the case now ; they were beaten in spirits. Mr. Slow- man passed me occasionally, and the last time I remarked, " Your hounds are nearly beaten." " Beaten, sir ; no, not that ; they will run till midnight, but the scent is getting very bad." My host presented a very elongated visage, saying, "This is always the way ; we shall be here till dark." " Not I for one," I exclaimed ; " for if you don't let me and Jim knock over one of these dodging brutes of Ibxes, and Mr. Slowman too, into the bargain, if he comes in our way, I shall go home in half an
o
194' HORSES AND HOUNDS.
hour." " Give him half an hour longer, and then I don't care : pitch into the lot, if you like. I will get out of the way of the slow coaches, for I see there will be a row, and I shall be lectured pretty well by our friend on the brown horse."
Lookers-on generally see the most of a fight, and Jim and I had been watching the proceedings like a brace of fresh grey- hounds, impatient of the slips. We had ridden all over the covert, to see the ins and outs, and know the colours of the dif- ferent riders to a T — that is, the foxes. They were all of the bull-dog species, small and dark : but there w^as one^ much darker than the others, and slower in his movements ; in fact, the fox we had been rumiing in the morning. Taking Jim with nie in the drives, I pointed out to him this fox, as he crossed over two or three times. " That's our man, Jim, when we begin the row ; mark him well, and don't make a mistake." " All right, sir ; but what am I to say to J\Ir. Slowman when he pitches into me, which he will do to a certainty ?" " Say you must help him a bit, as he seems nearly tired."
I liad been with the hounds, whispering a word or two in their ears occasionally, when, time being up by my watch, I posted myself where the fox crossed, drew my horn quietly out, and, upon my dark friend making his appearance, with a shrill blast or two, and a scream which made him jump again, I com- menced business. Jim was behind the hounds, ready for the signal. " Hark, halloo," cried Jim, " to him, my lads — get away !" and, hustling them away, down they came, crashing through the underwood, all alive. Cap in hand, I cheered them over the drive, with " Have at him again !" and, riding with them, they set to work in right good earnest, and we made the welkin ring again. " What's all this row ?" exclaimed one of the field. " Oh, I know," replied the sporting divine, " those two mad fellows have got hold of the hounds." " So much the better," quoth his neighbour ; " variety is rather charming upon such an occasion, and charming music they are making just now." Old Slowman looked as black as thunder, and said, " 'Twas not fair play." " Fair or foul," I said, " I don't care ; for I have your master's permission, and the hounds shall have a fox to-day, or I am out of my reckoning."
What to do he did not know ; if he went home he would have the laugh against him, and he knew he was no favourite with his present master. He tried to get the hounds away to another fox, but Jim and I stuck so close to them, that he could not do it. The under-whip, who had come from a fast country, and disliked Mr. Slowman, readily joined in the fray. " That's right, Jack," I said, " you'll make a huntsman another day." The fox.
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not relisliing the new state of things, tried the outskirts of the covert, and in a few minutes broke away over a piece of old pasture, witli the vale below us, and some water meadows. One short and sharp scream brougiit them all out, Jim and Jack too. " Where's his point now, Jack ]" " Over the water, sir, I think, to those woods on the opposite side." " He can't do it, and save his brush." "He'll try for it, sir," was Jack's reply, "as there is a head of earths there, and they are ojyen, worse luck.'''' " Then be off. Jack, like a shot, to the eartlis ; cram the spurs in, and go straight as a bird — never mind a cold bath." " Never fear, sir, I'll do it, and be there before him." " Now, Jim, keep where you are, this side on the hill ; ride opposite to us, and mind he don't get back into that thundering big wood again, for I sus- pect he will turn yet."
These orders were given in much less time than I am writing them ; and away we went with two young dashing farmers, who had joined us down the hill, close to the hounds, who now find- ing some turf under their feet, streamed away like a flock of pigeons. " That will do, my lads," I cried, in high excitement j " forward, away ! — good-bye to Slowman and Co." Turning to my companions, I asked what sort of bottom there was in the river below. " You can't jump it, sir," said one, " and it's deep ; but there is a ford about half a mile up, where we cross over." " That wont suit me just now, my friends ; where the hounds go I follow\" " But you wont swim that river, sir?" " Wont I, though ; come and see." " Well," he said, " it is awkward work across those water meadows to begin with, but, sink or swim, you shan't go alone this time, for you are one of the right sort, to my thinking." " Come along, then ;" and bang we went over a bullfincher into the soft slush on the other side.
Scrambling through the^e peaty meadows, however, was no joke, and our boots and buckskins were the colour of Mr. Slow- man's very soon. The river side was nearly approached, when, in_ an osier bed on its banks, the fox suddenly changed his mind, and, instead of taking to the water, turned up the osier bed, and ran by its side. " I am not sorry for that move," said my companion ; " my teeth began to chatter at the very thought of it." " Oh," I said, " a little washing would have made us look like decent people again. Cold water don't agree with me, but if we catch this old fox, the chances are I shall treat myself to a little hot ivith, softer dinner, and," I added, "you shall have his brush to stir your bowl with."
Fortunately for my friend, the osier bed declined gradually from the river, and the fox, holding to its shelter from view, ran the whole length, and we soon found ourselves on terra irma
02
196 HORSES A^"D HOUNDS.
once more, running up tlie vale tlirougli a few grass fields. The liounds were now pressing hard for their game, and at this moment the field, who had been cofi'ee-housing on the other side of the covert when we slipped away, came rattling down the hill side at various points, and the racket they made kept the fox for some time from turning back in that direction. We ran thus for a couple of miles, straight up the valley, Jim riding parallel with us along the ridge. Old Slowman and others cut in at right angles, to take the lead out of our hands, but he could not keep his ground — lOst. and a thorough-bred were not to be beaten quite so easily, and the fencing we encountered was more in our usual line of business than his, althougli he rode hard enough, and with vengeance just then, to get — to use a vulgar expression — the fat out of the fire. The crushing, groaning, and straining through these heavy enclosures was tremendous ; with an occasional dash of damson-pie, which I heard going on behind me. All this was highly amusing, as I kept steadily on, determined not to be beaten. The household brigade were soon far in the rear.
When we got up to our fox in a thick hedgerow, the hounds did not see him, as he jumped out behind them, but I did. The scream I uttered brought them to in a minute, and up the hill we went, heads up and sterns down, with anotlier big wood before us. Now, Jim, I thought, we shall barely do it, if you are in the wrong place. I \}Vii spurs to my horse for a last effort, when Jim's welcome cry rang in my ears — " Tally-ho ! here he comes !" Shriek after shriek followed, and down came Jim, with the fox before him, right in among the leading hounds. The " whoo-whoop !" he uttered might have been heard in the next town. The reins instantly dropped upon my horse's neck, and I then walked leisurely in. Jim's attitude was highly pic- turesque. On the top of a hillock he stood, with his cap in his right hand, and the fox in his left, held high over his head — the hounds, some lying, others baying around him. His screams must have struck terror into poor old Slowman's heart, who was making the best fight he could still uj) the hill, to be there or thereabouts.
The ceremony of dividing this dainty morsel among the eager and expectant hounds was delayed to give all the field who remained an opportunity of being in at — what they had not seen for a month before — the death of the fox. Most of them laughed, and thought it a capital joke, my taking the cards into my own hands in this way, but others of the orthodox school looked anything but pleased at the slip I had given them in the big wood, and thought I was taking great liberties. My
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 197
reverend friend slowly approaclied with a conntenance snur enough to turn new milk. " A pretty way of doing things," I heard him sneeringly remark, " mobbing and riding foxes to death in this manner, with other people's hounds too. He might spoil his own if he liked, and welcome, but I am sur- prised Mr. allows his pack to be treated so." " Without
my friend's permission, sir," I replied, rather angrily, " I should not have taken such a liberty. His hounds wanted blood, and I have killed a fox for them, that is all. For myself, I do not come into this country to be taught lessons in fox-hunting. Little as I do know, I shall not take a leaf out of your book, at any rate. Give me the fox, Jim. Now, gentlemen, if you please, just let us have a little elbow room, as these poor hounds are craving to taste a bit of fox once more."
Upon Jim handing me tlie fox, the old gentleman said aloud, " A heavy vixen, poor brute !" and walked away. My hackles were up at this unfair accusation. " Come here, Jim," I said ; " take these tokens (cutting them out, and wrapping them in a piece of paper before the field) to that gentleman, with my com- pliments," Jim hesitated. " Do as I bid you, instantly, sir," I added. Following my snarling enemy, he overtook him in a body of his friends, and taking off his cap, respectfully said,
"Master's compliments, Mr. , and hopes you will be
now satisfied this donH belong to a vixen''' His friends could not restrain their laughter at James's demure but wicked look, as he tendered his crec/e?t)!i«/s. Out it came, "Ha! ha! ha! capital! he has you now, doctor." The old gentleman was furious, but Jim skipped back in a trice to assist at the orgies. So much for ]Mr. Slowman's day.
CHAPTER XXXI.
Eeputation tIiroii<?laout the neighbourhood— Sport in Mr. Slo-mnan's country continued — The "Artftd Dodger" out-manoeuvred — New method of bolting foxes — A burst and a scramble — Hounds over-runnuig their foxes — A cast forward not the most likely to recover the scent — Case in point- Bob and his friend — Casualties at a brook — Treeing foxes — Terriers in a drain — Loss of a couple of hounds for ten days, and their extraordinary recovery.
OuE sayings and doings having made rather a noise in the country, and it being spread abroad that the strangers were to be at Burton Gate on Friday, every animal, from a mule to a
198 HORSES AND HOmTDS.
cart-horse, was put in requisition, and a large and motley field assembled to meet us at the fixture. A venerable old squire, too, who ranked first in the country, at this time returned home, and made his appearance. He had heard of our per- formances, and being of a cheerful and generous disposition, fond of the sport, and an admirer of both quick hounds and quick horses, always keeping thorough-bred stock himself, and a horse to improve the breed amongst the farmers, he was a great and deserved favourite. He came up at once and made my acquaintance ; said he was glad to hear of my knocking the foxes about — just what they wanted. "Yes, sir," I said, "I think tliey will bear thinning out a little." "Quite my opinion." " But there are some of your neighbours who think we are a very crazy lot, and are very hard upon us." " Never mind them, young gentleman, you may reckon me among your friends, and old James Dunbar is not to be sneezed at — rattle away, and I will help you through thick and thin."
With many thanks for his protFered assistance, we proceeded to draw a small coppice, which lay just inside and after a high park wall, built of bricks. The ground being lowest on the wood side, it was difficult — almost impossible — for any hounds to jump it. There were large hare holes at certain distances, wide enough for a fox to pass through, but not a hound. One of Mr. Slowman's favourites had taken up his abode in this pretty spot, and, being a very artful dodger, was selected as certain to baffle us upon this occasion. Jim and Jack had now become great friends, after our last day's performance, and we had, therefore, full information as to the measures of Mr. Wiley, of Burton Park, and we took our precautions accordingly. This crafty old gentleman always lay close under the wall, and, upon being found, immediately bolted through one of the hare holes, across the road, and away to some other small coverts, while the hounds were fruitlessly attempting to jump the wall.
Mr. Slowman, I found, had been bothered repeatedly in this manner, and instead of putting some of the hounds over the wall at once, had the pack whipped after him to the nearest lodge gate, by which time his friend Wiley had gone a couple of miles, at least, and, after making a circuit round the country, he always came back thivu^h the lower part of the park, and through the hare holes again, where a ainulaj scene was enacted. If not beaten at this game, it was very evident to me that he would serve us the same trick he had so often palmed upon Mr. Slowman with success. Kunning this over in my mind, I at length decided upon a course which I thought would put me upon a par with Mr. Wiley, and Jim was acqordingly made acquainted
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witli my plans. This was arranged in our way to the place of meeting in the morning, _ Ned, the under-whip, also receiving his instructions. Mr. Wiley was, as nsual, at home, and ready for us. He was scarcely found, before he was through the hare hole, and the hounds at the wall. Jim, being on the other side ready for business, myself and the under-whip jumped off our horses, and, handing five or six couples over the wall, rushed with the remainder of the pack through the lodge gates, which I had directed to be kept open for the emergency. Taking a lane opposite, we dashed along until we joined, Jim and his short cry coming towards us in high career.
The scent being good, we gave Mr. Wiley such a dusting, that he very soon turned his head, and made a short circuit round into the lower part of the park again, and straight through it for the same place, where he dodged us through the hare hole at starting. Knowing now his line of running, I determined upon a bold stroke to bother his tactics a little, and try and beat him_ oft his foil. Taking the hounds up at once, I galloped straight to the lodge gates to give him a meeting the other side. The t^se succeeded — we barely escaped \iewing him at the lane, but we were so close, that the hounds set to work, running as if they could see him, and he went straight away for five and twenty minutes as hard as we could pelt for a drain. Jim jumping off examined the place, and shook his head. " He has done for us now, sir, I'm afraid." " Stop a bit, Jim, let me have a look at it." The drain was large and deep, and emptied itself into a pond close to us. We had no terrier ; what was to be done'? Jim looked blank — "My five shillings is gone sir, I believe, this time."
The field soon came up, and among the first my young friend the farmer. Beckoning him to me, I made inquiries about the drain. He said he knew it well, and that we could not get the fox out, as it ran some length up the field, and advised me to give him up at once and look for another : "And be laughed at by the Slows," I added. " No, farmer, I must have him out in the open once more ; he is not half beaten yet, and a bird in the
hand, you know " " Well, sir, what's to be done 1 I am
ready to lend a hand." " Go, then, straight away to that farm- house, bring me a good bundle of straw under your arm, and a tinder-box (cigars were not then in fashion), and some brimstone matches, the more tlie better." Off he went joyfully to do my bidding. My old friend, as usual (who would come out), seemed now in good humour. " He has beaten you, I think," he said, sarcastically. "I am not quite satisfied yet on that point," I replied. " Oh, I suppose you are going to dig a
200 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
man's field to pieces, to kill a fox and eat him on the earth." "No, sir, we do not do things in that cowardly way in our part of the world ; but bolt him I will if I can."
The young farmer quickly returned, and borrowed a spade from a liedger and ditcher. I stopped up the mouth of the drain, leaving .Jim there, who was told what to do. I then took the hounds with me to the upper end of the drain, where we opened a hole ; the hounds winded him down the drain — that was all I wanted to know. '' Now, farmer, for the straw and matches." Cramming all the straw into the drain, I set fire to it, and threw the rest of the matches upon it. When well burning I stamped some sods upon the entrance. " Well, sir, if that don't make him sneeze, snuff wont, that's all I can say ; why he'll stink like a burnt pig when he comes out." " So much the better, farmer, we shall run the harder." " You do know a wrinkle or two in the parts you come from about catching foxes, and no mistake."
My hat being now held up, Jim raised his cap also in answer to my signal, and jumped upon his horse away from the other end of the drain. ' The smoke having no vent above, forced its way down to the lower end, when Jim pulling away the sods, out came the brimstone vapour, and in a trice Mr. Wiley also made his exit, in a terrible fluster. Into the pond he dashed, and when through on the other side, Jim's shriek made him jump off his legs. " Hold hard a minute, gentlemen, let the hounds settle to the scent." It was useless ; I might as well have spoken to the winds ; away they went, hounds and horses, pell-mell together, but fortunately there was a stiff white-thorn hedge before us, which was a stopper to many. The first flight, however, went over; then came the scramble with the craners and thrusters. Old Dunbar took his line upon a long-legged thorough-bred, for an easy place, to which the eyes of a sporting chemist, mounted upon a nondescript sort of animal — with a carcase like a weasel, and a head like a fiddle — had been also directed. These two, bent upon the same gap, formed a junction at acute angles, just as they reached the fence. The shock was electrifying to the small chemist, who was shot out of his saddle like the cork of one of his soda-water bottles, and went flying into the next field. " My eyes," quoth the farmer, " little Mr. Mixum is thrown into the next parish. What a purl !" "Oh dear, oh dear," cried another in the ditch, " pull my horse ofi", he's breaking my leg." "Hold hard, Doctor H.," said the farmer, " there's a job for you." " Lie still a bit, I'll be back in ten minutes," said the doctor, " can't stop now." We were soon out of this hurly-burly and straining to regain our places
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in the first rank, Jim carrying on the charge furiously. The unceremonious way in wliich Wiley had been ejected from his last refuge, appeared to have thrown such a mist around him, that he hardly knew where he was running, and the burst was short and decisive, which put an end to his artful dodges. The " whoo-whoop " soon resounded over the Last of the Mohicans, for this was the last of those upon which old Mr. Slowman had pinned his fiiitli to beat us. His three mighty warriors had now fallen before the strangers. The fight had been won, vcB victis.
The day being yet early, we drew some small spinnies, at the end of which a fox went away, and gave us a pretty skurry for twenty minutes into a covert of about forty acres ; the pace was severe whilst it lasted, but our fox showed no clispo- sition to quit his present quarters, to try it again in the open. The scent being good, the hounds rattled him round the covert at a clinking rate ; but, being a sulky one, he would not break. Jim came down the ride to where I was. " Shall I finish him off-hand, sir? he's a bad one, and there's no more go in him." "No, Jim, let them alone ; we've had wildish work this morning, and it will do the hounds good to scratch their faces a little — mind we don't change, that's all." " No fear of that, sir ; they are running as if they were tied to him, and his mouth is wide open already. My notion is, he's been a breakfasting rather late this morning." Old Dunbar and the reverend divine soon after joined me in the ride. "By Jove, my old friend, they are a cheerful lot, how they score through the covert," he was remarking ; " hang it. I wish we could change them for old Slowman and Co." Some reply was made in a gruff tone. " You are too hard upon these youngsters, and forget that when you and I were young, we could do a thing or two. No more grumbling, doctor, for hang me if I wont double my subscrip- tion if they will hunt the country next season." A decided change had come over the doctor, for upon coming up he ex- pressed his satisfaction at the manner in which the hounds were doing their work ; and, wonderful to relate, asked me to dine with him the following week. The fox now turned very short, and it was very soon over with him.
Hounds soon find out when a fox is sinking, and it is at this time that there is great risk of their losing him, by dashing in their eagerness over the scent, the fox often lying down behind them. I once Tvitnessed a curious instance of this in my own country. We had found a fox in our grass district, and had a beautiful burst for about forty minutes, with a burning scent, into a small covert, where there was a head of earths — the
202 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
hounds had, in fact, run away from us all ; and when I got up, they were standing still in some short miderwood, with their heads up. An old friend of mine, and a capital sportsman, who was with me, on seeing the hounds in such a position, exclaimed, "Why, what's in the wind nowT' "Nothing," I said, "that's very clear." "He's gone to ground," said Bob. The hounds vrere standing close by the earths. I examined all oi. them ; none were open. " Here is a queer affair, indeed," said Bob ; "but where's the fox, squire r "Among the hounds." "Among the hounds !" he said : " how the deuce can that be ? I can see every inch of ground where they are standing ; but no fox can be there." "There he is, then, I will swear; or ray hounds ought to be hanged, every one of them." Upon looking under an old ash stoul, I espied the fox, curled up, literally in the midst of the hounds. " There he is, by Jupiter, Bob, not ten yards from your horse's head," In anotlier minute he jumped up among the liounds, and of course was finished. " That's all right," said Bob, "let them have him at once, and we will go and look for another fox before the spoonies come out. Egad ! how they will stare v/hen I show them the brush."
We had come over some very stiff inclosures, having to cross a nasty brook twice, with hollow banks ; and many of the spoonies, as Bob called the rear rank, had been treated to a cold bath ; but one, and a good sportsman to boot, who sat rather loose in his saddle, was shot clean over to the other side, by his horse stopping short as he came to the bank ; and this was not the worst part of his flying leap, for a youngster who was out on a pony caught his horse, jumped upon his back, and left him the pony to come on with as well as he could.
Having eaten our fox, we left the place to try for another, and met the field scrambling in, in various plights. A friend of Bob's met us, covered with sand from his head to his knees. " Holloa !" said Bob, "where the dickens have you been, Coxe ? One would think you had been rabbiting." " Why," he said, " I have only had a bit of a noser into a sand bank. Not liking the look of the brook, I turned short away from the meadows, and, like a fool, went at a five-barred gate, up hill, with a blown horse, into a sandy field. A fnp was the consequence, and it took me some little time to get tlie sand out of my eyes ; tliat's all." " And enough too, for once ; your own mother wouldn't know you." " But where's the fox. Bob T " There," pointing to the hounds. " Come, none of your nonsense ; I wont have that." " Well, then, you shall have this, if you are a good boy," holding up the brush.
In the check which occurred will be seen the necessity for leaving hounds alone when, with a burning scent, they are
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suddenly brouglit to a stand. In nine cases out of ten, tlie fox is then behind them. In this instance the hounds knew he was not forward, and by their looks and manner I was at once decided that he was close to them somewhere. Had a wild huntsman at that time come up, and taken the hounds away to make a cast, nothing more, in all probability, would have been heard or seen of this fox. A good pack of hounds will not throw up as long as the scent is before tliem, but will be trying on, even should difficulties be in their way. My friend Bob used to remark of a fast huntsman, who hunted a neighbouring country to ours, " First came the fox, then the hunts nan, and after him the hounds." This system prevails rather too much in the present day, and the hoinids, instead of playing first fiddle, are considered worthy only to take a subordinate part.
It is highly desirable for a huntsman to be so well acquainted with his country as to know the run of a fox ; but as long as his hounds can carry on the scent, he has no right to interfere, except in particular cases. In my palmy d:\ys, Avhen I was generally in at the death, I never allowed a fox to be taken from the hounds. The farce of treeing was never resorted to. I think it made the hounds more eager; and first come first served being the order of the day, the tail hounds pressed more for- ward when their game was sinking. This may be considered by many an old-fashioned fancy. It was, however, my usual practice for many years, and my hounds were second to none in their performances during that period, They were expert carvers also. We had only two more clays in Mr. Slowman's country ; one a woodland alfair, when we ran a fox to ground late in the day, after changing and chopping about with half a dozen ; getting him out was impracticable, as he had saved himself in the main earths, which struck me had been opened for that purpose.
"When a fox has run to ground, many are in a great hurry to take the hounds away; and I have known this carried to so great an extent, that the hounds would at last scarcely mark a fox to ground. Some of the best chases often end in this manner, the disappointment being gTeater to the hounds than to any other party concerned. The least one can do is to allow them a certain time at the earth ; and I think it is of great service to hounds to dig a fox out occasionally, when the place is not a very strong hold. It does not, however, always follow rh a matter of course, that when hounds stop at the mouth of an earth or drain, tliat the fox is within. When heated in the chase foxes will often run up to an earth and turn from it again, unless very severely pressed by the hounds ; they will also enter and come out again. It is, therefore, always the
204 HOESES AND HOUNDS.
wisest plan to hold the hounds round in every direction, to make sure that the fox has not gone on ; and this ought to be done immediately, before miich time is lost at the earth. Ter- riers are not .always to be depended upon, unless they have been kept steady to a fox scent. I remember a curious scene at bolting a fox, some few years since, with the Duke of Beaufort's foxhounds. We found him in Stanton Park, and after a turn or two round the covert, he broke away over the open, and ran to a drain within one field of Haywood. It so happened, upon this occasion, that I was one of the first with the hounds, when they threw up, at the fence, where the drain emptied itself into the ditch, and beyond this point, the hounds having made their own cast quickly right and left, I saw there was not a particle of scent. Although out of order, I did take the liberty (the hunts- man not having yet made his appearance) of holding them then a little round, to make sure of all the ground, which being done, I returned to the drain where the hounds began baying. Upon the Duke's arrival, a consultation was held as to the feasibility of bolting the fox, which, from no terrier being out, appeared almost impracticable, and the idea was nearly abandcmed, when having observed three or four yelping curs at a farm house in the same field, I ventured to suggest to his Grace, that I thought I could turn their noisy tongues to some better account, if he would give me permission to try the experiment. Leave being granted, and spade and pickaxe procured, we put in one cur first at the upper end of the drain, who began barking furiously when we battened him down ; we then opened a hole lower down, and inserted another little dog in like manner, with his head pointing down the drain. The first dog, hearing his com- panion, forced his way to him, and their clamour drove the fox further down, where, opening another hole, we jjut in the third dog, and in a few minutes out bolted the fox, with the three little dogs in full cry, close to his brush — thus proving the truth of the old adage that, " Stratagem is better than force." I had always a few terriers, which lived with the hounds, and ran with them also. They had been many years in the family, and were fast as well as good. They were capital at bolting a fox, but if he would not bolt, they would invariably kill him. I had two of these out with me one day, when we ran a fox into a drain in our home country. The youngest dog was in first, but not being able to get to the fox's head, held him by the brush. The old dog was so near that the whipper-in seized him by the tail, and, cheering him as usual, to bring him out, began gradually pulling him back. Great was Jim's astonishment when he found that the old dog, seeing he could not reach the fox, had seized hold of the other dog's tail, which he held firmly and
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would not let go ; and in this way all three were hauled out, amidst the laughter and cheers of those standing round.
Upon another occasion, we had run a fox to the mouth of a large drain, which led from a gentleman's house to the brink of a wide brook. We were, of course, obliged to take the hounds away at once. A couple of hounds were missing, and not making their appearance the next morning, I sent the whipper- in down to the drain, to see if he could make them out. He re- turned with the intelligence that they could not be there, as he had listened for some time attentively at the drain, and could not hear anything. The servants also informed him it was too small to admit a hound high up. The hounds not returning home, I was not satisfied, and sent the whipper-in again the next morning, with my compliments to the owner of the man- sion, and begged his permission to uncover the drain at certain places. This was kindly granted, and it was done so effectually, as my man thought, that no hound could be there.
At that time I had an engagement from home, and left it in my whipper-in's hands ; but on my return a week had elapsed, and still no tidings of the mis&ing hounds, which were two favourite bitches. I could not get them out of my head day or night, and still my thoughts would run upon that drain. On the ninth day I again sent for the whipper-in, and told him I would have the drain opened from bottom to top, as I was now satisfied in my own mind that the hounds were there. " Oh, sir," he said, " that's impossible ; they cannot be there, I am certain." " Then," I said, " I am as certain they are. Go directly ; get the keeper and another man with him, and my orders are, that they shall not come home again without the hounds. There they are, and I will have them out, dead or alive. Not another word — away." My friend, the owner of the mansion, humanely interested himself in the fate of the hounds, and told my men, "' they might dig away anywhere, as long as they did not pull the house down." The keeper, being a young and powerful fellow, with others willing to help on such an occasion, worked away for that the ninth day after they had been lost, and slept in the village near that night. He resumed his search early the following morning, and saw traces of the hounds having gone up the drain. This gave him fresli courage, and sinking a deep hole, nearly at the head of the drain, there, to his deli;ht, he found both the hounds, and alive ! Being a sensible fellow, he put them directly before a fire, and rubbed them well over, giving them some warm milk and water to drink, but nothing to eat. In an hour after he gave them some more milk and water, wdth a little sopped bread in it. He then borrowed a light cart, and brought them home in triumph.
206 HORSES AXD HOUNDS.
So nmcli for perseverance, or obstinacy, as some may call it ; but when once satisfied in my own judgment upon any point, I was never diverted from it by the opinions of others. The fable of the old man and his ass, which I read when a boy, has always been fresh in my memory. Listen attentively to good advice when offered ; but every man ought to be the best judge whether it will suit his own case. With great care, these two hounds, which had been under the earth for nine days, and so unex- pectedly rescued alive, recovered, and lived for some years after- wards in my kennels, and lived to enjoy their otium cum digni- tate when too old to work. In the fore leg of one, the flesh was separated quite down to the bone, from what cause I could never tell, except from the hound licking or sucking it to sustain life. So much for underground work. In my next I shall resume my adventures suh JovejYtgido.
CHAPTER XXXIL
Last day in Mr. Slowman's country — Departure for home — Hounds out of blood out of heart — Short days and short work necessary to recover them — Digging out a fox, occasionally to be given to the hounds as an encourage- ment— Number of foxes' noses on kennel door no proof of sport — Foxes shy animals, particularly old ones — Cm-ious instance of a fox evading capture in a rabbit pipe — Fast skurry over the do^vns — Open and enclosed countries — A good woodland day elicits the quaUty of the pack — My own hounds — Kind treatment recommended.
Our last fixture has now been made in Mr. Slowman's country. The day was propitious, and our lucky star in the ascendant. "We found our fox early, and had a capital fifty minutes, and killed him liandsomely. This ended our month's hunting in my friend's country. With the exception of one day only, w^hen we ran to ground, we killed every fox we found. " Now, gentle- men," I said, " I must wish you a long farewell. My hounds have forty miles to travel home to-morrow, and although it is still early, I am sorry I cannot draw for another fox. We have finished Vv^ell, and I always like to leave well alone." All pressed me to draw again, and my friend said it was a slow thing leaving off so early in the day. " Very likely," I replied, " but fast or slow it must be done upon this occasion. I shall not draw another inch." We hear occasionally of hounds being out of luck, and not
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being able to kill their foxes. Some reference was made in BelVs Life of December 28th, 1850, to the bad sport attending the Durham Hunt, and a subscriber adds, that " perhaps some other gentleman connected with the hunt may suggest some remedy for the improvement of their sport." It just occurred to me upon reading this account, that it might possibly be the case — I do not say it is — that the suggestion of remedies to the master of their pack may, by the barest possibility, have pro- duced this very state of things so much to be deprecated.
The manager of a subscription pack has no sinecure at any time ; but if he allows all or any of his subscribers to interfere in the management, he is only attempting that which many more, like himself, have before attempted, with one inevitable result : that in trying to please all, he will fail to please any. The fable of the old man and his ass over again. The master of a pack of foxhounds should exercise his own discretion, and if his own abilities are not sufficient to produce sport, without the interference of others, he had much better resign his post. I would also suggest to subscribers to leave their master un- shackled, and independent of any restrictions. For liis own credit he will do the best he can to afford sport, but it is out of his power at all times to command success. Patience and per- severance will, however, prevail in the long run. A course of ill luck will sometimes set in even with a good pack of hounds, without any fault either in them, the master, or the men.
How to overcome it is the next question. When hounds are out of blood, as the term is, they become dispirited and lack that energy and perseverance in the chase which are indispen- sable requisites to effect that desideratum in fox-hunting — a successful issue in the death of the fox. In such a case the hounds should be highly fed to begin with, and long days par- ticularly avoided. The best plan to blood them is to leave some of the lesser earths open, and if you can mark a fox to ground, dig him out and give him to the hounds upon the spot. They should then be taken home immediately, no m.atter what the day or hour. They should not hunt again for three days ; if in low condition a week would not be too long a rest. By selecting upon the next occasion the most favourite place for killing a fox, and where there is little chance of changing, you may probably succeed in catching another. Should this be the case, the hounds ought to return to the kennel. Do not let them draw again if tliey are ever so eager. To keep them in spirits they must be above their work, and you must not allow them to draw for a second fox after two o'clock. Long and unsatisfactory days are exceedingly prejudicial to hounds, even when in high
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feather : what, then, must their effect be upon those which are already dispirited ? ^lake as short days, and as short work with the foxes, as you possibly can, and leave off when successful. Your hounds will then soon recover themselves, and repay you for your indulgence.
Some countries are much more difficult to catch foxes in than others, and a great deal depends upon how the country is hunted. A large country, which is not regularly hunted, is much more easy to kill foxes in than one regularly hunted. Foxes which are not disturbed oftener perhaps than once a month become, of course, fat and out of condition, and fall an easy prey to a pack of hounds in good heart and wind. The number of foxes' noses on the kennel door is no criterion of sport.
I was once asked to take my hounds into a country which had been lying idle for some time, and what was the result f that we killed every fox we found : but as for sport, we might as well have been rabbit-hunting with beagles. Foxes, to show sport, should be kept moving. Masters of hounds seldom com- plain of too many foxes — it is a fault on the right side, and soon remedied ; but it requires. great attention and care on the part of the huntsman and whipper-in to prevent their hounds changing, which will invariably be the case where game is plen- tiful. A hunted fox and a blown deer are two distinct animals as to their scent at that particular period. The first diminishes as the other increases in the chase. Although foxes in the same country very much resemble each other, there are not two exactly alike, and this, as well as other appearances which dis- tinguish the hunted fox, will direct in some measure both huntsman and whipper-in. Where foxes are too numerous, by hunting the same covert once a week they will soon disperse, or you may have the eartlis jnit to in the morning, instead of being stopped over-night. When I have had several foxes on foot in the same covert, I have also opened the earths, to let some of them in. It is better, I think, to do this, than rattle a favourite place too often ; for, unless centrally situated, your foxes may be driven away into another country, or by seeking shelter in hedgerows, be killed by shooters or coursers.
No animal is more shy tlian a fox ; he soon shifts his quar- ters when disturbed, and although he may visit the same covert in tlie night from which he has been driven by hounds, he will not lie there during tlie day for some time to come. Old foxes, in particular, are difficult to find when the regular hunting season commences.
I remember having a most severe run with a good old fox,
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wliicli saved its life in a rabbit pipe, and by the entreaties of a friend who was up at tlie finish he was not given up to the hounds. At the time I remarked, that the probability was we should not find him again, even if he survived the dressing we had given him that day, neither was it fair towards the hounds, who were then thirty miles from their kennel. This fox we found at nearly three o'clock in the afternoon, in some wood- lands, where he hung for half an hour : he then broke away over a fine grass vale, and crossed the open downs for several miles, where our horses were sadly beaten, some obliged to stop entirely. Upon leading my horse down the last hill off the downs I saw the hounds running their fox in view into a small fir plantation, and I of course concluded they had him. Hearing the hounds baying, I did not hurry myself, thinking it was all over. Upon reaching the spot, however, I found that the fox, in jumping the bank, had rushed into a single rabbit pipe, which only extended through it, and so close was he to the hounds, that he bit their noses when trying to grub him out. Under such circumstances, there was only one thing to do, but I was fool enough for once in my life to listen to the suggestions of a friend, and spare this fox, at the expense of my hounds, who had so well deserved him ; they had then to travel home thirty weary miles in a dark cold night. This fox I had viewed several times before he broke covert.
I never found him again until two years afterwards, although constantly and regailarly hunting the same country. He then gave us the most sharp, short, and decisive run which, perhaps, ever occurred to a pack of hounds. Our fixture upon this occasion was made to draw a small but thick gorse covert on the downs, and the place of meeting being within distance of two or three hunts, the muster was a full one. Two or three well-known masters of fox-hounds honouring us with their presence, our hounds were of course well looked over and scrutinized by those supposed to be great judges and connoisseurs in everything per- taining to the noble science. The remarks made were conveyed to me through a friend, who was anxious to hear the opinions expressed by these great authorities, and kept company with them for that purpose. One observed that they were a mon- strous fine pack of hounds to look at, but that they could hardly get into the gorse, much less push a fox out of it. Another, that they mig-lit do very well in a heavy vale country, but were out of place on the downs, as they could not have speed enough from their size to catch a fox in the open. "Well, gentlemen," said my friend, " I have an idea you will alter your opinion very soon, when the squire gives the signal for the performance to commence."
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At a wave of my hand every hound was in the gorse in a minute, and it began to shake again. " By Jove," exclaimed a Leicestershire squire, " how those big brutes rattle the furze ! they would shake a tomtit out of it ; but they can't go the pace, I think." In a few minutes some sharp quick tongues v/ere heard, and the hounds jumping and dashing over the gorse with a brace of foxes before them. ]\Iy orders were to stop the hounds on one side of the country should a fox break at that point, and follow the fox on the other side towards my neigh- bour's country, who was himself out. This was efficiently done by Jim, and the hounds clapped on to the fox which had gone away on the opposite side, both having broken nearly at the same moment. Before, however, the hounds could get together, the start had been made by some furious riders, who went away at once with the fox, the hounds having to thread their way through the horses. The race then began in earnest, and I never shall forget the scene as long as I live. About a hundred and fifty horsemen were at once scattered over the downs, riding at the top of their speed, in almost all directions ; some following the hounds, but a greater number, not liking the undulating nature of the ground, cutting corners, and hustling each other by cross riding.
The falls were terrific, even on this fine elastic turf. One man I met who had such a stunning purl, that he was actually riding back again, not knowing in what direction the hounds were going. But I had no time to make farther observations, being thoroughly occupied with my own horse, which I had some trouble to steer over this deceitful ground. A youngster on a thorough-bred passed me with a loose rein, and the spurs digging into his horse's sides. " You will kill your horse at that rate," I exclaimed ; " and it is of little use, for no fox can hold this pace much longer." " I don't care," he said ; " but if I can't be first I wont be last." " No fear of that, if you only look behind you, and see what a cavalcade there is in the rear." At that time there was one long extended line of horses, as far as the eye could reach. The Leicestersliire squire, who was now cutting corners, having deserted the hounds, rode with me some part of the run. "Is this fast enough for you?" I inquired; " you see these big lumbering brutes can run a little sometimes. I thought you at least would keep them company." " I admit," he replied, " that I never saw hounds go faster ; but, unluckily, I am on my vcde horse." " Lay an emphasis on the e, and you are right ; but how came you with a vale horse on the downs?"
Keeping my eye forward on the hounds, for ride to them I could not, I saw the leading couples turn the fox on the summit
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of the hill, as far as I could see, a good mile or two in advance, and I got up in order about No. 12. My young friend on the thorough-bred was before me, but he had completely beaten his poor mare, which never came out again. The two tirst up were light weights, on thorough-bred horses also. We stood for half an hour, I think, on the summit of the hill, watching the arrival of the field, who came flocking in gradually, in various plight and humour. The distance we had run was computed at abuut five miles, and the time occupied in performing it, by the time keepers, twelve minides. All admitted (and there were some jealous ones out) that it was the fastest thing they had ever witnessed.
The fox we had killed was the identical old gentleman whom we had given such a dusting to two years before ; and he was caught on the point of the hill which he had run over on that occasion, when saving his life in the rabbit pipe. Even in this short skurry many had so efiectually blown and harassed tlieir horses, that they declined any further exliibition on that day, and went home.
We were more than twenty miles from the kennel ; but^ having a large field out, I determined to give them another rat- tler, if I could. The fox from which the hounds had been stopped in the morning, I calculated upon meeting with again, neither was I disapi)ointed. Following upon the line which I considered he had taken, we came down upon liim in a small fir plantation, just on the verge of the downs, and race No. 2 com- menced in right good earnest. The ground, however, was more diflacult for horses, and the hounds had it pretty much their own way, as before, running up and down and round the hill for about fifteen minutes, when they finished this fox also off-hand.
Eunning over open downs is all very well as a variety. It shows also the speed of the hounds ; but for sport give me a vale country, with variety of ground, where the good quality of a pack of hounds may be seen to more advantage. A good wood- land day is, in my estimation, far preferable to the fastest skurry over naked turf. In one case hounds have only to go as fast as their legs can cany them ; in the other, their noses and ' stanchness have the severest trial. Although in the first part of this chapter I have recommended short days and short work to a pack of hounds out of blood, yet with hounds in good heart and condition great liberties may be taken, and the day ought never to be too long. No pack of hounds ever did harder work or travelled longer distances than my own ; but then they were of my own breeding, selected with care from the very best bloodj which was al\^'ays the first point of consideration with
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me, and conspicuous for liigli courage and lasting qualities. They were large hounds, with plenty of bone and muscle, and good legs and feet. The dogs averaged 25 and 26 inches in height, and the bitches 24, In the fast thing we had over the downs a bitch, standing full 25 inches, took the lead the whole distance. Many opinions were expressed adversely to such hounds doing their work in a woodland and hilly country ; but 1 never knew any one come out with us, and return home dis- satisfied. In our hilly country, especially, the hounds inva- riably beat the horses, and in woodlands they would dash and spring over the short stuff like greyhounds ; fences and gates also they took flying.
Jn the kennel they were savage, and would not be struck with impunity. The whipper-in one day, whilst I was absent, thought proper to exercise his whip among them, which they resented by turning upon him, and he was obliged to fly over the palings, one of the hounds tearing off the skirt of liis coat, as he was scrambling over. On another occasion the old kennel huntsman applied the thong rather unceremoniously to one of the hounds, which he had by himself, when he turned upon him, and, catching him by the coat collar, pulled him down on his back. The dog did not attempt to injure him further There was one particularly cross and savage with the other hounds, and, catching him one day fighting and quarrelling, I called the other hounds out of the kennel, and resolved to make him know better. I laid the whip upon him sharply ; but, at every cut I gave him, he jumped at me, with his bristles up, as savage as a lion. Seeing I might kill but could not subdue him, I threw the whip down on the floor, and holding out my hand, called him to me by name. He immediately approached, with his bristles and stern well up still, and licked the hand held out to him. The lesson was never forgotten by me. I adopted afterwards the plan of separating at night the most quarrelsome, but in the summer it was diflficult to keep them from fighting without constant and long exercise. More, how- ever, was done by the voice than the whip, which I found only made them more irritable. With kind words they would do anything, and as I always made pets of them, their tractability was shown in various ways.
I used to ])ut my boy of about five years old on some of their backs, to ride about ; and it was amusing to see what kicks and cuffs they would take from him in the greatest good humour. Do what he would with them, they never showed any disposition to be out of temper, and seemed proud of carrying him about.
The characters of high-bred fox-hounds are seldom sufficiently
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understood or appreciated. Of all dogs they are tlie liighest in courage and generosity, and capable of great attachment. Huntsmen, generally, use them as a body without any indi- vidual characteristics, and as long as they answer to their names in the kennel, and do their work in the field, give little more attention to them. T used to study their characters, and make them attached to me as spaniels, by kindness and good humour. Sometimes they accompanied me in the summer, Avithout any whipper-in, and did just as they liked. They would run on before me some distance, but always looked back to see if I was coming, and when we arrived at any cross roads they waited until I came up, to see which road I meant to take ; then, jumping round my horse, set off again at half speed, romping and } 'laying in high good humour.
I have travelled for miles with them without any whipper-in, but no hound would ever linger behind or leave me. In the hunting season, also, I frequently returned home in dark nights, with only one whipper-in behind me, and we were always once a week nearly twenty miles from home when we left off hunting, seldom reaching the kennel before nine o'clock. Some nights I could scarcely see my horse's head before me, much less the hounds, but they never would go far from me, until I approached the last field near the kennel, when the horn sounding my approach, they scampered on to the kennel door, and there waited until I dismounted. Huntsmen and whippers-in are all too fond of discipline or the lash, for that they look upon as the only means of enforcing obedience. No opinion can be more erroneous ; kind treatment would save themselves much unne- cessary trouble, and their hounds often barbarous usage. Nothing made me more angry than to see a whipper-in strike a hound unnecessarily in the field. With both horses and dogs I have invariably found that kind words will have a more powerful effect than hard blows.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Ecckford ; tis theory and practice — Hounds slioidd not be struck unless in the act of committing a fault — Seventy censured, even in the education of boys — Leading and driving — Shying the residt of harsh treatment — Difficulties in hunting a new coiuitry — Knowledge of his business neces- sary to every master of fox-hounds — Hunting estabhshments — Expenses of fees and extras — On purchasing horses — Best food for dogs generally.
Although Beckford has been and still is considered the first authority in hunting matters, yet I cannot subscribe to his doc-
214 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
trine upon some points, neitlier can his theory and practice be admitted as consistent. In one of his letters he states that his chief object in writing was to prevent the improper use of dis- cipline, and that " we ought not to suffer unnecessary severity to be used with an animal to whom we are obliged for so much diversion."
Upon feeding hounds, he remarks, "All hounds (more espe- cially young ones) should be called over often in the kennel, and most huntsmen practise this lesson as they feed their hounds : they flog them while they feed them, and if they have not always a bellyful one way, they seldom fail to have it the other." Instead of condemning so monstrous and barbarous a practice, of which any huntsman who could be guilty ought himself to have been flogged at the cart-tail, he coolly remarks, '*' It is not, however, my intention to oppose so general a prac- tice, in which there may be some utility. I shall only observe, that it should be used with discretion, lest the whip should fall heavily in the kennel on such as never deserve it in the field." Very milk-and-water indeed. I can only say that a man who w^ould flog hounds in this manner, and at feeding time above all other times of the day, is a proper subject to come under Mr. Martin's Act, and the treadmill is his only fit place.
He remarks again, that " Such hounds as are notorious offenders should also feel the lash and hear a rate as they go to the covert ; it may be a useful hint to them, and may prevent a severer flogging afterwards." It strikes me as a monstrous ab- surdity, and a most wanton piece of cruelty as well, to allow a whipper-in to cut a hound nearly in two, as some of these gentry will do, when the dog is committing no fault at all, but quietly walking to the covert side, and in the presence of the huntsman, ivliere he is entitled to protection /
When a hound is cciught, Jlagrcmte delicto, in the actual com- mission of the crime of running riot, then, and _ then only, should he be punished ; he then knows for what he is corrected; but to punish a hound in cold blood for no fault at all, and only as a hint of what he is to expect, is, in my humble opinion, a most cruel and unwarrantable act.
A boy may as well be flogged at school, merely because his master thinks he may commit some fault during the day. When a senior at school, I once witnessed the effect of too much severity upon rather a dull boy, v/hose failure was only in ability, not in disposition, to learn. He had a task set him by the master, in which occurred one hard word which he could not pronounce corrccly, and having been beaten for it, he either committed the same fault again, or stopped at it, and
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 215
began crying. Out of school this boy was of a cheerful and good temper, but he was frightened at his lessons. The master, being out of patience with his stupidity, handed him over to me to teach him ]ii3 task. He went on tolerably well until he arrived at the hard word, when he broke down as usual, and began crying, thinking I should thrash him. " What's the matter, Tom f I said. " Oh !" he replied, " indeed I cannot pro- nounce that word right." " Well," I said, " don't cry about it ; I shall not strike you for not knowing. You have done very well up to that point. Leave that word out entirely ; I don't care about it — skip it ; there's an end of it." We got on very well in this v/ay for some days, but I never allowed him to attempt this word ; it was always passed over by my orders. His task was a long one, to be repeated before the holidays, and I had it over tolerably often, to make sure, for I was anxious he should not fail under my instruction. I treated him with kind- ness and encouragement, but never got out of temper, or spoke harshly. The consequence was that the hard word soon fell in with the rest, and he went through his whole task at the ap- pointed time without missing a word. The bugbear had dis- appeared.
I have seen horses in like manner shy on the road at a heap of stones or other things ; and what is the reason of it 1 Because some lout, on his first shying at them, has ridden hini up (as I have often seen done) to the stones, and there beaten him. The next time the horse shies again, not for fear of the stones, but for fear of the beating. A very excellent sportsman, who was for many years a most efficient master of fox-hounds, used to tell me that he never gave himself any trouble about his young hounds running riot, but let them have it out, as long as they did not taste blood. He said, from not being encouraged, they soon found out their mistake, and always became more steady afterwards. It is said, " forbidden fruit is always the best," and I suppose my worthy friend was of the same opinion. His practice, if rather objectionable, was certainly less so than knocking a hound's head nearly off for committing no fault at all — Jledio tuiisHimus ibis.
Whoever begins hunting a new country with a new pack of hounds got together from different kennels, must expect to meet with difficulties and disappointments, and little else for the first season. A lot of hounds and a pack of hounds are two distinct things, as any novice will soon discover to his cost. I have, however, seen sport occasionally mth such, but being mostly of an accidental nature, it will not last. Hounds ignorant of their country, and unacquainted with each other, cannot fairly
216 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
be expected to do mucli, altlioiigli very often mucli is required of them. A new master of hounds, also, unless he has already been broken in to his business, has a very difficult card to play. A man may have ridden half his life after hounds, and be con- sidered a good sportsman, but the management of an establish- ment is altogether another affair ; he must make up his mind at once, therefore, for rough usage, hard work, and few thanks. He will find plenty of would-be masters in the field, and the chances are, that his huntsman will also be master at home in the kennel, and his stud-groom master in the stable. If master himself in his own house, he may think himself tolerably well off. Domiis et jjlacens uxor is a sure and happy relief after all the toils and troubles of a hard day are over. Should the last of these blessings be denied him, the office of a railway porter is a sinecure in comparison with his.
It is, no doubt, with many, a very fine thing to be placed at the head of affairs in a country, which position masters of fox- hounds are supposed by their brother fox-hunters to occupy, and many an aspirant for this hio-h ambition has soon found his vanity oozing out — like Falstaff's courage — at his fingers' ends when he comes "to pay the piper." Unless a man is really fond of hounds — that is, of the dogs themselves — and takes an in- terest in all they do, from the moment they find a fox in the morning, and rides with them — not for the sake of riding, but because he takes delight in witnessing every cast or hit they make, — he had better take my advice, and leave others to keep hounds who do. From my own experience, accompanied with many more kicks than kisses, and after a hard campaign in many a well-fought field with victorious results, nearly thirty years' probation may entitle me to give a little advice to others. It is this — never keep a subscription pack of fox-hounds. _ I may even add — never keep fox-hounds at all. Why, then, write about fox-hunting ! He who has ever ridden a runaway, hard- pulling horse, may possibly understand that, as he could not mill him up, the next most satisfactory thing to know was that he could guifle him.
I am not like a merry rider, who once attempting a wide im- practicable old hollow lane, which had only the appearance of a common fence, fell in, horse and self, of course. Another, following in his wake, shared the same fate ; but when landed safely at the bottom, began hallooing out. " Hold your tongue, you fool !" exclaimed the first occupant ; " we shall have the place full presently, and then we may get out— there is no chance without it." I do not wish to entice others to follow my example, but as I know it will be done (in keeping hounds, I
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mean only), I will give them tlie next best advice I can — how to get well out of it.
Now, then, to the purpose. Let him who is about to com- mence the arduous enterprise of managing a subscription pack of fox-hounds, sit quietly down first and make a cool calculation upon paper of what his expenses are likely to be, and put every- thing down at the outside figure. It is like making an estimate for building a house ; the extras will amount to at least a third of the specified sum. According to the country, and the num- ber of days he has to hunt per week, must his establishment of horses and hounds be. For himself or his huntsman he must begin with three good made hunters. A huntsman should be well mounted upon good and steady horses, for he will have quite enough to do in looking after his hounds to mind much what his horse is about. I am speaking now economically ; how things may be done respectably, yet efiiciently, and without any profuse expenditure. A good judge of horses may pick up good and serviceable animals at the end of the season, suitable for any provincial country, for sixty guineas each, or less money, if he has his wits about him. As we cannot ailord a second horse in the field, we must buy such only as have good legs and feet, powerful frames to stand wear and tear, and small heads, well- bred ones also. For the whippers-in purchase young horses of four or five years old. They are better than old screws or twenty-five pounders, inasmuch as they will improve in value as the others decrease.
The cub-hunting season is a capital opportunity for breaking in young horses. If bad tempers, take care your men are not bad tempers also, or they will make bad work of it. I have had and ridden as bad-tempered horses as any man ever possessed, but by quiet usage they became to me valuable hunters, and their dispositions were decidedly altered. In my hard riding days I never used spur or whip. All was done by the voice alone. The country I rode over was as severe as ever was crossed — double ditches, with stiff hedges and high banks. At these I always pulled up a little before reaching them, to allow my horse the opportunity of taking them in his own way. At brooks I went faster, but at gates and walls the rein was always pulled, as at heavy fences. By this plan my falls in a season were very few, nor was my horse blown. A deer, which can jump higher than any other animal, although going ever so fast, will generally slacken his pace before taking a high fence, and approaches it in a trot. This should be a lesson to hard riders. I have seen some few in my time, and rattling falls they would get, when, by going so fast at their fences, the wind was pumped
218 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
out of their horses. It is not to gratify any egotistical feelings that I state I have ridden over as high and bad fences as any man ever attempted, and never turned away from anything that came in my way, which was at all practicable ; and all this was done without whip or spur.
In my treatment of horses I took a leaf out of the Arab's book. My own horses were never ridden by another person. When I went into the stable, I took something with me to give them, a piece of bread or an apple, of which they were very fond, or I gave them a feed of corn — patting their necks and talking to them the while. So accustomed were they to be told what to do, and so well did they understand me, that if I told them to walk into a brook or river, which I could not jump, they would do so without hesitation, or follow me, when dis- mounted, into or over anything. I never could afford a second horse in the field, and our days in the season were long and generally severe ones. For three days a week I had only three horses, and my men also had three each. We never exceeded this number and never reo^uired more. I have before stated that each horse had a loose stall or box to himself, in which always stood a large double-sized bucket of water, night and morning. We never gave physic unless absolutely required. Condition balls, urine balls, and all such trash, were not even known.
I had a capital groom, who was always in the stable by five o'clock every morning, even in the depth of winter. He was fond of the horses, remarkable for a kind and unruffled dis- position, and never neglected his duty. Upon our return from hunting, every horse had his bucket of thick gTuel directly he came into the stable, and a little hay to eat whilst he was being cleaned. We never gave any corn until just before lit- tering down, the last thing at night. The horse's legs were plunged into a high bucket of warm water, and if dirty, soft soap was used. The first leg being washed, was sponged as dry as possible, and then bandaged with thick woollen bandages until the others were washed ; the bandages were then removed entirehj^ and the legs rubbed by hand until quite dry. We used the best old white potato oats, weighing usually 45lbs. per bushel, but so few heans that a quarter lasted us a season. The oats were bruised, and a little sweet hay chaff mixed with them. We also gave our horses a few carrots the day after hunting, to cool their bodies, or a bran mash or two. They were never coddled up in hoods, or half a dozen rugs at night, but a single blanket sufficed, which was never so tight but that you might thrust your hand easily under it. This was a thing I always
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 219
looked to myself, when paying a visit to the stable the last thing at night. A tired horse should have everything comfort- able about him, but carefully avoid any tight bandage round the body. In over-reaches or wounds, warm water was our first application, and plenty of it, to clean all dirt or grit from the wound ; then Fryer's balsam and brandy, with a clean linen bandage. Our usual allowance of corn to each horse per diem was four quarterns, but more if they required it, and from 14lbs. to 16lbs. of hay, eight of which were given at night, at racking- up time, about eight o'clock. Our hours of feeding were about five in the morning, a feed of corn, bruised, with a little hay chaff ; the horse then went to exercise. At eight o'clock, 4lbs. of hay ; twelve o'clock, feed of corn ; two o'clock, 2lbs. of hay ; four o'clock, corn ; at six o'clock, another feed of corn, "udth chaff ; and at eight o'clock, 8lbs. of hay ; water they could always drink when they wanted it. The day after hunting, I should add, our horses were kept as quiet as possible, their boxes lit- tered down with plenty of straw, the stable darkened, and the key of it in the groom's pocket.
It is a very simple process to make young dogs handy. First give them names and make them understand them. If you can find time to feed them yourself, do so, calling them by name to their food ; if not, take them out walking with you every day for an hour or two ; put some hard biscuits in your pocket, give the dog a few bits at starting, call him by name oc- casionally when running forward, and every time he returns to you when called, give him a piece of biscuit ; pat him and caress him the while. Follow this lesson for a' week or ten days, and the dog will soon begin not only to know but to love his master. Young dogs should always be fed twice a day — morn- ing and evening. There are some persons to whom dogs become more readily attached than to others. The eye and the voice are a terror to some, as they are also an attraction to other animals. A soft eye, beaming with gentleness and good temper, is a point to which the instinct of the canine race naturally directs them, nor are they often deceived in its expression. Kind and benevolent looks have as great an influence over the animal as they have over the human species. They are, more- over, a sure criterion of temper.
The best food for all sporting dogs is old oatmeal, boiled until it is as thick as a stiff rice pudding ; then reduce it, by adding either milk or broth. Pot liquor is very heating, and not fit for dogs wliicli work hard. Sheep's paunches, also, well washed, and boiled afterwards, are most heartening food, mixed with a little oatmeal. In fact, I should select this as the very best and
220 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
most nutritious of anything that can be given to them, and the liquor they are boiled in is not heating, like pot liquor. Sport- ing dogs, after a hard day, should have their feet washed in warm water, with a little salt added ; their food should be given warm, but not hot ; and they should be placed in a warm, com- fortable kennel, with plenty of clean straw. If wet, they should be rubbed dry. Nothing restores a dog so quickly as warmth.
A dog's state of health may be known by his nose. If dry, and pinched in appearance, the system is fevered by overheating or other causes. If moist and spongy, it is a sure sign of good health. Sporting dogs, if fed and taken care of as I have sug- gested, will (if not lamed, or overworked so much as to refuse their food) be fit to work again on the next or following day. Dogs, like horses, require training by moderate and regular exercise, before they can fairly be expected to undergo severe work. Sheep's trotters are also very excellent food, when the bones are picked out. Dogs fed upon raw flesh are not fit to work until the next day after, and scarcely then. Barley mea], scalded with boiling water, and then covered over in a pan for half an hour before used, with some skim milk afterwards added, will do very well ; but it is more heating and does not contain the strengthening properties of oatmeal. Indian meal may also do as a makeshift, when boiled for half an hour. Dogs should have always a pan of clean water before them, day and night, winter and summer. When feverish, give them a small tea-spoonful of yellow sulphur and half of cream of tartar, mixed up in some butter or lard, at night. This dose once a week will keep a dog in health ; it may be given twice a week if he is feverish.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Beckford's advice respecting stormy weather — Master of fox-lioimds con- sidered as a servant of the public — Not to take oni young hounds on very bad and windy days — Losing our pack on such an occasion — A cool and easy fox — Earth stopping, and habits of foxes in bad weather — The fox- catcher, and his manoeuvres — Scratch packs general receivers — Countries should be regularly hunted, good and bad places in succession — "Woodland foxes.
"We are recommended by Beckford never to take out hounds on very bad or stormy days. The advice is good, but the misfor- tune is, that in these times we cannot follow it. \Yere any
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master of fox-liouiids at liberty to consult his own individual opinion, or the welfare of his hounds, he would not, from choice, make his appearance at the covert side upon certain days which preclude almost the possibility of sport, independently of their unfavourable influence upon his hounds. In these times of rapid transit from place to place, many take advantage of the railroad to convey themselves and horses long distances to a fiivourite fixture, with a good pack of hounds. Others select the fixed day as a day of recreation from business. Others, again, invite their friends to their houses, in the expectation of their having a day's sport with the fox-hounds. For these and other reasons the master is considering the convenience and amuse- ment of the public, without reference or regard to his own judg- ment or private feelings on the subject. In short, whether keeping hounds solely at his own expense, or as managing a subscription pack, the master is considered in the light of a servant of the public. Such is the transition which has taken I)lace since the days of Beckford.
A stormy day, with a high wind, is particularly unfavourable to sport, and injurious even to a good pack of hounds. Wild weather makes wild hounds. Upon such a day, young hounds, even if steady up to that time, will run riot, and old hounds commit excesses. In large woodlands, the whipper-in, unless keeping under the wind and close to the hounds, cannot tell what they are about, and wilful hounds seize the opportunity of following the bent of their own inclination, and often throw the whole pack into confusion. Both huntsman and whipper-in must be particularly alert on such an occasion, or the hounds may slip down wind, and be away, without their being aware of their having left the covert. Avoid, if possible, drawing large coverts at all on a very stormy day ; but if unavoidable, take out a short pack of hounds — sixteen or eighteen couples only. Select your oldest and steadiest, and if you wish to keep your pack steady, leave any doubtful characters at home, and all your young hounds. On such a day recollect that young hounds can be of no service, and you run an almost certain risk of unsettling theon from any previous steadiness they may have acquired.
The scent is often so queer (it is the best term I can employ to express my meaning) in boisterous weather, that I have known the steadiest hounds unable to distinguish the scent of a fox from that of a hare. I remember a very steady and favourite hound running a hare scent on one of these riotous days ; nor did he appear to know he was doing wrong. To similar facts the experience of old masters of hounds and huntsmen will, I have no doubt, add corroborative testimony.
222 HOESES AND HOUNDS.
Many a time have I sallied forth into this war of elements, when you would hardly turn a cat out of doors, to keep my appointment, and upon many an occasion not half a dozen made their appearance to greet us at the place of meeting. I went one day to a fixture nearly twenty miles from the kennels in such torrents of rain that we were drenched to the skin long before our arrival at the covert side. One solitary individual was there to meet us, who looked like a drowned rat. He was, of course, a very zealous sportsman. " Rather a damp morning," he ob- served, " and I anticipate a short gathering." " My opinion is," I replied, " that I could water my horse out of my boots, and as to the field, I think it is very probable that you will be its sole representative, and not a bad one, upon tliis occasion." " Well," he said, " what's to he donef "Wait a little longer, to see if a third fool makes his appearance, as there is no chance of our being wetter than we are at present." We therefore stuck up under a hedge for another quarter of an hour, v,'hen no other horseman joining, I said, " You are now the field, and as you have had the boldness to turn out in such weather, your hardi- hood shall be rewarded. I am ready to begin drawing, for standing still wont suit me any longer." " I have been debating the question," he replied, "and although I should like a warming uncommonly just now, it is very selfish to disturb that fine covert on such a day as this, merely to gratify my own feelings, when there is no one else out to join in the sport. No, that wont do, so the only alternative we have is to go home and go to bed." Shaking hands we parted, he for a six mile gallop, I for a weary ride through heavy roads and splashing lanes, of twenty miles.
The enjoyment of sport upon such occasions is almost out of the question ; but I have known good runs, and even a good scent, when the elements appeared combined to dispute it. Upon one occasion, when taking my hounds into another country for a fortnight's hunting, we had a capital run. It was a very windy day, and we unfortunately had to draw a large covert, which it was difficult to traverse on horseback. On finding our fox, we kept as close to the hounds as the nature of the ground would admit of, being both hilly and abounding in rocks as well ; the hounds, however, at last slipped away down wind, and we lost them entirely. Being ignorant of the country, I could not tell the run of the foxes, and we could find no traces of the hounds. We therefore separated in difi'erent directions. T got upon their line and followed them for some miles, gaining intel- ligence here and there of their route ; but at last I lost it alto- gether, and could pick up no further information. It being
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 223
then late I was obliged to give up all further pursuit, and return to our temporary kennel, in the hope that the whippers-in might have been more fortunate in their researches. There again I was doomed to disappointment ; they had returned, after having ridden many miles, without hearing any intelligence of the hounds. It was then becoming dark, and we all three looked gloomy enough ; but in a dark night and an unknown country we were obliged to wait the dawning of another day.
Before daylight we were all astir again. Some few of the hounds had returned during the night, for which the feeding- house had been left open and their food prepared ; but the body of the hounds was still missing. The whippers-in were again despatched in different directions, and as the line the hounds had taken was towards our home country, I rode straight to the kennels, as the most likely place to find them. To my great delight, they had arrived there before me. They had run their fox into the borders of our own country, and there killed him, in a cottage where he had taken refuge. The old woman to whom it belonged Lad tried to eject the hounds with a broom, but so resolved were they to have their prey, that the old lady was alarmed herself, and fled, leaving them in possession. Having eaten their fox, they gave the old woman no further trouble, and marched off in good order homewards. These particulars we learnt afterwards.
After wet and stormy nights, foxes are not easily to be found, even where there is no scarcity of them. Much also depends upon the earth-stoppers, few oi whom can be depended upon to stop the earths at a 2)TV2jer hour, in wet and bad nights. This work is often done very carelessly, and foxes instead of being stopped out, are stopped in. Foxes, hke dogs, are very dull and sleepy in windy weather. They seldom then leave their earths until a late hour of the night, and sometimes not at all. Often they have a supply in the larder, which prevents the necessity of their wandering about in search of food, and, like lazy people who have nothing to do, sleep the dreary hours awaj'". I have known foxes in bad weather not move far from their earths for two or three nights following, and in the clicking season this is particularly the case.
The most impudent thing I ever knew done by a fox was whilst being pursued by my own hounds. He was running for a large head of earths, which (as our fixture was not in that line of country) were not stopped ; and although Jim strove with might and main, he could not arrive there before him, but it was so near a thing, that he was only ahead by two fields. It was bad enough to be foiled after so hard a run ; but the thing
224 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
whicli annoyed Jim tlie most was the coolness of Mr. Wiley- jumping into a farm-yard only one field from the covert side, he seized a duck before the thresher's face, who was working in the barn, and carried him off in trium])h into his earth. When I got up, Jim was looking very crestfallen, " He has beaten us, sir, and got home, and more than that, he has taken a duck with Mm for supper." " Well," I said, " Jim, he has shown his sense, for the chances are this old gentleman has been stopped in a night or two occasionally by those idle earth-stoppers, and I have no doubt he has provided against this contingency." " He shan't be stopped in to-night, sir, any way, for I will come to see that the earths are all open ; but I hope the next time we meet, he wont be able to have things quite so snug.''
Another duty, and not a very agreeable one, which pertains to a whipper-in's place, is his going out at night to see that the earth is open, where a fox has been run to ground during the day. This should never be neglected, where there are any fox stealers, and there are few counties exempt from gentlemen of this calling. The news soon spreads of a fox being run to ground at a certain place, by gentlemen returning from hunting. The poacher's ears being generally pretty sharp at hearing, and having friends perhaps on the look-out as well, he soon picks up the information as to the whereabouts, and starts for tlie earth to arrive there about dark. In a bag at his back he carries a net about five feet high, with large meshes, so as to admit a fox's head to pass through them ; in his pocketa few horse bells, which, when the net is set up, are tied on to it at certain dis- tances. A low-legged terrier is his companion, and with a small spade or trowel in his shooting-jacket pocket, he sets out upon his errand. Upon dark nights he has a small bulFs-eye Ian- thorn also.
Arrived at the spot, he examines the earths, and if stopped, immediately opens them with his spade or trowel. He then cuts some sticks, and sets up the net, with himself and dog inside the enclosure, and having attached the bells, proceeds to business. He first tries with his dog, which, if the earth is not very deep, will often bolt the fox without further trouble. Should the place, however, prove a very stronghold, the dog, if unable to bolt the fox, will return to his master. They then lie down together on the sack to the windward t'.de of the earths, and there pass the night. Sometimes the fox will not come at all to the mouth of the earth during the first night after he has been hunted. The poacher then stops the earths again early in the morning before daylight, and removes with his dog and nets to some convenient spot, from whence he may watch if any one
HORSES AND HOUXDS. 225
visits tlie earth. In the evening he again returns, and having set up liis net, prepares for another few hours' watch. At the turn of the night, the fox generally makes his rush from the earth, and into the net ; in a moment master and dog are upon him, being guided by the bells, even in the darkest night. The sack is thrown over the fox to prevent his biting ; the poacher then feels for his head, and running his right hand under the sack, catches the fox under the right ear, still holding him down; he then slips his left hand carefully under his jaws, and with his thumb over his nose, his victim is secure.
In rocky countries another plan is adopted. A trap is com- posed of loose stones, with a stone tile to fall behind the fox ; in fact, a wooden mousetrap will give a very good idea of it, except that there is no room for a fox to turn. Foxes, especially old ones, are very shy of venturing into this trap, and I have known them remain in the earth five or six days, and even longer, until quite starved out. In the country I hunted, these stone traps were constantly used by fox-stealers, and many a midnight excursion have they given me and my men to knock them to pieces. Upon one occasion a lot of quarrymen, who, during a fall of snow, had some idle days, tracked a fox into a rocky earth, and set up a stone trap. Hearing of it, I sent the whipper-in to throw it down, which he did in their absence. Upon returning to the place the next day, the trap was again set up, and some men watching, who threatened to thrash Jim, which he told them one at a time they could not do, and that they knew. Have the fox they said they would, and beat any man I sent, and myself into the bargain, if I interfered again.
This polite message being conveyed to me by Jim, had the effect of raising my hackles a little, and Jim was quite ready for a bit of fighting. We therefore selected half-a-dozen men, and, with short sticks in their hands, set out about ten o'clock at night to the scene of contention. We had about five miles to walk ; the night was quite dark, and the quarrymen had taken up their position in an old cavern, in which they had lighted a fire, upon the brow of a hill, about forty yards distant from the rock in which the fox was confined. The glare of light led us to the spot, and, reflected on the rocks below, showed us also where the trap was set up. Scrambling up through the stunted juniper bushes, we reached an overhanging crag, under which I posted my little band, and then alone ascended to reconnoitre. No sentinel was on the look-out, but the voices of men were loud in the cavern, I quietly removed the stone tile, and sent the stones rolling down the hill, and in a few minutes the whole trap was broken up. I then returned
Q
226 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
to my men, and we waited for some time to see if any one came out from the cave. No one appeared ; the voices sank gradually, and the fitful and flickering light, which only at in- tervals lighted up the gloom, assured me that the tenants of the cave had consigned themselves to the drowsy arms of IMorpheus for the remainder of the night. Our enterprise was thus brought to a successful issue without hard blows or broken heads. Our fox escaped, and great was the indignation of the quarrymen the next morning when they found "the Squire" had out- manoeuvred them. To reconcile them to their disappointment, I sent them a present to drink my health, and a better look-out for themselves the next time. They took it in high good humour, and ever afterwards assisted me in preserving the foxes.
Were there no receivers there would be no thieves ; but there is often found on the borders of a fox-hunting country some scratch pack of curs, miscalled harriers, which often turn down a bag fox on their high days and holidays, sometimes secretly, but generally openly, in defiance of every law and rule by which real sportsmen should be guided. To affirm that such are or ever will be (in these unlawful aggressions upon the just prero- gative of the master of fox-hounds) countenanced or supported by any real gentleman or true sportsman is a calumny. No gentleman would degrade himself by practices so little accord- ing with those feelings and characteristics which distinguish as plainly his bearing in all relations of life, as the character of a high-bred fox-hound is distinguished from that of a crop-eared Gur. Let each man pursue his own calling, or his own favourite amusement, whether in i^ursuit of a fox, hare, or stag ; but let him not interfere illegally and unfairly with his neighbour's sport. Never let that golden maxim be lost sight of which pre- scribes to all alike — " Do to others as you would they should do unto you."
To afford no grounds of excuse for any such interlopers, masters of fox-hounds should hunt their country regularly, the bad and the good in succession. A contrary practice will give the disaffected good cause to murmur, and, as a certain con- sequence, foxes will be destroyed either by keepers and farmers, or caught by poachers. He Mdio would keep a country well to- gether must make up his mind to draw both bad coverts and good ones, as systematically as he takes bad and good scenting days, to suit the public convenience, and if he fails to do so, he will assuredly fail in giving general satisfaction or ensuring good sport. When the best part of a country only is regularly hunted, your best foxes will shift their quarters to more distant
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places, wliere, if undisturbed by hounds, tliey may remain tlia greater part of the hunting season, or until such time as their career is cut short by some more ignoble fate ; so that in these very bad and consequently condemned coverts often may be found the foxes which would atford the much-lauded runs of the season, if looked for in time.
When our fixture was made in the season for any bad wood- lands, many of our fast men declined to show upon such occa- sions, and begged me to leave such odious places either for cub-hunting or the end of the season. My reply always was, " I shall take the rough and the smooth together, and for choice I will back the big woods against the spinneys for a good hard- running fox." By rattling them regularly, foxes would fly and afford us good chases, and I think, taking the season together, our longest and best runs were from large coverts. Our quick things, which suited only our fast men, were, however, generally from smaller places. So, to meet all parties as nearly as pos- sible, lovers of riding, as Avell as lovers of hunting, I varied the scene with woodlands and spinneys, and thus secured the good- will of all, as all knew I catered for the general amusement.
CHAPTER XXXV,
Remarks on scent.
There is nothing more uncertain than scent — even in the words of the old song, "A southerly wind and a cloudy sky" do not always prove, although they may proclaim it, to be a hunting morning. Very much depends upon the state of the atmo- sphere, and when it is a close, and, as our common term is, a muggy dag, no matter what quarter the wind may be in, I would almost answer for its proving a good scenting one. In a misty rain, also, and often in thick fogs, scent will lie breast high. Upon the going off of a frost, scent generally fails, but I have seen hounds run hard when the sleet has been actually freezing on our coats. In snow storms also, whilst the snow is falling, the scent will often serve well, but with storms hanging over our heads there is little. High winds are destruc- tive of scent, generally, as gentle breezes are favourable to it ; but on dumb days, when there has not been a leaf stirring, I
Q2
228 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
have observed there has been scarcely any scent at all. Wet days are unfavourable to a scent in covert, but it will often hold good over the open. A fine looking day, with a hot sun and keen wind is, on tlie contrary, seldom productive of sport.
As variable as our climate, so variable is scent. There is no certain criterion to judge by, but I have observed, almost invariably, a good scenting day to follow the rising quicksilver. On the contrary, when the barometer is falling, scent is gene- rally bad. It is not my intention here to enter into a learned or lengthened dissertation on a subject which has puzzled much cleverer heads than mine ; but a few practical observations may not be out of place. The skin of all animals being porous, scent is the exhalation thrown off from the body of the animal through these pores, or, as the learned call them, the reticul<^ of the skin. When the animal is in a quiet or quiescent state, the scent thrown off is moderate, but v/lien the body is put into active motion, the exlialations from it escape so rapidly that they form a kind of misty halo around it : and as the animal runs, these particles of scent float upon the air, and, according to its temperature, become slowly or quickly dissipated.
The state of the ground lias also a good deal to do with scent, but not so much, I am inclined to think, as is generally sup- posed. T have known a capital scent often when the earth has been as hard as a brick ; and what old sportsman has not seen hounds running fast during the month of March in a cloud of dust ? In the cub-hunting season, also, during a hot September, hounds will run breast high in coverts of high ivood, Avhere there is nothing to hold the scent, and the ground underneath is as dry and liard as a parched pea. Again, I must admit that when the earth has been over-saturated with rain, the finest pasture land sometimes will not hold a good scent, but it will often im- prove when hounds come upon lighter soil, and sometimes even over fallows. To constitute a perfect scenting day, both the ground and the air should be in a temperate state ; but, as a general rule, I would pin my faith chiefly on the state of the atmosphere.
Look again at a pack of hounds crossing a river on a good scenting day ; they throw their tongues cheerfully as they breast the torrent, but it is idle to suppose that the quickly flowing waters can hold a scent ; the water in which the fox has laved himself has long since passed away, and is hastening perhaps a mile in advance to -add its tributary volume to the mighty ocean. But, gently wafted over the stream, the scent of the flying fox is borne on the soft breeze to greet the olfactory nervus of the struggling pack, and guide them to the wished-for
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 229
bank. Yvlicn hounds run up wind, with heads up and sterns down, the scent is said to be breast high, but it is more than that, it is head high — that is, the particles of scent float over the heads of the hounds as well. If not, how is it that the last hound in the pack throws his tongue as eagerly as the first. Were it only breast high, the bodies of the first few couples, interposing between the scent and their companions, Avould entirely absorb these floating particles, as the scent of their own bodies must overcome the scent of the fox, and render it unin- telligible or unattainable to those forming the rear rank.
This may be seen in the conduct of hounds uyton a bad scent- ing day, where there is only what we call a jj^i^'-^ scent ; that is, a scent left chiefly by iliQfoot of the fox. There is then no merry cry of hounds ; but the Solons of the pack alone, with slow and solemn notes, proclaim the welcome news to their other mute and less sage friends, that their game is forward. See how the young and dashing spirits, ever foremost and fiercest in the fray when a burning scent calls only for the exercise of limb and tongue, now take their proper places in the rear, and wait for. wiser and older heads to guide them. See with what eagerness they press when some old warrior points out and notes the failing track. Forward they fly, with burning zeal, to aid their well-known leader ; but it avails not. Too intricate the web, which wisdom and experience can alone unravel. I have seen also (and I dare say many an old sportsman can bear me tes- timony) hounds running hard up one side of a hedge, when the fox had gone up the other.
During a hard frost, when the day is not bright, there is also a good scent ; but if the sun has much power, it is quickly dis- persed. There are few sportsmen who have not seen hounds running hard up the shady side of a hill, where the hoar frost was lying, but when they had crossed to the sunny side there has scarcely been any scent at all. It has also been generally laid down as a rule, that when the earth is saturated with rain, there is little prospect of a good scent ; but we have only to go back to the season of 1852 and 1853 for evidence to confute this opinion. Few, I should imagine, can recollect a more thoroughly drenching time from October to Februarj^ ; and yet, I will venture to say, no man can call to mind a better scenting one. It was of little import in what quarter, the wind might be — whether north, south, east, or west, — from all quarters alike the rain descended in almost unceasing torrents. The quick- silver also continued very low ; yet notwithstanding, througli- out this deluge, in all countries alike — whether high or low, rich or poor — the scent continued good invariably. But we
230 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
must also remember that tlie weatlier was, during this period, unusually mild, and the days as genial as in the spring of the year. Water, when at a certain temperature, has also an attrac- tive and, I conceive, a retentive power. This may be tested by placing a basin full of water in a room recently painted ; it will soon be impregnated with the effluvium arising from the paint, though all the doors and windows are wide open. Over rapidly- jQowing streams, however, there can be no scent but that which hangs on the air, or may be wafted across from the opposite bank, and sometimes none at all beyond the pad scent, which is left on the brink where the fox has taken the water.
I have often seen hounds run down to a river, cast up and down the bank to satisfy themselves the fox was not on their side, then return to the point to which tliey had carried the scent, and at once dash into the current. This has been on bad scenting days, when there has not been sufficient scent across the stream to direct them over it. There is an opinion entertained by many good sportsmen, and I have known masters of hounds hold the same, that when a fox lingers in the chase, he leaves a stronger scent behind him than when running fast. This is not, in my opinion, however, the case, but just the reverse. I write from observation, although it does not very often happen that we have opportunities of testing this by ocular demonstration ; jet, upon one or two occasions, I have witnessed such an occur- rence, and I will relate an instance of it.
We found a good fox, upon a fair scenting day, at the extre- mity of our vale country, and ran him for more than an hour at a rattling pace, through the entire length of the grass-land, and away, then, for the open downs. The casualties that occurred in this chase, over very stiff enclosures, told tales upon our field ; and before we began to ascend a steep and long hill leading on to the doAvns, the company with the hounds had become very select, numbering only about half-a-dozen of our best riders. The few last fences before leaving the vale were of a heart- reliding description, with ditches wide and deep enough to hold man and horse, and many were the occupants they found. My friend Bob, being of the wetter weight order, found some of them quite as much as he could grapple with on his big brown horse, who had begun to cry " bellows to mend ; ' and being up to a wrinkle or two, he had selected as his companion a sport:' ng character of some celebrity in our hunt, who, from his rather unprepossessing appearance, had obtained the sobriquet of " Beauty." Bob had been sailing along with his companion, prudently giving him the lead as pioneer over these tremendous yawners, under the pretence that his own horse was nearly, if
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 231
not quite beaten ; and his friend " Beauty " was not a little de- lighted at the idea of being bear leader to so renowned a sports- man as Bob, little dreaming for what ])urpose he was allowed to hold this prominent position. Tliey had travelled for some time thus cosily together, when sudi a poser presented itself that " Beauty " was staggered at its appearance, and would have turned tail had he been so permitted. Turning round to Bob, he expressed his unwillingness to keep the first place any longer, and doubted his power of accomplishing the hard task set before him. " Oh ! it is nothing particular for a light weight like you," cried Bob ; " you are as sure to get over it as I am to be pounded ; go along, it wont do to be craning when the hounds are running into their fox. Go along, I say, and don't be chicken-hearted, just now, at any rate." He needed no more. Poor " Beauty" plucked up his courage, and went at it, as men do sometimes in desperation, with his eyes shut : and when he ofjened them again, he discovered himself lying at the bottom of a ditch the other side, deep enough to hold a team of horses, with his gallant old grey just uncomfortably enough atop of him ! " Beauty," as it may reasonably be expected, sung out as lustily as he could (his voice being at no time par- ticularly strong, and just then, from the superincumbent pres- sure upon his respiratory organs, rather a squeak) to his friend Bob for assistance out of ]iis perilous, and by no means enviable, situation ; and I should imagine Bob's rejoinder must have been highly consolatory to his friend in his awkward predica- ment. " Lie still, ' Beauty,' or it will be the worse for you," saying which, he crammed his horse at the place, and cleared ditch, " Beauty," and the old grey altogether. Bob, however, though in a great hurry, turned round to another following, and consigned his friend to his care, and a team of horses was soon in requisition to extricate ''Beauty's" horse, as well as others. Amongst these a dandy of the first water stood surveying his prostrate steed through his eye-glass, — " Eli ! upon my life this is an awkward affair, — 150 guineas' worth of good horse-flesh at the bottom of that infernal dyke, heels upwards. Lucky, how- ever, I ain't under him, — spoilt my dancing for the next month to come ; bad enough with this wiper across nose and cheek — wouldn't face the gals in this plight for a cool hundred. Con- found these agriculturists, with their drains and dykes ! Hil- loa-ho I — Hurrah ! Farmer, lend us a hand, my fine fallow : quick, will you, or Nosegay will be stifled." In another spot lay the extended form of as good a mare as ever entered a hunting-field, but this was destined to be her last. Her owner was more remarkable for the attention he paid to his own
232 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
creature comforts, than to any consideration he had for the dumb animals which, unfortunately, came under his dominion. He lost a valuable hunter by her not being up to the mark, and she, poor thing, a hard master, with the sacrifice of her life. Your humble servant had also a narrow escape from a ducking. A sporting baronet, well-knowm at tlie "Corner" as a great patron of the turf, and equally w^ell-know^n in the hunting-field as a first-rate performer and stanch friend to hounds, was riding with him and another " thrusting scoundrel," as my friend Bob designated all hard riders. A stifi" and high bullfinch presented itself, which the baronet and his friend, being both light weights, declined encountering, taking their choice of the gate which led out of the field. Not being over partial to timber jumping Avith a blown horse, I preferred the chance of a good switching through the quickset, to that of breaking the top bar of the gate, with the additional prospect of a squelcher the other side, and held my own course. As the baronet and his friend got upon higher ground in riding for the gate, they ciiught sight of a sweet purling brook on the other side of the fence I was going at, but which to me on the flat w^as invisible. Some men never spare their friends for the sake of making a good pun, and others a bet. Instead of w^arning me of my danger, he coolly turned round to his companion, and, just as I had put my horse at the place, this exclamation greeted my ears, — " Ten to five he don't clear it, — will you take it T The notice came too late for me ; but I had time to take my feet out of the stirrups, and prepare for the Avorst. My horse, although a capital brook jumper, could not clear the brook and fence together, from not being prepared for both, and his chest came dash against the bank ; at the same instant, with the rein in my hand, I threw myself over his neck; but the horse's head, in falling back, struck me on the breast, and turned me right over on my back. The bank inclining to the water's edge, I lay for a moment help- less ; every movement I made diminishing my slippery position on terra finna. At last, by an effort, I turned over on my face, and at the expense of a dip to my shoulders, scrambled out. The sporting baronet and his friend must have witnessed the whole afi'air ; but their motto w^as, vestigia nulla retrorsum. We were, however, all soon right, up, and at it again ; and none the worse, either horse or rider, for this refresher. Upon lea\dng the vale, we had to encounter a very steep and long hill, which took the last pufi' out of our horses ; in fact, we w^ere all reduced to a walk. The fox w^as in view before us. leisurely ascending the steep side, and occasionally stopping and looking back. The scent became worse, and the hounds w^ere absolutely hunting
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him in view, although they did not see him themselves, and here I observed that, where the fox lingered, the scent more par- ticnlarly failed. The scene was a most exciting one, and desperate efforts were made with whip and si)ur, by the choice number who witnessed it, to urge their panting steeds to greater exertions, each struggling for the first place ; but nothing could be effected boyond a scrambling jog trot, and the wisest of the party jumped off and led their horses. A gallant captain on a capital hunter, of which he had used to boast that, if ever so tired, a shake of the rein would rouse him to renewed action, was here jeered by a rival brewer, who generally bore him company. "Now, Captain, is your time, shake his head a bit, for his tail has been shaking like the pendulum of a clock for the last ten minutes ; you can't think how regularly it goes ; it would do to keep time at the Horse Guards." " Come, none of your nonsense, thou vender of stout ; your nag looks as if he had just come out of the mash-tub, and as for his carcase, it rattles like an empty beer barrel." Fox-hunters are generally a cheerful set of men, particularly when things go well, and here we had the prospect of a brilliant finish to our sporting run, and hard work over as stiff a vale as ever was crossed. On the top of the hill our gallant fox stopped, sat up for a second or two to survey his pursuers, and then disappeared over the brow. Every man now strove hard for the lead, and we were soon on the summit, with the hounds streaming away once more with an improving scent. For a few minutes the fox kept on the high ground, with his head to the wind ; then stretched bravely away over the open downs for a gorse covert, about four miles distant. Knowing his point, I kept my eye forward, and soon observed a dark object, in size and appearance like a crow, skimming over the surface of the ground. This I knew to be our fox ; and, with a cry to my companions of " yonder he goes," pointing in the direction with my whip, and a cheer to the hounds, their heads were up and sterns down, and away we rattled, as if running for the St. Leger. With recovered wind and emulous spirits, our horses appeared to have forgotten their previous labours in the vale below, and a most exciting race ensued for a mile and a half over this fine elastic turf, when the whoo-whoop resounded over as gallant an animal as ever wore a brush. Some may think the reason the hounds went so slow up the hill was because they were blown, and not from a failure of scent ; but this was not the case. They had crossed two or three arable fields before reaching the base of the hill, and here they experienced a sufficient check to recover their wind, but where the fox lingered was on the turf, and therefore better holding ground.
234 HOESES AND HOrXDS.
All professionals are aware that tlie scent of tlie liiinted fox is inferior to that of one fresh found ; and this may arise from one of two causes, or both — slowness of movement, or exhaus- tion of the bodily exhalations. This is only or chiefly per- ceptible when a fox, which has been hard pressed for some time, has been enabled by a sudden check, or other to him favourable circumstances, to slacken his pace, and loiter before the hounds. When running into w^oodlancls, after a severe chase over the open, I have repeatedly witnessed this change of scent with our hunted fox ; by running short, lying down, and hunting the hounds, he is enabled to throw them off the line, and husband his remaining strength by these manoeuvres, when he has no longer the power to run before them. I have often seen a fox thus loitering, and then lie down and rest himself at full length, when quite beaten, until the hounds were nearly close upon him ; but i never observed an improvement in scent upon this particular ground, but quite the reverse. In my younger days, I always fancied the slower the movement of the animal, the better the scent ; but experience has convinced me, such is not the fact. The reason is, that from all animals in a state of repose or in very slow motion, there is little effluvia from the body, but with an increase of action, there is also an increase of scent. Were a fox to remain quietly in his kennel, the chances would be, that the hounds would pass him by ; and how often is this the case ; much oftener than we are aware of. How frequently have foxes been drawn over and viewed, after hounds have left the covert ; but how many escape during a season in this manner, no one can tell. From a horse in good condition when galloped sharply, the perspiration will escape in streams ; but if pulled up and allowed to walk, he will soon become quite cool again. The case is the same with the fox wdien pressed by hounds, and obliged to put his best leg fore- most, but, if given time, he will soon become cool, and jog leisurely along with little exertion.
CHAPTErv XXXVI.
Is a fox a good judge of scent ?— Method of catcliing liig game — A visit to De Ville — Stoat and rabbit — Dog foxes in the spring of the year — Effect of heat upon them.
Foxes have been said, by some acute writers, to be good judges of scent, and therefore make themselves scarce on good
HORSES AND HOU^rDS. 235
• scenting daj'-s, the reason assigned why they should be so being that they catch th?ir prey by hunting. The conclusion from such premises, that a fox must therefore know a good scenting day from a bad one, as applicable to his own individual case, is not quite so comprehensible to my obtuse understanding as I could wish. It is a mystery, perhaps, appertaining to the theory of the noble science in which I am not yet sufficiently instructed myself, and therefore cannot enlighten my readers. Stoats and weasels I have seen hunting down their game, until they are entirely worn out by running ; and I have seen Mr. Stoat run into his fox {i e., rabbit) in the open, as thoroughly beaten and done up as a hare before a pack of beagles ; but in all my excur- sions, both by day and twilight, and also under the pale moon's silvery rays — although I have met Mr. Wiley occasionally " by moonlight alone," and have seen him perform many and clever antics in various ways — I have never yet witnessed any attempts on his part to run down his game by nose. That he possesses very stronglj^-developed organs of smelling, I freely admit ; and this will be readily granted by all who have the honour of Mr. Wiley's acquaintance, without requiring Mr. Do Ville to examine liis pericranium, which Mr. De Yille would himself most probably decline to experiment upon, at least on the cranium of a living specimen.
I had once the folly to submit my ov/n caput to the manipu- lations of this professor of the occult science of craniology, more for the satisfaction of a country friend — or acquaintance rather ; for friends are raiw aves in all times, if you except the wor- shippers of Mammon, who stick close enough to a man as long as he is well to do in the world. Those two lines, which, as a boy at school I read in my Delectus, have often struck me in after life, as showing how true an estimate the Latin poet had formed of human nature, equally applicable to all ages : —
Donee erisfelix multos numerahis amicos; Tempora sifuerint nuhila solus eris,
which, for the benefit of those who are not acquainted with such lingo, may be translated thus : —
'•' TMiilst sunshine lasts, you will count many noses, But when dark clouds arise, the street-door closes."
" Not at home, sir," when, having seen your friend enter his house in Grosvenor Square, you hasten to catch him at home. Knocking at the door, the powdered lacquey makes his appear- ance. You inquire if your friend Mr. Nemo is within. " Not at home, sir," is the answer. " Why, I saw him enter only a
236 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
minute acjo," Still the same stifi- denial, " Not at home, sir." How forcibly do those beautiful lines of Lord Byron occur to me as the truest though most severe censure ever passed on boasting mankind : —
" Oh, man ; thou feeble tenant of an liour, Debased by slavery, or corrupt by power ; Who knows thee well must quit thee with disgust, Degraded mass of animated dust ! Thy love is lust, thy friendsliip all a cheat. Thy smiles hypocrisy, thy words deceit."
"Well, my curious friend having heard a great deal of the celebrated De Ville, wished me (as shy country maidens do when they submit their fair palms to the scrutiny of some itinerant Egyptian prophetess) to have my secret failings exhi- bited as well as his own. Nothing like having a companion to be experimented upon also. Down the Strand Ave toddled, therefore, to the den of the mighty necromancer. I must go first, of course, and when my companion had heard all that could be said of my character, then his cranium should be sub- mitted for scrutiny. It needed little art to tell my failings—^ that I was a sort of Will Careless— viewing all things couleur de rose — sanguine in my expectations — and believing all men to be honest and sincere. I was told, also, that my good nature would lead me into many troubles, out of which I must trust to my own wits to deliver me. De Ville was a true prophet.
Awhile since I was writing of stoats running down their game by scent. This very day a case in point has just come l)artly under my own observation. Taking a stroll by the side of a large wood, I met wdth a woodman at work. One of my terriers being attracted to his wallet, which lay on tlie hedge, began scratching at it. " Oh ! musn't tear my bag, little dog," said the man. "There's something more than bread there, my friend," I replied, " or my dog would not have noticed it." " And so there is, sir, that's true enough ; there's a rabbit in it." " Well," I said, '' how did he get there ?" " Why, in rather a curious w^ay. I wur a sitting down under the wood hedge, eating my bit of bread, when I hears a bit of a rustling, and out comes Muster Bunny in a terrable fluster, dash out into the field, and good cause he had to be in a hurry, when who should be close arter him but Mr. Stoat as brisk as a bee — who but he." "Well," I said, "what thenf "Why, sur, the rabbit takes out straight aliead into the open field, but ]\Ir. Stoat wur too nimble for 'un, and cotched ]Mr. Bunny afore he could reach
nOKSES AND HOUNDS. 237
t'other end — how hur did go — 'twere like a greyhound coursing a hare." " Well," I said, " why did you not run up and kill the stoat as well f " Wait a bit, sur," said the man, with a know- ing look, " Mr. Stoat don't do I any harm, and I'm a thinking he aint the worst friend I've got in the world by a good deal — this ba'ant the first rabbit I have had by 'un, but I wur a little too quick upon 'un t'other day." " How so f " Why, I seed 'un running down a rabbit as usual, when I runs u]) and cries halves rather too quick like, for !Mr. Stoat bolts off one way, and the rabbit t'other."
This brings me back to the point from which I have been as usual digressing, with my " Will Careless" sort of rambling propensities, which, as Mr. De Ville said, are strongly developed on my unfortunate cranium. Now, then, for Mr. Wiley's moon- light excursions in search of a supper. On one point I am tolerably well convinced — that he does not kill his game by running or hunting it down. Mr. Wiley takes things rather more coolly, and in his proceedings exhibits unmistakeable traits of the artful dodger. Silently and stealthily emerging from the wood hedge, he sits up, as a man would in his easy chair, and first puts on his considering cap. Before him, scat- tered over the field, rabbits and hares are feeding, in happy ignorance of their wily foe's propinquity. His plans are soon laid, and, having fixed upon the victim best suited to his taste, he thus proceeds : he creeps slowly forward, with his body crouching to the ground towards his prey. If the rabbit is startled, it raises itself on its hind legs and looks around — the fox is instantly on the ground, lying as still as death. Again the rabbit feeds ; again with slow and silent steps, still crouch- ing, his crafty foe approaclies. The rabbit starts, and stamps on the ground. The fox instantly raises himself erect — that form and eye once seen, the wretched rabbit quails beneath them, and tries to hide himself by lying close to the earth. It is enough — Mr. Wiley now knows his victim is secure — creeping forward again in a crouching manner, he slowly nears his frightened prey, and when within a few paces, suddenly raising himself, makes his fatal spring.
When a fox runs up wind, he has generally some object in view, either a head of earths, a drain, or some favourite covert, and he will make every eflort to gain it. He does not turn down wind from any knowledge that the scent is less, but because the jn^essure from without is less with the wind than against it. With the wind behind him, he can judge also of the distance between himself and his pursuers. When the pack are far behind, a fox often loiters by the way, jogging leisurely
238 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
along, and sometimes stopping to listen. This is tlie case when he has been forced from his own native covert, and has there- fore no particular point to make ; he will then endeavour to shake ofl* the hounds by running wide rings, and making back to his favourite haunts again.
In the months of February and March dog foxes travel long distances to meet their ladies fair, and we have then the best runs. At those times, however, I have sometimes found that the old dog foxes were weak, from being so much on foot, and from want, also, of food, having their attention almost wholly engrossed by other matters. Foxes, also, at this particular season of the year, often have severe battles. A woodman once told me that, upon going early in the morning to his work, lie found two dog foxes fighting so savagely, that they did not notice his approach, and that he might have killed one or both with his heavy walking-stick. I remember, with a hot sun the beginning of March, killing a brace of fine dog foxes in the same day, whicli_ came very unexpectedly to hand, and this I attribute to their being nearly fagged out before they were found by the hounds. Nothing tells so much upon a fox as heat, and although a glaring sun and keen wind in the month of March are prejudicial to scent, knowing well the effect pro- duced by heat on the fox, I would always persevere, and trust to the chapter of accidents to carry me through, scent or no scent, until we succeeded at last in overhauling Mr. Eeynard — often in a very unexpected manner.
In a future chapter I shall endeavour to relate how foxes were once brought to book by a master of fox-hounds without any scent at all, and how they were made to break covert by anotlier witliout any hounds. Clever, indeed, must we all admit Mr. Wiley to be, when the brains of so many heads have been racked to outwit him, and little is the fair play he meets with.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Greyliouncl foxes — Lord Drumlanrig's run — Proposed show of fos-liounds at Tattersall's, as well as advertisements of stallions — Advantages of a Club — Choice of a President — Prizes — Changing foxes — Finish of a run in the dark — Strange place of refuge for a fox — A first-rate whipper-in of even more consequence than a first-rate himtsman — Scene in a lady's di'awing room — Kefuge in the chimney, and successful dislodgment.
Over heath and moorland tliere is generally a capital scent, and in such countries the best and stoutest running foxes are
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 239
found principally of the old greyhound sort. They have often long distances to go for food, and the fresh mountain breezes add vigour to their frames. The famous run so lately recorded by Lord Drumlanrig proves the distance these fine mountain foxes will run ; it also proves my assertion, that a good pack of hounds, on a fair scenting day, will kill, unassisted, the best fox that ever wore a brush. I quite agree with Mr. Delme Eadclifte, that it is the finest run in the annals of sporting, either of the present or b^^-gone days. The runs we see and hear of con- tinually as the runs of the season, your five-and-forty minutes, hour-and-a-half, &c., averaging some ten to fifteen miles dis- tance, are but as i)igmies compared to this mighty giant. I felt all my ardour revive when reading this unprecedented perform- ance of thirty miles being traversed by this gallant pack, with its glorious termination ; and in my younger days I would certainly have gone even so far north to have had a peep at them.
We have column after column of winning greyhounds, names, pedigrees, and colours ; but the name of a high-bred fox-hound — superior in every respect to a greyhound as fox-hunting is to coursing — never makes its appearance in print— and why not '? Are not the votaries of the noble science as two to one, in com- parison of coursers ? I mean no offence, neither do I intend any reflection upon my friends of the leash, or their long dogs. Every man to his taste. Coursing is a very quiet, gentlemanly amusement, and I admire a handsome greyhound as much as any one can. But I could never fancy coursing after fox- hunting. It is like small beer after the finest champagne.
I would suggest to the proprietor of BeWs Life, at the begin- ning of each season, to request the huntsman of every old- established pack to send a short list of their stallion hounds, not more than half-a-dozen, with their names, ages, pedigrees, and height. This list would not occupy more space than the column generally assigned to fixtures during the hunting season, and if published at the end of October, before the regular hunting commences, it would be a capital way to com- mence business in that line. It must also be very acceptable to all masters of fox-hounds, as well as the lovers of the sport. I name October because it is at least a good month before the coupling season begins, and it w^ould enable masters of hounds to send to any favourite blood in distant kennels, now that the facilities of travelling are so great. I have myself, in past times, sent my bitches nearly 200 miles, v/ith a man, horse, and light cart, to a favourite kennel. That distance may now be accomplished in about eight hours, and for a tenth part of the expense.
240 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
_ We have seldom an opportunity of knowing what elements distant kennels are composed of. Runs are recorded, it is true, of almost every ])ack, and there is generally a monstrous deal of trash mixed up with them also about splendid packs of hounds, when, perhaps, half of them are like turnspits. Then we hear of the darlings (not Grace Darlings, many of them, I'll warrant), beauties, and every hyperbole that can be made available to laud their favourites to the skies — flying like pigeons, &c., &c. This is all very fine and may be all very true, perhaps ; but I should just like to have a look at these paragons, and so would, I dare affirm, many more. Nothing is more easy. We have a grand cattle show in London, and great i^oultry exhibitions. There are also little shows of long-eared rabbits, shows of ter- riers, and shows of spaniels, and why not an annual show of fox-hounds at Tattersall's 1
The plan I would suggest is this — that each master of fox- hounds should send a couple of young unentered hounds, dog and bitch, of his _ own breeding (say two or three days before the Epsom Meeting), with their feeders ; but, first and foremost, as nothing can be done without a dinner, let every master of fox- hounds subscribe a couple of sovereigns annually to a fox- hunting club, to meet at the Clarendon, or any other place which may be considered more eligible. A president should be chosen. Probably either the Duke of Beaufort or the Duke of Rutland would not refuse their services to promote so laudable an object. For a guinea per head an excellent dinner could be provided, with a sufiicient allowance of wine. There are now advertised in BdVs Life about seventy packs of fox-hounds — say that only fifty subscribed. We have, then, 100^. to com- mence with. If all appeared at the dinner, there would be 50^. expended. I would, however, admit a few others, if considered expedient, by tickets. We have, then, 60l. to expend in pre- miums. These I would award somewhat after this fashion — two prize goblets to the best two couples of hounds, the first of 10^., the second of 6l.: a silver medal or two for others. I would also distribute lOZ. among the feeders. We have then 20/. left for extra expenses.
A judge or judges should be appointed, to decide on the merits of the hounds, and their awards to be given after the dinner, and the prizes distributed. The annual subscriptions to be forwarded to the Editor of BeWs Life, who would, I have no doubt, receive them, and lend his able assistance to the secre- tary to carry out the arrangements about the dinner, prizes, &c. The formation of such a club would be most desirable. By it all disputed points might be settled as to hunting rights, &c.,
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 241
and good and sound rules laid down. Something more tlian mere custom has been long required, for seldom does a season pass without some little emeute among masters of hounds touching claims to coverts, which, were a club once established, might be referred to its decision, and thus all angry feelings be allayed.
The formation of such a club would be a new era in the sporting world. There might also be a fund established for deserving huntsmen, whippers-in, and feeders, when out of place or in reduced circumstances. The sight of twenty couples of the finest young fox-hounds in England would be worth travelling a good many miles to witness, and would attract as many visitors nearly as the Zoological Gardens. An admission fee might be taken on one day, which would make up a fund for the feeders. The dinner would render distant masters of hounds better acquainted, and " amid the feast of reason and the flow of soul," all would go merry as a marriage bell. Thu& much at present on this subject, which I leave for the con- sideration of masters of hounds.
I will now change the venue to changing foxes, which is about as unpleasant a contretemps as can occur to an ardent liuntsman or an eager pack of hounds. You have been running your fox, found late in the day, perhaps, for an hour with a holding scent, when, on reaching Hazelwood, the scent becomes wonder- fully imx)roved, and the hounds are in full cry, ringing merrily round the covert. Now we shall liave him — how close they stick to him — it v/ill soon be all up with ]\Ir. Eeynard. Such thoughts as these pass quickly and excitingly through the huntsman's head ; when, over the drive, instead of a beaten fox, with his brush draggling on the ground, another light and airy form bounds across at a spring, with all his blushing honours thick upon him. Your heart sickens at the sight of this unex-* pected vision, at least mine has often upon such an occasion. It is a regular damper. For a second or two I have sat upon my horse as if entranced. You see at once that your hunted fox has gone on, and you are left the pleasant alternative of perhaps fruitlessly attempting to recover a good fox, with a worse scent than you had ten minutes ago, even supposing you can stop the hounds — which is very doubtful — or the agreeable prospect of being beaten by the gay gentleman who is now dancing before your half-tired pack, and appears strong enough to run till midnight. Perhaps, while you are deliberating how to proceed, and racking your brains to little purpose, a view halloo from the further end of the covert settles this knotty point for you at once, and vou are obliged to follow your hounds
242 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
with about as pleasurable sensations as a boy would entertain upon returning to school late in the holidays, when he antici- pates either a flogging or an imposition for being last of his class.
I remember upon one occasion, particularly, crossing the line of a fresh fox late in the day, who led us a proper dance across country, then over some downs, and, just as it became dark, into the stiffest vale of our grass country. Stopping the hounds was out of the question ; for some time v\^e could not get near them, and when we did it was so dark that we could not see them, and tlieir cry was our only guide. The fox appeared, from his mode of running at last, to be quite as much in the dark as ourselves. The last point he had made was for a head of earths, which were closed, and being foiled in this, he tried to foil the hounds by short running in some small enclosures. Jim, being mounted on a white horse, took the lead, and 1 was glad enough to follow him, his horse being fresher than mine. Occasionally, a crashing, groaning sound reached my ears, with a loud " come up " from Jim, as he floundered through a ditch, on the other side of a stron^^ bullfincher, with a caution to me in his wake. "Take care, sir, there's a nasty place the other side." We scrambled on in this manner for about twenty minutes, wlien the fox took refuge in some out-buildings behind a gentleman's house, close to a large market town. Having obtained a lanthorn from the servant, we found the hounds in the House of Commons, underneath which Mr. Reynard had ensconced himself in anything but a bed of roses. Dislodging him from such a place, without breaking up the floor, being out of the question, we " left him alone in his glory," having then just twenty miles to toddle home in the dark.
A ^ood ear is of essential service to a huntsman, without which he cannot be a complete master of his art. When hounds are running their fox in covert, a fine ear will enable him to distinguish the distance between them, and detect in a moment any alteration in the scent. If he is on good terms with his fox when he enters the covert, there is not so much likelihood of the hounds changing, but if with a bad scent, and the hounds sudclenly begin running hard, he should be then on the alert, as the chances are there is a fresh fox before them. A hunted fox will never allow hounds to get near him, as long us he has the power to keep out of their way. The scent of the hunted fox also is very inferior to that of one fresh found, and this will direct an observant huntsman. Upon these occasions it is that the services of a clever whipper-in are of the greatest use. He will get forward to the end of the covert before the hounds
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 243
enter it, and be careful not to halloo any fox but the hunted one. Should the hounds carry the scent through, he will signal the huntsman, and keep forward with the hounds until his arrival.
Beckford says he would rather have a first-rate whipper-in and a secondary huntsman, than vice versa. I quite agree with liim in this remark. A whipper-in has quite as many oppor- tunities of showing his talents as a huntsman, and upon him often 'depends the successful termination of a hard day's work. With him also rests, to a very great extent, the steadiness of the hounds. A clever whipper-in will at once discern the hunted fox from a fresh one ; whereas a stupid fellow will halloo the first fox he views, and bring the hounds into more difiEiculties than he has the sense to get them out of.
There have been times when I liave been almost deceived myself in the appearance of the hunted fox, in dry weather particularly; and his last eftbrts to escape are sometimes astonishing. I remember once, after a severe chase, running a fox into a gentleman's kitchen garden, the wall of which was about ten feet high. Over this he went, apparently as fresh as when he was first found ; but he made no further efforts, and lay down among some cabbages until the hounds picked him up. Another ran to the top of a house, and remained on the roof till the hounds made their appearance in the yard below. He then made a spring at the chimney stack, which he suc- ceeded in gaining, and bolted down the flue. The house was three stories high, which he ascended by first jumping on to some buildings adjoining. It was occupied by two maiden ladies, who were sitting in the room, into which J\lr. Eeynard made his entree down the chimney, covered with soot. The consternation of the ladies may be easier imagined than de- scribed. The screams they uttered at the unexpected visit of such an intruder, begrimed with soot as he was, and from such. a quarter, scared the fox so much, that, after taking a turn round the room, he bolted again up the flue — the ladies in their terror flying through the door at the same time, and screaming for assistance. In a moment the whole house was in an uproar, and the first flight of riders coming up, soon added to the confasion.
One more zealous than the rest, a hard rider, as well as a very handsome fellow — who went by the name of " Handsome Jack " — gained admittance at the front door, and with him and two or three others, the hounds also rushed in, and took pos- session. The ladies fled down to the lower regions, leaving to their domestics, who were all women, the ejection of these uu-
£2
244 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
welcome visitors as tliey best could. Besoms and brushes were put in requisition, but to little avail ; tlie hounds showed fight, and, having gained possession of the drawing-room, held their ground, or rather their floor. "Handsome Jack," who was quite a ladies' man, having, by his good looks and soft words, gained over the pretty housemaid, was seen looking out with her, all smiles and good humour, at one window; and from another, some of the hounds, as if quite at home, were gazing down on their astonished companions in the yard below. To dislodge Mr. Reynard from his hiding-place was not, however, quite so easy a matter. The tongs were put into requisition, but at the first nip the fox ascended higher. They then tried the broom, which brought down lots of suot, so that Handsome Jack and his companions were very soon as black in the face as sweeps ; but Mr. Reynard would not come down. They then sent one of the hounds up the chimney, the whippers-in shut- ting the others outside the door. This had the desired effect, and in a few minutes down came hound and fox into the room below, with such a cloud of soot that it saved the fair ladies of the mansion the necessity of employing a chimney sweeper for the ensuing three months. " Oh dear, oh dear !" exclaimed the pretty housemaid, " the carpet is entirely ruined ! What will my mistress say !" " Oh, never mind, my dear," said Handsome Jack, "this don't happen everyday in the week." "No, sir, once in one's life is quite enough for such a job as this will be."
The fair complainant was remunerated for the trouble likely to ensue after this black afiair, and the fox, having been secured, was taken into some meadows opposite, and turned adrift. Sufficient time was given him, and then the hounds laid on the scent, or rather track, for scent there was none at first from his worship, who presented the appearance of a run- ning soot-bag. After he had well shaken himself, however, and brushed through a fence or two, the hounds set to work running hard, and the whoo-hoop -soon resounded over the late tenant of the chimney.
HOESES AND HOUNDS. 245
CHAPTER XXXVIIL
Diflference "between wild and woodland bred foxes — ^Difficulty sometimes of making tliem break covert — Various experiments — The "black bitch" — Smoking them out — Changes and expenses in hunting estabUshments at the present day — Kennels in the grass countries — Sham and real friends to foxes — Vixen and cubs — Earth-stopping in March — The whippers-ia ought to visit the earths — Episode of Jim.
It is a general remark that woodland foxes afford tlie best chases. One reason is, that they always have a good start before the hounds ; and another, that many of them are strangers there, and have a point in \dew to run home to. Woodland bred foxes are often tiresome brutes, that will hold to the covert, and wear out a pack of hounds, by ringing round and foiling the ground so much that the hounds cannot press them. A capital master of hounds, who formerly hunted some very large woodlands, containing two or three thousand acres each, was once asked by a young and ardent sportsman, why he did not force the foxes to fly. "Force them, indeed," exclaimed the indignant master, " force your grandmother to suck eggs !"
Unless large woodlands are hunted nearly once a week throughout the season, the foxes bred there will not shift their quarters ; but as now-a-days the fashion or fancy is all for gal- loping and pace, the favourite places, such as small coverts, gorses, and spinneys, are often called upon — so often, indeed, that the foxes take refuge in the big woods. To secure a good run, therefore, you must go away, if possible, with the first fox that breaks ; he is sure to be a stranger.
A very famous master of fox-hounds, quite at the head of the list, some few years since, was so bothered in a large wood- land (where foxes abounded) by their always beating his hounds, that he had recourse to rather an unsportsmanlike method of thinning their numbers, and bringing home a fox's head — we cannot say in triumph. The keeper had received orders to stand in some out of the way ride, where the foxes crossed, and after the hounds had been running their allotted time of two hours or so, and the coast was clear of riders in that direction, to give Mr. Reynard, en jMssant, a salute in the rear, not for the pur- pose of helping him on his already too fast career, but to stop it short at once by breaking one of his legs, or otherwise maim- ing him. .
Another master of hounds who was out one day in these woodlands hearing the report of a gun, and observing his old
246 HORSES AKD HOUNDS.
friend toddling off in that direction, smelt a rat, and, proceeding quietly on his track, overheard the following conversation with the keeper? — "Well, William, did you tickle him a bit?" "No, sir, I missed 'un clean, but better luck next time he comes round." This brother master, being a facetious fellow, used to remark afterwards of his friend's hounds that the Hack bitch zvas the lest hound in the j^cich.
The gentleman who afterwards succeeded to these same coverts, having got together a new pack of hounds, found the same difficulty at first in making the foxes break covert ; but he adopted a difterent and much more merciful plan. He caused large fires to be lit, and kept burning during the night to scare them away. One of his field having joined Mr. Slowman's hunt was greeted by my old friend in his usual sarcastic man- ner when things did not go to his liking : — " So, I find there is a new plan of making foxes break covert introduced into this part of the world ; they smolce them out r
If I have at any time when writing of my visit to Mr. Slow- man's country appeared to bear heavily on my old and reverend friend, nothing was really further from my intention. He was, it is true, bigoted to his own pack of hounds, and for this I applaud him. Every man who has a good pack of hounds in Lis own country, with a real sportsman at the head, should stick to them through thick and thin, and be cautious of changing them for new faces and new systems, w^hich often disappoint the hopes of the most sanguine lovers of variety. His was a pack of wdiich any man ought to have been justly proud. Peculiarities he had, it is true, and who has not 1 but this much I am bound to say of him, that he was one of the finest preachers, the best rider, and the most stanch friend to fox- hunting that ever lived in any country, and long, long will it be ere we shall look on his like again.
The system now pursued with these large woodlands is to hunt them generally once a week, and the foxes fly without the assistance of powder or smoke. The continual changes which almost yearly take place in the management of fox-hunting countries are prejudicial both to the hounds and to sport generally. Men of large fortune are often attracted by the eclat of the thing to take the direction of a fashionable country, ■which they as hastily resign when they find the weight of the burden they have imposed upon themselves. But there the mischief does not rest ; other and perhaps real sportsmen, and men of business habits (for the management of a pack of fox- hounds is a regular business, and requires men brought up from boyhood to that calling, if I may so express it, to be efficiently
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 247
and properly conducted), are deterred, by the ruinous expendi- ture of their unsopliisticated predecessor, to attempt the reduc- tion of things to their proper level, with the inevitable result of those unfair comparisons which will be drawn between his management and the splendid and lavish expenditure of the late master. It has been truly said, that what is Avorth doing at all is worth doing w^ell. This is particularly applicable to a fox-hunting establishment, but I should be doing little service to the cause of the noble science were I to withhold my decided disapprobation of the extravagant manner in which many hunt- ing establishments are conducted, and I feel assured that every true sportsman and ardent lover of this our national sport will agree with me in these remarks.
About twenty years ago I made a tour with a friend through ' grass countries, and visited all the great establishments of that day. The Duke of Rutland's, Duke of Grafton's, Lords Lons- dale's and Fitzwilliam's, and the Quorn kennels ; but there was no appearance in any of them of ostentatious display or unneces- sary expenditure. TJie kennels of the Duke of Grafton and Lord Fitzwilliam struck me as absolutely deficient in due accom- modation for the fine packs of hounds they contained, the lodging-houses being little better than those I have seen occu- pied by a pack of harriers ; but the studs of horses were magni- ficent, such animals as are rarely seen in the provincial countries. From these kejinels, however, and a very few others, have sprung the numerous packs of fox-hounds which now extend through the length and breadth of the land.
I can well remember that, in the neighbouring county of Northampton, some few years since, the establishment had been conducted on such a grand scale that no man could be induced to take the country for some months ; in fact, one of the best hunting countries in England was rea,lly going begging for a master, and it was even so late as the month of November before one could be found bold enough for the undertaking. It is quite impossible to form any correct estimate of the expenses which are incident to different hunting establishments. We all know that so many couples of hounds will require so many tons of oatmeal in the year, and the horses so many quarters of oats and tons of hay. We can compute also wages, taxes, and other necessary expenses, but when we come to the renting of coverts, feeing keepers and earth-stoppers for litters of cubs bred, or foxes found, poultry lost by farmers, &c., &c., we are all at sea. These items alone, in some countries, would suffice to keep another pack of hounds to hunt two days a week.
Masters of hounds, taking to a country with what they con-
248 HOESES AND HOUI^DS.
sider a good subscription, are often anything but agreeably- surprised, at the end of tlie season, with a long list of these little items, which at the commencement they thought little of. Were real sportsmen only, and men of business, to undertake the management, these excrescences would be lopped off, or re- duced to their proper level ; for, in fact, these extra expenses should not be borne at all by a master of hounds ; they properly belong to the owners of coverts and the gentlemen of the country, and, if not agreed upon as to their peculiar province, a separate fund at least should be provided to meet such con- tingencies. I have known two guineas paid for each litter of cubs, and a guinea per fox for every one found after the 1st of November, and the earth-stopping as well • but this was in a country almost deficient in proprietors as hunting men ; in fact, the keepers were masters, and, unless well paid, there would have been no foxes at all. These expenses were borne by the unhappy master, as part and parcel of his hunting establish- ment.
In my own country we had once a very unfriendly neighbour to foxes : in whose coverts we scarcely ever found a specimen of the vulpine genus, the vestigia nulla retrorsum being rigidly exemplified. Upon- the departure of this game preserver a genuine sportsman succeeded, who knew very well the tricks and lies of gamekeepers. I called upon him with a request that I might still be permitted to draw the coverts, and that he would not allow his keepers to destroy the foxes, which I assured him I was well aware had been the case with his predecessor. His reply was both courteous and to the point : — " You are most welcome to draw my coverts as often as you think proper — once a week if you like, and it is my business, as a true sportsman, to provide foxes'' On the following day he sent for the keepers; his address to them was laconic enough : " Whenever the fox- hounds draw my coverts they will find foxes, or all of you will find fresh places." One of the old fox-killers, venturing to re- monstrate at this peremptory mandate, and asking how foxes were to be found if there were none there, was cut short with this rejoinder : " Where they come from is no concern of mine, but here they shall be, or you shall not."
y^e never drew those coverts afterivards, even if we were there sometinies once a week, ivithout finding a fox. So much dif- ference is there between 7'eal and sham preservers of foxes. We \yere not obliged to pay or fee these keepers for foxes found or litters bred ; knowing their master's humour, the smallest dona- tion was by them most thankfully received. We had some sham preservers of foxes also, of whom I was well aware ; they were
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apparently most friendly to our sport, and invited the hounds to meet at their houses, but secret orders were given to their keepers not to have too many foxes.
As many may not be aware how these things go on in a fox- hunting country, it may be as well to give some little insight into the practices of keepers. By the end of the hunting season, we knew tolerably well the number of vixen foxes left in the country, and the places they frequented. After the first week in March I never allowed any earths to be stopped at night ; they were only put to in the morning. Old vixens lay down their cubs often about this time, and if stopi)ed out a whole night and day, the whole litter would perish. The vixen, it is true, seldom leaves her young at this early period, except for a short time only, and for the purpose of procuring food, but I would never run the risk of her being barred out. Dog foxes in the month of March seldom lie at ground, and I have also often found heavy vixens above ground, when the earths had been left open all night. Foxes, like dogs, are attached to their homes, and a vixen will lay up her cubs in the same place for several successive seasons if fairly dealt with.
When the hunting season was over, it was Jim's especial business to pay frequent visits to the earths to see that all was fair. He was a man of few words, and there existed between him and the keepers as much real good will as the latter enter- tained for the foxes, although, apparently, they were all on the best terms. Jim knew their tricks, and was a match for them ; they never knew when or where they might find him. He would visit their coverts at all hours of the day jDr night. Leaving his horse at some neighbouring farm-house, he usecl to proceed on foot to the covert of any suspected fox-killer, when he thought the man would be absent, examine the earths to see if any traps had been set, and search the runs as well. Sometimes the keeper would meet with him when so occupied. " Well, Mr. Jim, you seem very fond of paying my woods a visit." " Only look in occasionally to see how the foxes fare ; that's my business you know, LIr. Keeper, and master is very particular in having my reports. He knows every litter of cubs in the country, and that ain't so many that he can afford to lose one."
In the very difficult country I had to manage, Jim was to me an invaluable servant ; his master s interests and his own were identified, and I did my part also to make him feel perfectly at home in his place. Upon hunting days he always had his dinner in the house, and generally made his appearance in my dining room afterwards, as there were a few little matters to discuss, to which a glass or two of wine was no disagreeable
250 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
addition. To sliow tlie zeal of the man, I will only relate one instance, for the imitation of whippers-in generally. We had run a fox to ground, after a very severe chase of nearly two hours' duration, in an old gravel pit, on the grounds of a gentle- man, who was always most friendly to our sport, and who although no fox-hunter himself, had gone so far as to tell me that he would discharge at a moment's notice any keeper of his who should be found setting traps for foxes. He had also said the same thing to Jim one day, in the presence of his head keeper. This was not forgotten, for Jim never fancied these keepers, and being on the outskirts of our country he could not overlook them quite so often as he thought necessary. One of these keepers was present when we ran the fox to ground and promised " he should be taken care of."
Upon our return home, and when I had just dined, Jim requested an audience ; he was always at once admitted. " I have been thinking, sir," he said, " of what that keeper told you about taking care of the fox, and my notion is, that he does mean to take care of him, and such care that we shall never find him any more. I don't like those men and never did." "Well, Jim," I said, " I have an idea also that he wont have fair play, but we cannot help it now, such a night as this is." (It was dark as pitch and raining as well ; and the place where we had run the fox to ground was at least ten miles from the kennels.) " I don't wish you to turn out in such weather as this, and the fox must take his chance." " Well, sir," replied Jim, " if you don't mind it, I don't, and that fox is too good to have his brains knocked out by those rascally keepers. I shall go, sir, and see after him."
Having hastily swallowed a tumbler of wine, and without changing his clothes, Jim mounted a hack, and set off on his dark excursion. Arriving at a farmhouse near the gravel pit, he there left his horse in the care of the farmer, and proceeded on foot and alone to the spot. Having a good thick stick in his hand he groped about at the earth for the traps which he sus- pected were set there. Snap went one directly — this he put away. Trying again, his stick was caught by two others. " Just as I thought," exclaimed Jim. " Pretty care they were going to take of our fox ; but now I'll play keeper and catch one or two of these vagabonds, or my name ain't Jim." He accordingly hid himself in some bushes in the pit close to the earth, and there lay down until about ten o'clock, when he heard footsteps approaching. Two men came down to look at the earth, nearly ouching Jim as they passed. Seeing nothing unusual there, one of them exclaimed, " Come away, he is not caught yet." " But
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you are,",said Jim, jumping quickly upon his legs and collaring the keeper. "Let go," cried the man, " or it shall be the worse for you." " Not a bit of it," said Jim ; " I can thrash two such fellows as you any day in the week. I am just in the humour for it now, and if I don't serve you out as bad as you meant to serve our old fox, my name is not Jim. So, no nonsense — you two shall go before your master this very night, or one of you I'll carry there, that's all."
Jim being a tall powerful fellow, and a pretty good hand at most games, that of fives not excepted, the keepers were obliged to submit, and they all marched off together for the mansion, Jim shouldering the steel traps, which he told me afterwards he longed to give the head keeper a taste of about his head and ears. The master having told him upon more than one occasion that he should never be refused admittance if he was at home, Jim walked up to the front door, with a knock and ring, as if some gentleman had arrived. He knew it would be of no avail going to the back. The footman soon made his appearance, and was not a little surprised when he beheld Jim there. " is your master at homef coolly asked Jim. "No, he ain't," replied the indignant lacquey, " to such visitors as you — your place, if anywhere, is at the back door." "I rather think not, just now, Mr. Footman, and I will thank you to tell your master Mr. So and So's whipper-in wishes to see him on particular busi- ness." " I shall do no such thing," said the footman. " Very well," replied Jim, "then here I'll knock and ring, if fur the next hour to come, until you do, my fine fellow, that's all."
The man shut the door, thinking Jim dared not do as he threatened, but he little knew the customer he had to deal with. In a moment such a thundering knocking at the door, and such a pull at the bell, that you would have thought the Marquis of Carabas had arrived. The master, who had just gone to his dressing-room for the night, hearing this racket at the hall door, rang his own bell violently. His valet rushed up stairs at the summons. " AVho on earth is at the hall door at this time of night V demanded the master. " I can't tell, sir." " Then go this minute, and let me know ; they will knock the door down." The enraged footman was obliged to open the door again. " Well," said Jim, " are you going to deliver my message, or shall I knock and ring a little longer f " Confound your impu- dence," said the footman, " I should like to twist your neck a bit." " Only just try, Mr. Longshanks," rejoined Jim, " and I will soon take some of that powder out of your wig for you."
The message at last being delivered to the master of the man- sion, he desired Jim should be shown into his study, where in a
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few minutes, he made liis appearance. Jim apologised for liis apparent rudeness in applying at the grand entrance for admis- sion, and disturbing him at such an hour. "But," he said, " you^ told me, sir, whenever I detected any of your keepers catching foxes, I was to give you immediate information of it, and I knew as the keepers had gone round to the back of the house, there would be little chance of my gaining an admittance in that quarter. I hope I have not offended you, sir?" " By no means, Jim ; your master has often expressed to me the high opinion he has of your conduct generally, and I fully appreciate an honest and trustworthy servant."
Jim's story was soon told. The master desired him to go into the housekeeper's room for refreshment, whilst he wrote me a few lines ; but this offer of hospitality was politely declined, as Jim suspected his beer might be hocussed, at the suggestion of the keeper and tall footman. The few lines addressed to myself were to the point, leaving the delinquent keepers at my disposal. Other devices and tricks of these gentlemen in velveteen I shall touch on in my next.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
Tricks of keepers — A master of fox-hoTUids ought to possess manifold know- ledge, as his business is most Tarious in its demands — Farmers generally favourable to fox-hvmting — Jim and the farmer's daughter — Foxes which lie idle easily disposed of — The weather constantly blamed for bad sport, wdthout reason — Foxes should have a fair start — The wild system of the present day condemned — Gentlemen huntsmen — "Blood will tell" — Mr. Delme Eadclifle — Mr. Osbaldestone — Assheton Smith — Not in- dispensable that a gentleman should always feed his own hoimds — Lord Darlington and Mr. MeyneU — Feeding hounds after hunting — Quotation from the author of the " Noble Science" — Fox-hunting not intended to be the sole business of life — Whippers-in who have lived under gentlemen huntsmen — Hills and the two Treadwells.
In countries where keepers are paid so much for each litter of cubs found in their district, they will only tithe them a little before they are found by the hounds, to receive their fee, but when that is received, the work of destruction commences with those left, and the old vixen is often the only one spared. I have found a good litter of foxes in such places on the first day of hunting, but not a young fox afterwards. My plan was, when at the mercy of a keeper, to allow him so much for every fox found, but nothing lor the litter. Some were such determined
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fox-killers that we could not satisfy them, except at such cost as to create dissatisfaction among all the rest. With them I adopted another plan, which bothered them not a little. I kept on drawing their coverts, fox or no fox, as often as I pos- sibly could.
One man, who had some pretty coverts, which always had held a fox before his appointment as keeper, I was quite satis- fied trapped the foxes, although we could never catch him in the act. I paid his coverts a visit pretty often, and one day he remonstrated, saying it was no use the hounds coming, as the foxes never would lie there, and I only drove his pheasants out of bounds, to be shot by poachers, who were waiting for them, when the hounds disturbed the wood. " Well," I said, " keeper, that is your aifair ; this was always a favourite place for foxes before you came, and I am satisfied in my own mind that you kill them; nothing that you can say will alter my opinion. Instead, therefore, of drawing your coverts once a month, I will draw them once a fortnight, and at the end of the season (when pheasants ramble so much) once a week, if possible, so that you will lose more pheasants that way than by foxes. Your master tells me you have the strictest orders from him to preserve them, and find them I will, or drive every pheasant out of the covert." "Did master tell you this, sirf said the keeper. "Yes," I said, "he has, and many other gentlemen also." '• Well, then," he said, " I don't like to be blamed in this man- ner, and if you will promise to keep it secret, I will let you know something more about the business ; but you must first promise me that you will never say a word to any living man whilst I am here, or I shall lose my place." " Your secret," I said, " will be safe with me ; and, for your satisfaction, it is not the only one of this kind I am the keeper of." " Well, then, sir, I have secret orders from my master to kill every fox I can." " Very well," I replied, " we now understand each other, but I suspected this was the case long ago." We almost always found a fox there afterwards, but the keeper had a difficult game to play, as he often told me, to satisfy his master— but being thus let behind the scenes, I helped him out, although his secret was never divulged by me, nor has it been, until now, notwith- standing he has long "since been consigned to that place where many of his victims lie buried.
A true sportsman once remarked of the country I hunted, "Wliat with fellows who preserve foxes and fellows who don't, what a confounded country this is to live in !" A mere master of hounds, without being a man of business also, could not have kept liis ground for two consecutive seasons, where I managed
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to figlit on, and with perfect success, for more than a quarter of a century, fully alive to the tricks of keepers and their masters as well. I contrived to meet them one way or another, and the sport we had was so good, that many mdpecides w^ere fain to yield to that bugbear public opinion, and preserve foxes in reality. A few genuine sportsmen we had ; but, although their will was good, their number was very small. The farmers, however, as a body, throughout the wdiole country, were trumps — they were, generally, lovers of the sport, good riders, and stanch friends to the hounds. Without them I never w^ould have attempted nor could I have held my ground. To many a secret, touching fox-killers, I gained access through their means, and a mutual good understanding always existed between us.
I called upon as many as I could during vacation time, although our country w^as a wide one, and a hearty welcome always awaited me ; Jim, also, was a great favourite with them, and could do what I never could, drink a few glasses of strong beer, without being much the worse for them. Many of our farmers were men of good property, and some possessed fox coverts, in which a litter of foxes was generally bred — there was no^ fear of their being killed by keepers. To the extreme points I generally despatched Jim, but this would not always answer as well. The daughter of a farmer, who had a small covert close adjoining the farm-yard, whose tenants (the poultry) belonged to herself, sent me word one day that, unless I paid her a visit in lyroiwia persona^ she would have all the foxes killed. This being only twenty-five miles from the kennel, was rather a long ride to make a morning call, which I told Jim to say the next time he went there. " It wont do, sir," said Jim, '• I have told her that same story once or twdce before, and it wont do any longer. Go you must now, sir, or that litter of cubs will go, that's clear, as the young lady is rather a deter- mined sort of character," " Very well, Jim, if I must go, I may as well go at once, so call me at five o'clock to-morrow morning."
I have before remarked, that a master of fox-hounds who does his duty, has no sinecure in any country. In some he is a slave to the public, and obliged to submit to all kinds of incon- veniences to keep things together. He works like a horse, and fares like an ass, which by the way, I undoubtedly think he is, all things considered. Although there is a great deal of what is called luck in fox-hunting, yet a master who is thoroughly acquainted with his business, and has a good pack of hounds, may fairly calculate upon showing sport one season with an-
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other. The nnmber of foxes killed (of which huntsmen are so fond of boasting) proves nothing as to the merits of the hounds, or the cleverness of the huntsman. Foxes which lie idle, and do not hear the cry of the hounds for perhaps two consecutive months in the year, are as quickly disposed of as cubs in Sep- tember. A good country even, ill-managed, will fail to afford sport ; Avhilst a bad country, under active and able manage- ment, will obtain notoriety. We cannot level hills, or change flints into sandstone; but this I maintain, that a thorough good sportsman will make foxes run and show sport in any country.
Year after year we hear the constantly-repeated cry of — bad season — no sport — too much rain for one, or too little for an- other country — no scent. Somehow or other, the weather has always to bear the blame, and fortunately the weather has very w^ide shoulders, and cannot complain, A pretty state of things we should have, could every man choose the day best suited to his own jjeculiar fancy. As, however, we cannot alter the weather, we must try to meet it in the best way we can. Not having the choice of making the weather for the hounds, the next best thing to do is to make the hounds for the weather ; and were this matter a little more carefully attended to, we should not hear quite so many complaints about the weatlier. Where good sport forms the exception, and not the rule, in any professedly good establishment, the fault lies not in the weather, but in one of these two things — the hounds or the management. For the last few years the winter season has certainly been in favour of hunting, yet the accounts of good sport are scanty. The fault, I am inclined to think, lies in the present wild steeple-chasing system of trying to ride a fox to death the moment he is found, without giving him a fair start for his life.
It being admitted that woodland foxes afford always the best runs, why not treat all foxes as woodland foxes 1 Give them a fair start, and let the hounds settle quietly down to the scent, without that extraordinary and unsportsmanlike hurry-scurry- ing, which is the general practice in these fast days. So long as the present system is pursued, really good sport will never be obtained. It is too much the fashion to cry down gentlemen huntsmen, for what reason I never could understand, unless the opinion is, that the " noble science " is so very simple that the most ignorant can become perfect masters of it. If that be the case, it is the only science to which a good education, with corresponding talents, is not a recommendation. If a thorough- bred horse can beat a half-bred one, why is it that a gentleman,
25Q HORSES AND HOUNDS.
with a good education, activity, and intelligence, should be con- sidered inferior to a servant "l
The specimens we have had of gentlemen huntsmen, though not very numerous, are sufficient to prove the assertion of Mr. Delme Radclilfe, who thus writes : — " I will maintain that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred — I might safely say in every case — where not only mental, hut an exertion of physical power is required, that blood ivill tell." I might name several gentle- men huntsmen in the provinces, but will select two only, from the grand country of the Meltonians — Osbaldestone and Assheton Smith — the latter still continuing up to the present time to show capital sport almost every season, without intermission, in, I was going to say, one of the worst hunting countries in England, and I do not know that I am far from the mark. He has, it is true, a pretty skurry every now and then over the downs, and a few grass fields to cross in the valleys occasion- ally. These are, however, few and far between, but the tittle spinnei/s he has to draw, such as the West Woods, Southgrove, Collingbourne Woods, Doles, and Fackham, would any one of them be sufficient to scare away his most attached friend from the grazing districts.
It is not indispensable that a gentleman should always feed his hounds, any more than a shooter should feed his pointers, or a courser his greyhounds. Dogs soon distingiiish who is their master, and if he is kind to them, and can kill foxes for them, he need not give himself any concern about their good will to serve him or attachment to his person. Mr. Smith, I believe, seldom feeds his hounds ; but any one who could witness his reception among them at the covert side would not be long in doubt as to the feelings they entertain towards their master. Lord Darlington and the great Mr. Meynell generally fed, or saw their hounds have their dinners, before sitting down to their own on hunting days; and, I must confess, I did not think I could do better than follow such good examples. The time occupied in feeding from eighteen to twenty couples of hounds, when their food was ready, which was generally the case before I dismounted from my horse at the kennel door, did not occupy more than from ten to fifteen minutes. After feed- ing the hounds left at home in kennel, the feeder prepared for the hunting hounds. The meal and meat were mixed together ready in the troughs, and at the first blast of the horn the broth was added hot from the boiling house ; so that we were never kept waiting more than two or three minutes at any time. From long practice, and thorough knowledge of the hounds, I could feed twenty couples as easily as I could five at a time.
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I tried tlie experiment once of letting a huntsman liave the management of my hounds in the field, but it would not do — half the pleasure was gone; and I came to the conclusion, before the expiration of the first month, that I must either hunt the hounds myself again or give them up entirely. Gen- tlemen who merely take the management of a pack of fox- hounds derive only a secondary pleasure from the sport, and I feel assured, were it a more general practice for them to hunt their own hounds, we should not hear of the continual changes which are yearly taking place. They would become attached to their hounds, anxious to show sport, and more enthusiastic in the pursuit of it.
In confirmation of this view of the case, I cannot do better than quote a passage from the clever author of the " Noble Science," who, in alluding to the power of mind, thus expresses his opinion: — "For this reason I imagine that men of educa- tion, or, in the common acceptation of the term, gentlemen, who devote themselves to any of the several exercises or accom- plishments, such as riding- or driving, boxing or fencing, shoot- ing, cricket, &c., are generally found far to excel, in proportion to their number, the rest of the world, who in inferior station have adopted any of these walks of life, from necessity rather than choice. In divinity, physic, or law, the highest ornaments have been, with few exceptions, the most finished gentleman. And 1 have no doubt that a gentleman farmer, instead of too often furnishing matter for a joke, would prove the best agri- culturist if he would farm less as an amateur, and bring his own deductions to the assistance of the general rules of practice. I see myself no other objection to the gentleman huntsman but this, that he would not, could not, consistently with the main- tenance of any society, abandon himself to the labour of the field, certainly not of the kennel ; and I hold it a sine qua non that a huntsman should be perpetually with his hounds."
I cannot quite agree with Mr. Delme Radcliffe, that a gentle- man who hunts his own hounds must of necessity give up society even to a moderate extent, unless he hunts six days a week ; in that case I should suppose society must suffer con- siderably ; but a thrice or four days a week man may not only give a dinner party occasionally at liis own house, without allowing the fish to be spoilt before he makes his appearance in the drawing-room, but he may also favour his neighbours with his company, if very desirable, at least three days in the week. Although not a very gay man in my day, I have danced all night at two balls in a week, dined out two, and hunted three days. That I did not feel particularly fresh at the end of it
s
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must be adinitted ; but, on account of my hunting propensities, the chair allotted to me at my neighbour's table was not often vacant. That it is not indispensable for a gentleman huntsman always to feed his own hounds I think I have brought evidence to prove in the case of Mr. Assheton Smith. I therefore may conclude that Mr. Delme Eadcliffe, having heard me on this point, will admit my argument to have some little weight. That we both agree in other respects there is no doubt, " that a gen- tleman huntsman ought to be the best huntsman."
Although I have often stated that the management of a pack of fox-hounds is a business of itself, yet Thave nowhere said that it should be the only business of a man's life. Hunting in mo- deration is a rational amusement ; as such, and such only, can it be considered, when it does not materially interfere with other and more important avocations. When this is the case it becomes at once an irrational amusement ; he who devotes six days out of the seven in a week to hunting alone, makes it then the business of liis life, or at least the greater part of it, reckon- ing the hunting season from the beginning of September to the end of Ai)ril. Men labour six days out of seven for their daily bread. Tradesmen and merchants devote every day in the week to their calling to secure an independence Ibr themselves in old age. No necessity, however, exists for any man to hunt six days in the week (unless the huntsman who is paid for so doing) ; but on the contrary, there is a necessity that he should not do so.
An old gentleman who had been listening very quietly to some young and ardent sportsmen, who were talking of their hunting five and six days a week, very coolly observed, " Well, gentlemen, then it strikes me that you consider the whole busi- ness of life to consist in trying to get foxes out of it f' There should be moderation in all things — Bunt ceHi denique fines quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum.
Having settled the point that gentlemen would make the best performances in the field, I think we may also assume that next in order come those who have served their apprenticeship to gentlemen huntsmen as whippers-in. I could mention several, but there are two men now at the head of establish- ments, whom I well remember — Jim Hills, who whipped-in to the Hon. H. Moreton, afterwards Lord Ducie, and Jim Tread- well, who lived for many years with the late Mr. Codrington. A better judge of hounds and hunting never existed than Lord Ducie; and ]Mr. Codrington was admitted by all his brother masters of hounds to have been a perfect oracle on the pedigrees of hounds, and everything relating to the noble science. That such masters should have turned out first-rate hands cannot be surprising — admitting, of course, that their pupils had natural
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talents, which only required to be rightly directed. Jim Hills is by all accounts quite at the top of bis profession, and, if we are to judge by the runs chronicled in BeWs Life from the Heythrop country, has shown extraordinary sport. From pri- vate information, however, I learn that he is one of the quickest and best huntsmen of the present day, and will never give up a fox as long as his hounds can hold on the line. This perse- vering through difficulties not only proves a good huntsman, but makes also a good pack of hounds. Treadwell has now for several seasons given great satisfaction in ]\Ir, Farquharson's country. He was for some time Mr. Codrington's right hand, and I always thought him calculated in every respect to make a first-rate huntsman. His brother Charles also, who was entered by ^Ir. Wyndham, and lived many years in Mr. Horlock's service, is now at the head of an establishment at Bramham Moor, and it is not for want of natural talent and good instruc- tion if he does not afford that sport as a huntsman which he so largely contributed to when a whipper-in. In that capacity he might have been equalled, but was never surpassed by any. So much for gentlemen huntsmen and their proteges.
CHAPTEE XL.
On trapping foxes — How to foil fox-killing keepers — Bag-foxes — Difference of scent — Eun with one — Eiding too close upon the pack — Hard riders and good riders to hounds — Advice to young sportsmen — The balance seat — Look before you leap into a pond — A good rider should never part company with his horse, unless both are down together — The Centaur seat.
The question has been proposed to me, how to prevent foxes being caught by pheasant preservers, and the querist has stated, that a friend of his had some traps made with light springs, so as merely to hold, and not maim, a fox ; and that those foxes which had been once caught, were proof against steel traps ever afterwards. This plan I have tried, and it is by no means a bad one, but in these enlightened days, where one fox is destroyed by traps, ten are killed by poison. Old foxes are very shy of approaching a dead bait ; but if the rabbit or pheasant they have killed, and half buried, be found, and a trap placed on the spot, the fox will most probably be caught. There are, also, many other ways of catching foxes in traps, which I will not mention, for fear some gentlemen in velveteen may, perchance,
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peruse these pages, and take a leaf out of my book. \Vliere there is a will, there is generally a way to do things.
K a pheasant-preserver and fox-killer (they are often I regret to say synonymous terms) be situated in the heart of a fox- hunting country, and his coverts do not afford foxes, the best plan I know of is to keep drawing them till they do. Never mind a few blank days ; draw, draw, draw, till foxes are found. If this does not make him preserve foxes, nothing will, except all his neighbours going in a body, and having a day's shooting in his preserves. As long as it is the fashion to let keepers have rabbits as perquisites, foxes will be destroyed. '' Two of a trade can never agree," and upon the head of the devoted fox are placed all the young pheasants which die of the pip, as well as the old ones which find their way into Mr. Keeper's pocket, to exhibit their beautiful plumage in the shop of some licensed dealer in game. All these are put down to Mr. Keynard's account, and the ignorant master, believing all, of course, his keeper tells him, is thus simple enough to lay all the blame upon an almost innocent victim.
In every country there are many fox-killers, some known, others only suspected, A determined master of hounds will, by some plan or other, make them ashamed of it, if he sets to work in real earnest, supposing, of course, that he is supported by the gentlemen of the country generally. Every man has his weak point somewhere ; a careful observer will soon find it out, and there he mil work him until he is brought round. I never lis- tened to old women's stories or excuses. Where I knew foxes ought to be found, there I always said openly they were killed by the keepers. A gentleman in our country was annoyed by a remark once made to this purport, and said that he thought it hard to be set down as a fox-killer, when he had given strict orders to his keeper to preserve them. "That," I said, "is nothing to the purpose ; your keeper disobeys your orders ; therefore you should discharge him." " Prove it," he replied, "and I will do so." "That," I said, "is not so easy an affair, although I shall catch him out before long ; but I will settle it another way, if you like. I will provide a keeper, who shall give you nearly twice as much game as you have at jjresent, and foxes as well." In one or two cases I did provide keepers, who proved my assertion to be correct.
The extraordinary dislike manifested by some game-pre- servers against foxes proves one of two things — either excessive ignorance, or the most narrow-minded selfishness. I am not a master of fox-hounds noAV, neither are my coverts drawn by hounds, yet I do not allow foxes to be killed by the keeper, well
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knowing tlie very little mischief they do to game. In one covert I have several foxes and as much game as I require ; nor have I found, in the last two seasons, either a single hare or pheasant killed by them. There are plenty of rabbits, it is true, to which they are most welcome; and the old vixen does me great service in digging out the stops of young rabbits, in the spring of the year. My keeper admits that one stoat does more mischief in one month tlian a fox will in three or four, among rabbits, which, of course, like all other keepers, he considers rather in the light of his own property. The woodmaiis 'pet continues his coursinsf, and last week ran down four rabbits in one day, three of which were taken from him.
I think I have now written quite enough to prove that the fox is, of all vermin, the least destructive of game ; and I trust game-preserv^ers will not listen to every idle tale brought them by their keepers, and wantonly destroy an animal which affords so much diversion to their sporting brethren in scarlet, without interfering with their own.
It is scarcely necessary to make allusion to bag-foxes, which I believe are seldom, if ever, in these days, turned down before a regular pack of fox-hounds, such practices being confined to scratch packs of curs, the proprietors of which think it a good thing to wind-up the hunting season with some long-winded misrepresentation in BelVs Life, with having found a wild fox at No Man's Land, and run him at least forty miles without a check in about fifty minutes. The scent of a bag-fox is so very different to that of a wild one, that a good pack of fox-hounds will not own it. Although this may appear strange, it is, never- theless, true.
I had once an opportunity of testing it. We had run a fox to ground in a drain, which was dug out, after the hounds had left the place, by some labourers, and carried to one of our hunt, who, of course, forwarded him to me, at the same time requesting that he might have the pleasure of a gallop after him. The fox was put away into a large building, and, when meeting with the gentleman the next day out hunting, I ex- pressed to him my doubts that the hounds would run this fox, if let loose before them, and that I did not approve of such practices. He said, for once it could do no harm, and he should like, of all things, to see if hounds could discern the difference between two scents, which he very much questioned. Then, I said, you shall have an opportunity of judging yourself. Accordingly, at our next fixture, this fox, which had only been caught three days, was taken to a covert which we generally drew first, and there turned loose about half an hour before we
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began drawing, my friend and self being the only persons privy to the transaction.
The wood into which the fox was turned was a small one, so that a fox could not break unseen from any part of it. I went into the covert with the hounds, which was my general practice, and began drawing. The wood was quickly traversed, and every corner tried — one tongue only was heard of a young hound, who was rather a notorious offender, but not another hound would join him. There was the fox — he was literally among the pack, where I saw him myself — but hunt him they would not ; the old hounds came away disgusted. The fox remained for a short time longer, when he broke across a canal, close to the wood, and being headed in that direction, returned again to the covert, a corner of which he threaded, and then broke over the open. The screams and halloos then brought the hounds to the spot, and some of the young ones went off with the scent, but the old hounds would not even then own it — they followed after, but they would not take part in the business. What with the screaming and hallooing, the young hounds went on, and it being a grass vale, soon ran into the fox and killed him, but then they would not eat him ; and one of the old hounds, to show his contempt of the whole affair, turned up his leg against Jim, as if to say, " Take that for your pains."
I was obliged to make excuses about the fox being mangy, and therefore the hounds did not like him. My friend ex- changed significant glances with me. We had deceived the field, but we could not deceive the hounds. But for the fact of the fox having washed himself twice in the canal, I do not think even the young hounds, notwithstanding the encourage- ment they received, would have run this fox a hundred yards ; so little do gentlemen who hunt to ride know of the real busi- ness going on in the field. As long as hounds go the jjace, they give themselves little trouble what they are running after. That a good sportsman may be of service sometimes to hounds is very true, but it is the best plan to admit of no interference at all by amateurs, and a pack of hounds must be wretched indeed to stand in need of such assistance. Real lovers of the sport may do good in many ways, such as keeping the ground clear of stragglers, where the fox is likely to break, preventing too much noise, giving the hounds time to settle to the scent before the host come clattering on their heels, &c. ; but the less they say to the hounds the better.
_ Half the checks which occur in a season are caused by men riding too close upon the hounds, and driving them over the
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scent : and most annoying it is to a master to see often tlie whole field bent upon destroying that which he is anxiously endeavouring to afford them — a good run. What any amateur has to do riding alongside of the leading couples, I am at a loss to comprehend, where even the huntsman has no occasion to be, unless he is troubled with short sight. I maintain that no man should ride in such near proximity to the hounds, and where he cannot help doing mischief To the left or right hand of the pack, as the wind may be, is the huntsman's place, but not so near to the leading hounds as to prevent or interfere with their swinging either to the right or left, when the scent fails at head. They should have always room for this. The eye of the hunts- man ought always to be intently fixed upon the leading hounds, and he must be a stupid fellow if he cannot detect in a moment when they have no scent before them. By riding at their head he encourages others to follow his example ; and if the hounds throw up suddenly, they have then to make their cast among the horses. Hard riders, who have already gained notoriety by tlieir feats in horsemanship, may by their forbearance in not riding too close upon the hounds, set a good example to others ; and to the young aspirants after fcime I would offer a few sug- gestions, by following which they may avoid doing harm if they cannot do good, and may secure to themselves the reputation of being not only good riders, in the true acceptation of the term, but also the character of good sportsmen.
Supposing you ride your own hunter to the place of meeting; when arrived there you will dismount, put the saddle in its right place, take care the girths are not too tightly drawn, or the throat-lash inconveniently pressing. Should the morning be fine you may as well stand or walk your horse about for a few minutes, and, if a cigar fancier, then is your time for indulging in your favourite weed, although I think there is nothing less becoming to a real sportsman than a cigar. If you wish to have a look at the hounds — and this, of course, you will do if one of the right sort — do not approach too near them unless your horse is perfectly quiet with hounds, and accus- tomed to them. It is better to give your horse to some one to hold the while you inspect the pack on foot, and not run the risk of drawing down the anathemas of master, huntsmen, and whips, for bis kicking and perhaps maiming a favourite hound. Your approaching them on foot will make a favourable impres- sion that you are careful to avoid doing mischief, and under- stand more of the business than perhaps you actually do. Unless a good judge of make and shape, do not hazard an opinion of any particular hound, or you may happen to make
264 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
a bad shot, and get laughed at for your remarks. You may ask the name of any one which particularly takes your fancy, and keep your eye upon him afterwards in the work of the day. This will give you an interest in what is going on. You may also ask the huntsman what he thinks of the weather, if of a conversable turn, and, having made your survey, the next best thing you can do is to make yourself scarcej remount your horse, and prepare for business.
If the hounds approach where you are, turn your horse's head in the direction they are going, and, if in a lane or road, keep as near to the fence as possible, giving them room to pass you. Bear in mind throughout the day always to turn as the hounds are going, and never meet them, if possible to avoid it. In going to the covert which is first to be drawn, you will have plenty of time to exchange greetings with your friends, if you have any and get rid of all the jokes which you may have been bottling up for the occasion.
As soon as the hounds are thrown into covert, then all coffee- housing should cease, and prepare for business. Follow the huntsman at a respectful distance, and observe how the hounds draw. When the fox is found, do not be too much in a huriy, the huntsman will be your best guide to follow, but you must consider him a very great man, and not press too near upon him and his favourites, or he will wish you at the bottom of the sea. If there be real sporting blood in your veins you will not regard a few scratches in the face, or having your boots nearly torn off your legs in brushing through some good stiff underwood.
When the hounds break away, keep your eye upon your guide, and although your horse may be pulling your arms off, do not let him carry you before the hounds, or you will hear rather more remarks about such a performance than may be quite agreeable. If you cannot hold your horse, turn him off at right angles to the right or left, and get out of the fray as quickly as possible, before the death of some favourite hound is laid to your charge. When you come to the fencing depart- ment, do not follow any leader, or you may perchance, should he meet mth a pip, pounce upon him on the other side, and occasion him a compound fracture, which would be rather a disagreeable reflection, and destroy your gusto for the sport of that_ day, if not for the next two months to come. Before coming to your fence, look out the place most agreeable to your fancy, not the lowest place, where the fence has been before made up, or the chances are that you may alight in a squire trap, the other side ; neither select the stiffest or highest part to show
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 265
any fire- eating propensity. Having only so niucli ammunition to expend in the day, that is, only one horse with four legs instead of eight, and one pair of bellows to work through with, do not fire away too fast at starting.
Some men ride best with long stirrups, some with short. The best plan is to ride as most convenient and easy to your- self, without regard to what other people do. Sit firm in your saddle, without placing too much dependence on your stirrups ; hold your rein tight and rather short over the pommel of the saddle ; but fancy you have a silk thread instead of a leather rein in your hand, and as long as you can feel your horse's mouth it is enough. Go quietly at your fence, giving your horse room to collect himself before taking off ; sit rather back, clip him tight with legs and knees, and over you go. Mind your own business, and do not be looking back to see how Jack Easper or Tom Rattler got over or through, that's their affair ; keep your eye upon the hounds ; do not ride in upon their line, as if you are going to ride their tails oft', but keep rather wide of them, giving them room to turn. When their cry ceases, pull up at once, and whichever way they incline, turn your horse in the same direction, and let them pass you. Your own pace must be always regulated by that of the hounds, and do not be in a fright, as some men are, that they will run away from you. That will not often occur, if you are well mounted, and keep your eyes open, as well as your wits about you.
When the hounds are at fault, keep silence, and do not be boasting with Jack and Tom how splendidly your horse has carried you — reserve all this for your ride home, or until you meet at dinner. Should you meet with stone walls, never ride at the lowest place, as the chances are all in Icivour of your landing in a stone quarry on the other side. Gates require more exertion on the part of your horse than common fences, and a fall over them is often a serious one. At brooks you must go pretty fast, to clear them cleverly. A military seat on horse- back is no doubt the most elegant, but I do not by any means think it the most secure. Those who ride by balance chiefly will find it quite as much as they can do to keep their seat, should their horse suddenly swerve at a rasper, in Avhich case they will most probably find themselves on their backs.
I remember seeing a military man, who rode by balance alone, have three tremendous falls at one fence. The hounds were not running, and he put his horse at a stiff fence, to show oft' his horsemanship I concluded, as there was no occasion to take the fence at alt Just before taking off, the horse suddenly
266 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
swerved, and our military hero was on his back in a trice. Up and at it again ; show off No. 2 — this put him in a passion ; he got up again, crammed in the spurs, and went at it furiously — a third time he lay on his back, grinning savagely ; but he had pluck, and put his horse again at the fence, which he at last cleared. Had the hounds been running, the probability is that his horse would not have refused at all, and tliis should be a lesson to all never to be larking their horses, when there is no occasion. The duty of a good rider is to spare his horse, and when the hounds are not running never to ride over a fence, unless it is unavoidable.
A friend of mine, who wanted a little cobbler's wax sadly in his saddle, was riding fast at a fence, which he had made up his mind to clear, and so he did, but without his horse, and much to his amazement found himself at the bottom of a pond, stick- ing in the mud ; luckily his hat only was left there. There being no time to fish it up, he was obliged to finish the run (his iiorse being fortunately caught for him) with his handker- chief tied round his head, and a pretty figure he presented at the finish. It being cold work riding without a liat he bought one of a countryman for three shillings, and thus being re- established, amid the jokes and laughter of his friends trotted off home. Upon this occasion the horse had kept ]iis eyes where his master's ought to have heen— forward, and not relishing the idea of a cold bath, although his master seemed evidently so intentioned, did the Avisest thing he could have done: stopped short, and gave his master an opportunity of having a dip first to see how he liked it.
The balance seat is all very v/ell in its way, but in my humble opinion a very insecure one. A good rider has no business to part company with his horse, unless they are both down toge- ther ; he should, in fact, be a very Centaur, so firmly fixed to his horse that they should have the appearance of being inse- parables through kickings, plungings, swervings, and such like performances.
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CHAPTEK XLI.
On riding to hounds — ^A jealous sportsman — Light axid heavy weights — A sporting Baronet — Training hunters — Irish method — Making the most of your horse — Steeple-chasing and calf-hunting condemned as cruel and absurd — Easter Monday — Her Majesty's stag-hounds in the New Forest — The meet and finish.
The art of riding well to hounds is not to be acquired in one season by every one. It is with most the result of long expe- rience and observation. Many hard riders will keep with the hounds as long as they are in view, but should they give them the slip, they would be puzzled how to catch them again. Knowledge of country and the usual run of foxes is of great service in such an emergency, but, without these, keeping under the wind and a good ear and eye must be your chief dependence. There is great tact also required in making the most of your horse, and keeping him well together, without distressing him in a long run. A good rider will always keep his horse within bounds, holding him well together over hollow or heavy ground, and assisting him in clearing his fences, whilst Mr. Harem- scarem will be going at the top of his speed, with a loose rem, dashing and crashing over or through everything that comes in his way; and perhaps wind-up his horse at the end of the first three or four miles, by putting him, when blown, at some yawner, which more judicious men get over without diflficulty.
The ambition to have and keep a good place with hounds is very laudable, and constitutes the very spirit of fox-hunting ; but the excessive jealousy shown by some men, and even want of temper, when others try to keep as good places as themselves, proves a want of fair rivalry. Kiding against another, merely for the lead, is a childish piece of folly. I have ridden with many hard and good riders in my time, but never against them, and, if they got falls, I would stop to help them up again, and they would do the same by me.
I had once the misfortune, however, to displease a first-rate performer, by getting a good start with the hounds, which he did not. He came rattling after us, at a tremendous rate, to recover his place, which he considered it, as first man, and as we had been going very fast for about three miles, over a stiffly inclosed country, his horse was blown in making up leeway, and the first thing I saw of my furious friend was, upon hear- ing a crash behind me, to behold him on his back in the field, with his horse's hind legs in the ditch. I turned round, ana
268 HOUSES AND HOUNDS.
asked him if he was hurt 1 " Hurt !" he said, " I am not often hurt." That was true enough, for no man had more falls with- out being hurt than himself. He was soon in the saddle, having held the rein in his hand, which most men who ride for a fall do. A brook being just then before us, he went down at it, a hundred miles an hour pace, with a sneering cheer to me — " Now come along, we are even again." I merely laughed at his bad humour, and was soon over alongside of him. He then rode up hill as hard as he could go, at some stiff posts and rails. Crash went the top bar, and over rolled horse and rider together, I thanked him for letting me through so easily. He angrily replied that he was not yet beaten, and, mounting again, charged a five-barred gate leading into a turnpike-road. This was a settler. His horse fell over, and threw his rider with great violence nearly across the road ; and this time he was really hurt, and obliged to confess it. Having waited until it was ascertained that no bones were broken, although he was most seriously bruised, I prevailed upon him to go quietly home.
We hear of men riding for a fall, and it may be one way of getting to the other side of a fence ; but I must plead my igno- rance in not being able, either to see the fun of the thing, or the necessity for it. The multiplicity of falls in a season may be proof of hard riding and indomitable courage, but it argues no- thing for good horsemanship. He who can ride quietly and well to hounds without them has the greatest claim to the cha- racter of a really good performer over country. Accidents will happen in the best-regulated families, and every man must ex- pect to embrace mother earth occasionally ; but riding a horse, when blown, at an impracticable fence, is, in my humble opinion, a great piece of folly. I have ridden as hard as any man in my youthful days, and, when riding only about ten stone, used to prefer taking gates to any other fence.
In our vale country banks with double ditches prevailed, and I think the heavy weights across this country could hold their way quite as well as the light ones, if not better. A good workman, of thirteen or fourteen stone, on a powerful horse, will get over or through stiff bounds or hedges, where a light weight would be nearly torn out of his saddle ; and in charging an upright quickset of seven or eight years' growth, it requires power and strength to get through that which it is impossible to jump over, the sticks only bending to let one through and then closing after.
The best man in our hunt was a sporting baronet, who had been in the Light Dragoons, but on taking to fox-hunting he
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HORSES AND HOUNDS. 2G9
had abandoned his military seat, and rode rather short in his stirrnps. He was well mounted, knew his business, and rode well to hounds, but I never knew him pretend to interfere with them. No fence ever stopped him, and the falls he got were few. I have seen him ride over the lock of a canal, where his horse had to take off on bricks, and land on bricks on the other side. He did it cleverly, but no one followed his example. Upon the hounds crossing a deep and rapid river one day, we rode down together to the bank, where I expected to hnd a ford ; the river was so swollen to the brink that fording was out of the question. "This wont do," I exclaimed ; "we must ride higher up for the bridge." " You may do as you like," he said, " but I shall go at it." Seeing a countryman watching us, he hallooed to him to know what sort of bottom there was. "Very good," was the reply. "Well then," he said,_ "here goes. I shall jump as much of it as I can." So, putting his horse round, he went at it in a canter, and horse and rider dis- appeared in the middle of the stream. Knowing he could not swim, I watched with anxiety his re-appearance above water. He soon emerged all right in his saddle, and guiding his horse's head by his -^diip into a small stream which emptied itself into the rivel-, to my great relief, soon stood once more on terra firma. " Good bye, old fellow," he cried, " I will keep with them till you come up, but don't be long about it." Unluckily the hounds took a different turn to what I expected, and when I reached the bridge they were nowhere to be seen or heard.
For more than an hour I rode hard to catch them, when their welcome cry once more greeted my ears. I listened — they were running towards me, and in a few minutes the fox crossed over a green" lane where I had pulled up. The scream I uttered was echoed by a faint hurrah to my right, from the sporting baronet, who was coming along at the tail of the hounds by himself I waited until he jumped the last fence into the lane. " By Jove !" he said, " I was right glad to hear that scream of yours once more, for I have had it all to myself ever since we parted at the river, and quantum suff. by this time." "Where in the world have you been to T I asked. " That is more than I can tell you ; but we have had at least ten or twelve miles of as stiff work as I ever cut out, and now you must ride in and win the brush for me." This was easier said than done, my horse being nearly as much beaten as his own. We scrambled on, therefore, together for a few more fields, when, seeing the hounds were running into their fox, I jumped off, gave him my horse to hold, and ran in on foot. I brought him back the
270 HORSES AKD HOUNDS.
brush, his well-earned tropliy. " That brush," he said, " I shall keep as long as I live, for I have been both huntsman and whipper-in to-day, which perhaps I shall never be again." Out of the whole field not another man made his appearance at the finish. The river threw them out at first, and afterwards they lost the hounds entirely. The day was a very cold one, with a drifting sleet, which froze upon our coats, and my friend's teeth beginning to chatter; I begged him to ride home at once, and take a stiff glass of brandy and water at the first public-house he came to, and give his horse another if he would drink it. " That wont do," he said, " but he will drink beer like a fish, and that he shall have in some warm water."
In my younger days I cared little about a cold-water bath ; but when arrived at years of discretion, I kept on terra firma as much as possible, leaving to hotter heads to cool themselves in rivers. Brook jumping is all very well, but a souse into a deep and wide stream is not now much to my fancy. Inde- pendent of the consequences — an attack of rheumatism or gout, it spoils the pleasure of the whole day afterwards.
There is, I think, too little attention paid in the present day to the training of horses for hunting. Irish horses are considered the best jumpers, and will take standing leaps, which our Eng- lish horses would be puzzled to accomplish. They seldom make mistakes at their fences, if pulled up and allowed to take them in their own style. A friend of mine sent me over an Irish horse, which would take most extraordinary standing leaps over gates and walls, and, if going ever so fast, he would always check himself, and take these leaps after his own fashion. Not thinking him up to my weight, he was handed over to the second whipper-in, and treated Jack at first acquaintance to a rattling fall or two. He rode him, as he had done his other horses, pretty fast at a stiff gate, which came in his way the first day. Some of the field, not fancying it, persuaded Jack to try first, calculating upon his knocking it open, or breaking the top bar. The horse, before taking off, stopped quite short, and jerked him out of the saddle over to the other side. Then, raising himself on his hind legs, vaulted over upon Jack, who was lying upon his back. Not being damaged. Jack picked himself up, and grinning at his friends, who were on the wrong side laughing at his fall, said, " Never mind, gentlemen, 'tis a rum way of doing things that horse has, but no matter, we are both on the right side, and that's where you won't be just yet." Jack and the Irishman soon understood each other better, and were for many seasons nearly inseparable companions ; but he would never take his fences except in his own peculiar manner.
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The Irish train their horses by leading them with a long rein over their high banks and walls, a man following behind with a driving whip. A few practical lessons of this kind teach ahorse Low to use his legs, and after two or three rolls he becomes au fait at his business. He is then backed and ridden across country. The use of a leaping bar is now become almost obsolete in this country, but I always considered it a necessary appendage in a hunting establishment, where a breeding stud is kept up, to supply a succession of horses for the field. A horse which will not submit to be led as well as ridden over fences, cannot be considered a perfect hunter. Although the practice of leading over fences sJiould never be resorted to as long as a chance remains of getting over them in the saddle, yet occa- sions will arise where leading over is not merely the quickest but only way of obtaining a footing on the other side. Fox chases lead one into very queer places sometimes. Outhouses and gardens about villages are often resorted to by foxes as a last refuge, and I am quite satisfied I never could have been with my hounds through such places, unless my horse had been properly trained to follow as well as carry his master.
I remember once coming to a plank bridge only, over a canal. On the taking-off side there was a stile, and on the other side a cradle for foot people only to get over. You could not jump the canal, as there was a row of cottages just opposite. No time was to be lost, as the hounds were over the water, and running hard away from us. The horse I was riding had been bred and trained by myself, and would follow me like a dog, always being directed by the voice what to do. Immediately dismounting, I got over the stile on to the boards ; my horse followed, and we arrived safely on the towing-path the other side. Not another would follow. The rattling on boards terrified the other horses, and they would not attempt it. Some then pushed their horses into the water, and guided them over by the side of the foot bridge ; others went off to another place. By this ma- noeuvre I was alone with the hounds, deciding at once what to do, and the rest of the field could never make up the lost ground.
In villages there are often narrow lanes with stiles at each end, sometimes doorways. Through such places I have led my horse, I was going to say hundreds of times ; very many times I certainly have, and I am quite satisfied I never could have been with my hounds had not my horse been as good a foUower through cramped places as a perfect fencer across country. A drop leap into a hard road is another place where you ought to dismount at once, running your whip through the rein, and
272 HOESES AND HOUNDS.
giving your horse tlie chance of taking it as he likes. You may- be pulled clown yourself, but this is far better than foundering your horse or breaking his knees. Upon encountering a steep hill, at the end of a hard run, climbing it on foot relieves your horse and gives him second wind ; a man, for such a feat, should be in good trim, and I consider, to ride well, he should be in as good trained condition as his horse. VvHiilst others have been spurring and driving their horses scarcely out of a walk, I have been beating them on foot, by winding the hill, and at the top being all right again, I generally left them far in the rear.
Breaking or losing a stirrup, when hounds are running, is a good opportunity of testing the efficacy of a balance seat, and here I think the balancer will be put to his shifts to keep in his saddle. To ride without stirrups six or seven miles, over a stiff country, is not quite so easy an affair as some men may think. Just for a frolic, let them try the experiment. I should like to witness a steeple-chase of this sort, although I never did, and never will countenance steeple- chases generally. In this case I think the horses would have the best of it. Few would be able to accomplish the feat performed once by Mr. Osbaldestone, of riding without a saddle on his horse's bare back to the end of a run.
Ha\dng stated my dislike to steeple-chases, I may add my reasons for it ; and first, I may ask, for what other purpose is a steeple-chase horse fitted ? Certainly it spoils his temper for a hunter, and renders him restless and fidgety in company. The steeple-chase horse is an animal sui generis, which the restless, ever-betting, miscalled sportsmen of the present day have called into existence, to pander to their insatiable taste for book specu- lation, whilst legitimate racing is in abeyance. Racing can be defended only upon one ground, that it tends to keep up, and, in fact, does keep up in this country, a breed of horses superior to every other in the wide world, for both size, symmetry, speed, and . lasting qualities. Upon this ground racing may be defended, and ought to be supported ; but steeple-chasing answers no such purpose, and I think decidedly it should come under Mr. Martin's Act, and be punished as all wanton cruelty to animals deserves to be.
Next in order to steeple-chasing, and twin sister to it, stands calf-hunting, or, as it is pompously designated at the liead^ of hunting appointments, "Stag-Hunting." Now, stag-hunting formerly was a noble sport, and patronised by roj^alty. It bears as much affinity to the calf-hunting of the present time as hunting wild foxes does to turning down bagmen. To rouse a wild deer from his lair of heather on the mountain top, view him as he stands erect, his wide-spread antlers flashing in the
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morning sun, as if defying the approach of man, is rather a different affair to seeing a poor wretched animal, shorn of his chief beauty, bundled out at the tail of a cart, and oftentimes whipped to make him run. I cannot call this by any other name than calf-hunting. Stag-hunting, in the true acceptation of the term, it is not. It does very well for the cockney sportsr man of the vast metropolis.
The flourishing tradesman takes down his wife and children on Easter Monday to treat them to a holiday on the occasion of the grand turn-out, himself mounted on a borrowed hackney for the day. The carriage containing his precious ones is drawn up to have a good view of the scene, whilst papa is nervously pre- paring himself lor the coming fray. ''La, pa," cries out Master Thomas, " where is the stag f '' There he is, my dear, in that cart." " I can't see anything of him, pa." " Wait a bit, he will soon come out." After waiting half an hour or more in fidgety expectation, Master Tommy is gratified by seeing an animal emerge, which anything but meets his notions of what a stag should be. " Law, pa, is that a stag ]" '' Yes, my dear ; what did you think it was V " Only look, it has got no horns^ it looks more like a donkey, pa ; the stags in my picture-book have all got fine horns, and look so grand. Oh, pa, it must be a donkey after all." " Hold your tongue, Tom, and don't talk so loud, or her Majesty's huntsman will hear you." — Exit pa.
Tommy ain't satisfied, so he attacks mamma next. " AVhy do they cut the stag's horns off, ma — it makes him look so foolish T " Why, my dear, if his horns were not cut off, he might run them into your papa's leg or stomach, and that would be a very serious thing, you know. Tommy." "Well, ma, I shouldn't like riding after such a poor thing as that"
I was present at a grand meeting in the N"ew Forest, some few years ago, when the royal pack went down for a week's wild deer hunting. The first fixture I shall not easily forget. It appeared to be a gathering together of all nations and languages. Such a motley group of equestrians I never before set eyes on. Soldiers, sailors, tinkers, and tailors ; every animal, from a donkey to a dray-horse, being put in requisition. The numbers were computed at from one to two thousand. Davis, the huntsman, on recognising a brother of the craft in the crowd, lifted up his hands as if in supplication to rid him from the mob. As the hounds moved off at a pretty brisk trot through the trees, the motley assemblage began to disperse, and even at this early period casualties occurred. A sailor on a cart-horse rode foul of his brother tar on a forest pony. " Avast there. Jack," cried the latter. " Shiver my timbers, but that big craft
274 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
of yours will run down my life-boat in this gale." "Steer ahead, Tom, for this crazy old brig wont tack, and she is full three sheets in the wind already ; so look out for squalls."
The hustling and bustling and jostling against each other, and the cracks that were met with against the limbs of the trees, formed a very amusing overture until the play began, which it very soon did, by a deer being found ; and away we went right over the open and across a morass, which was only passable at certain jilaces. The scene that ensued baffles description ; in every direction were seen horses galloping away without their riders, numbers floundering in the bog, some scrambling through to the other side, and several nearly buried. Following my leader and host, who being then master of the New Forest hounds, and acquainted with all the safe passes, we soon left the majority of our large field in the rear, to settle their differences as best they might. The hounds now divided. Davis went with one lot ; my friend, with one whipper- in, myself, and about thirty others, kept with the other half of the pack. After running hfty minutes at a good pace, our deer, a four year old, lay down in some high gorse bushes on the top of a hill.
The hounds were stopped, as it v/as intended to take the deer alive. " Now, gentlemen," said the whipper-in, " if you will only draw up round, I will creep under the gorse and hobble him." " Leave that to me," I said ; " you attend to your work." I drew all the horsemen round in a circle, with their horses' heads to the gorse. This was readily done. "Now, gen- tlemen," I said, "don't be nervous, but stand firm together ; the deer is only a young one, and will not hurt you ; he is, more- over, so blown, that he cannot jump over your heads." All promised compliance, whilst I went to help the whipper-in. Tickling a trout is one thing, but tickling a wild deer is alto- gether another affair. Our lord of the forest did not fancy this sort of thing at all — his motto evidently being noli me tangere. At the first touch of the whipper's-in hand he bolted upright out of the gorse, and bounded into the ring. Consternation was depicted on many a face. "Hold hard, gentlemen," I shouted, " he can't hurt you ; hold tight together one minute, and I will hamper him." It would not do. the ring was broken in a trice. Threes about, right and left wheel being performed at the shortest possible notice, and in double-quick time. I
could not forbear a as our deer bounded away into the
forest. We were just laying the hounds on again when an order arrived from head-quarters to stop our detachment, Mr. Davis having been more fortunate in securing the deer he had followed, thus ended my first stag-hunt.
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CHAPTER XLII.
On the management of young hounds, when first coming into kennel — Preju- dices of huntsmen — Air and exercise — Fox-hunting an antidote to melancholy — A few remarks on hare-hunting — Hounds best suited to this sport — Hmitsmen and whipper-in — Peculiar knowledge requisite for breeding hounds successfully — The late Mr. Ward — Harriers should be kept strictly to then* own game.
As the season of the year arrives when the young hounds are returned from their walks to the kennel, I would remind masters of hounds of the necessity of a more rational treatment than generally prevails with regard to these young hopes of the pack. Having before alluded to this subject, and treated gene- rally of the distemper, which often makes such fearful ravages among young hounds when first brought into the kennel, I shall only here remark, that air and exercise are not only the most necessary to keep them in health, but will be found the most certain means to prevent this scourge of the canine race assuming that malignant character which it often does. The very fact of shutting up a lot of young hounds together within four walls for weeks together, which have been accustomed up to that period to the free exercise of lungs and limbs in the open air, must strike any one, who for even ten minutes con- siders the subject, as being not only absurd, but cruel. That it has been the custom for many years, and is so still in very many hunting establishments, is no argument in its favour, but proves only that the master gives himself little concern about the matter, and leaves it to his huntsman. Can we be sur- prised, then, with so little attention on his part to the proper treatment of his young hounds, to hear of the many and serious losses which result from the distemper, which is actually invoked by this culpable and negligent mode of treatment ! I shall be told, that the hunting season not being ended, the huntsman and feeder are too much occupied to have any spare time to exercise the young hounds, and therefore they must do, as others have done before — take their chance. So, of course, they must, if such is your excuse, and you will run the risk of losing several of, perhaps, your best young hounds, merely to suit your huntsman's fancy, or because you do not think it worth your while to adopt any remedial measures. The cost of employing two extra hands for the first month — and that would be the only one necessary — would amount to the large sum of four pounds sterling, supposing that two meii were
t2
276 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
employed at 10s. per week, merely to walk with the young hounds for two or three hours a day, the feeder, of course, going with them. By tliis plan they would not only be kept in health, but be ready to go out of couples by the time the hunting season was over, and Jack's services would not be required to break them from running those little flighty animals, some with short and some with long tails, abounding in most villages, and which Mr. Slowman used to designate by the opprobrious epithet of car dogs.
There is a vast deal of stuff and nonsense talked by huntsmen in break] ng-in young hounds. The fact is, but for the eabsurd custom of shutting them up away from the sight of every other living animal but themselves for at least a month or two after they come in from their walks, they would require no breaking at all, except from hare or deer. From, pupjj^hood they have been accustomed to sheep and cur dogs, without ex- hibiting any great desire to kill and eat either the one or the other ; certainly not the latter, I should say, from choice.
To prove how far air and exercise will go to ameliorate the effects of distemper, I will merely mention, that I tried the experiment with three young hounds, which were seized with the usual symptoms a short time since. They caught the dis- temper from another dog, not belonging to me, which died in convulsions. Being satisfied in my own mind of the necessity of air and exercise, as most efficient assistants in reducing the virulence of this disease, I tried what these would do alone, without giving any medicine at all, not even an emetic or spoonful of salt and water. These three puppies, not quite ten months old, were attacked with the usual symptoms — a diy husky cough, and discharge from the nose. I fed them twice a day ; for breakfast a little warm skim milk, with barley meal, scalded, which they had about eight o'clock. At ten o'clock I took them out walking over some fresh ploughed fallows, and then home through pasture fields, to have a good run, if they felt inclined. They had another hour's exercise about four o'clock, and were fed again at six in the evening. I pursued this plan of walking them over the fresh-ploughed land twice a day, sometimes behind the plough. The running at_ the nose ceased in three or four days, and in ten from the time they were first attacked, they were as well as if they had never had the distemper at all. Having stated this fact, to prove what air and exercise can effect, I leave it with masters of hounds for their consideration.
At the request of a friend, who wished me to give him some information on hare-hunting as well as fox-hunting, I purpose
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making a short digression to answer Lis inquiries upon this subject, as far as I feel competent to do so ; but I must premise that, although I served an apprenticeship to thistle-whipping under the best master of harriers in his day, I never was a genuine hare-hunter at heart; but — degudihusnon disputandwn — every man has his own peculiar hobby, and, at any rate, hare- hunting ranks a long way before calf-hunting ; one is sport in its legitimate sense, the other is not. Beckford remarks, that if you make a serious business of hare-hunting, you spoil it. The same observation may hold good with regard to fox- hunting, or any other hunting. To make a serious business of what is intended only as a recreation or amusement, defeats its primary object. To affirm that every man who goes out hunting has no other end in view but a day's pleasurable amusement would be not exactly correct. Some go for one reason, some for another, and some for no reason at all, except to kill time ; but a real sportsman goes out to enjoy himself. The prospect of a day's hunting puts him in high and buoyant spirits, and when mounted on his hunter, he leaves dull care behind him, not sitting behind his saddle, as it is said — atra cura sedit jjost equltem — but sitting in any other position dull care may fancy, in a ditch by the road side, or, perhaps, at home in his arm-chair.
On a fine hunting morning we feel above all the cares and troubles of life, and not only in charity, but in good humour with every one and everything around us ; in short, hunting is any- thing and everything but a serious business to the real lover of the sport. Fox-hunting and hare-hunting, however, are in their essential properties about as wide asunder as the two poles. Turning a hare up in view before a lot of high-bred fox-hounds of about twenty-two inches in height, is not hare-hunting, although I have known some who considered it a high merit to ride a hare to death in this fashion. A real pack of harriers must set about their business in a very different manner tothis. Avoid giving them a view of the hare when found, if possible ; it only makes them wild. Harriers must depencl entirely on their noses to be worth anything as harriers. It has been said that a well bred fox-hound has a nose superior to every other hound ; perhaps he has, but I am not quite clear that I should select thorough-bred fox-hounds to hunt hares with, were I to commence a pack of harriers.
In the pack to which I have just alluded, we had three dif- ferent kinds of hounds. The old southern, the true fox-hound, and a cross between these two. The latter, in my opinion, were the best harriers. We had one bitch in particular, called
278 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
Artful, of this cross, which was the best harrier I ever saw in my life, quick with a scent, and always running hard at the head of the pack. The fox-hounds had too much dash for the short turnings of their game, although when any straight running took place they were foremost in the fray. Speed is not so much a requisite in hare-hunting as in fox-hunting; and, for this diversion, hounds, in my opinion, may run too fast.
Hares are to be found in some localities, such as a wild open country, on down and moors, which v/ill run tolerably straight ; but, generally speaking, they describe a circle, returning to the place where they were found. In the spring months jack hares, which are out visiting, will run straight home ; and these afford the best chases. Were I to become a hare-hunter, I would set about forming my pack from the old blue mottled southern hound and the fox-hound, which I should consider the best cross to make thorough good harriers. Twenty couples are quite sufficient to form a pack of harriers, fourteen or six- teen couples being the outside number which should be taken into the field. These are enough for all hunting purposes, and will make a good cry ; more are, I think, a useless incum- brance, and will tend rather to defeat tlian insure good sport.
Little is required for a huntsman to a pack of harriers. He cannot be too quiet, and there is little opportunity, as in fox- hunting, for the display of great talents. In fox-hunting, to hear that your fox is a quarter of an hour before you is no very pleasing intelligence, when you know that he is still travelling on, and the time lost cannot be regained ; but in hare-hunting this is not of any very great consequence, as the hare generally stops to listen when the hounds are far behind her, and after doubling a few times will throw herself down and wait until she is fresh found again. The season of the year and weather are the best guides to the form of a hare. When wet and stormy, hares seek low situations, protected from the wind, where there is some dry bank or rough long grass. In dry weather they are commonly found on old fallows, or in high situations. In inclosed countries they generally sit near to the hedge or fence, and not often in the middle of the field. Unless much disturbed they lie very close in their forms during the greater part of the year, until the months of February and March, when they become wild, and get up at long distances.
It is not very easy to find hares sitting on rough fallows, w^hich should be regularly crossed, directing the eye up the ridge, near which they generally sit. The trail of a hare lasts much longer than the drag of a fox, and those who go out rather
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early will have miicli pleasure in seeing their hoimcls work np to Jier sitting. It is certainly a very exhilarating scene, whicli I have often witnessed in my younger days — the chorus increas- ing as the hounds approach nearer their game, and then the full cry as she breaks away in \iew. Upon sacli occasions I could not forbear a screech or two, and although much noise is not allowed in hare-hunting, yet, when in view, a few screams are, I think, pardonable. Although, when fresh found, hares run tolerably straight, yet no sooner are the hounds out of sight, than they have recourse to those numerous devices which in some countries have obtained for the most cunning the cha- racters of witches.
In my situation as head whipper-in to my father's harriers, I often took great liberties, and got forward, contrary to orders sometimes, to see how any old hares v/hich had beaten us before managed these matters. I have seen them run up a fallow nearly the whole length of a field, then quickly retrace their steps to the point at wliich they entered, and then spring off at right angles, making three or four surprising leaps. They would also, in their circles, hunt the hounds, double through hedges, running a short distance into the field and then returning, running up one side of a hedge, and then going down the other. In stone wall countries they will run on the top of the wall for some distance; in short, their shifts are often a puzzle to the best pack of hounds, with a very knowing hand to help them into the bargain.
In hare-hunting a forward cast is the least likely to succeed, and, unless upon great emergencies, harriers should not be cast at all. The more tliey are left to themselves the better able vvdll they be to work through their difficulties, and a hare- hunter has no business to be in a hurry; he may sit quietly on his horse, and watch his hounds puzzling out the scent, the probability being, that the hare is only in the next field. A good pack of harriers will keep forward as long as there is a scent before them ; if sheep or cattle have foiled the ground, they may be held on to the next fence, but they should be left as nmch as possible to their own noses. Lifting them renders them wild, and if often assisted, they will not care about puzzling out the scent. Any clever lad will do as whipper-in to a pack of harriers, as he will have only to attend to the huntsman's orders in stopping or turning the hounds, as may be required.
To make a pack of harriers run well together, which is their great beauty, you must draft from head and tail, keep none that are faster than the others, or that get forward without a scent.
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They should all act and move in a body like a troop of cavalry — no old bellman must be kept pottering on the scent, or heel- tunners. This trick harriers are very much disposed to ; it is a bad fault, and where Jack's whip is necessary. When harriers run back the same line they have gone over before, it is not, however, always a 'proof tliat they are running heel. Hares practise this manoeuvre more than any other, and therefore your hounds may be right ; at any rate have a little patience, and you will soon see whether they are right or wrong. If they run back only a certain distance, and then break off right or left, they have only followed their game, and are entitled to praise instead of rebuke.
A good cry is half the fun with your currant-jelly dogs. Formerly, we are told, some hare-hunters were as particular as to the melody of their hounds as to their hunting qualities ; but noisy, chattering hounds — or, as they are more frequently called, babblers — should be drafted, for, like long-winded ora- tors, their opinions so loudly expressed are vox et preterea nihil. I have seen harriers of all sizes, from the small beagle of four- teen or sixteen inches to the fox-hound ot twenty-two inches. I should select the medium, from twenty to twenty-one in height. It is much more easy to obtain hounds of this standard, and you may always breed sufficient to keep them up after- wards. With a pack of twenty couples, you need not put forward more than six or seven couples of young hounds, which will allow for five, at least, standing good through the season.
There is great art and science necessary to breed hounds effectually. Those who breed largely will have the best selec- tion as to appearances : but those who have only a limited number of bitches must be particular in mating them. The late Mr, Ward was the cleverest man in this respect that I ever met with. He never would breed from any bitches which were not quite perfect in all their performances, and not until two or three seasons had passed over their heads. His brood bitches, therefore, were few in number ; but they generally produced such as he could depend upon. His unentered draft of young hounds was a very scanty one, as I know from experience, but they were sure to turn out well. His old huntsman assured me he often considered a day and night before he decided upon the sire best suited to answer his purpose ; but his judgment seldom failed.
Bad hounds eat the same quantity of food as good ones, and as my ambition always has been to have the best animals of their kind, so would I have a good and clever pack of harriers,
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if I thought it worth while to keep them at all. For this pur- pose I should get together some young unentered fox-hounds and a few of .the old blue mottled southerns, and then model a pack to my fancy.
As soon as the corn is harvested hare-hunting may com- mence, but sport of course cannot be exj^ected thus early. As in the cub-hunting season, this is the time to break in and blood the young hounds, and if the country is an inclosed one, and hares tolerably plentiful, you will soon catch hares enough for this purpose, and some to spare. Harriers to be good must be kept in good heart and blood, and all the hares they kill in a day must not be reserved for currant-jelly sauce at home. When hares are chopped by them, these may be taken away ; but when they have earned their game by a good run it should never be taken from them, or your hounds will soon becomxC slack and indifferent in their work. Our old pack were expert carvers, in which they were duly encouraged by their master, and it required a pretty quick hand to get a hare out of their clutches. This, as first whipper-in, I never troubled my head about, unless upon some very particular occasion, when a lady had expressed a wish for a hunted one. The farmers who joined us always had the hare, if they could save her, and it was great fun to me to see how they would puff and blow away, and cram their horses at desperate places, when the hounds were running into their game ; but if old Workman (a large blue mottled hound, with a mouth as wide as an alligator) once caught hold of poor puss, the currant-jelly was saved for that dressing at least.
Views should be avoided as much as possible, but in drawing for your game over open ground, or in beating hedge-rows, they will occur. It is advisable in beating hedges to get them tried by some man on foot or horseback before the hounds ; there is not much risk then of a hare being chopped, and you can lay the hounds on quietly when she is out of sight. A j)ack of harriers, to deserve the name, should be kept strictly to their own game. Neither should they be allowed to hunt either fox, red deer, or red herring — they then become a lot of curs, and are fit for nothing. Although often longing for a gallop in my younger days after Mr. Eeynard, the governor was inexorable on this point, and never would admit of the least deviation from our legitimate drama.
Upon one occasion we had, during the vacation, got a fox sent down from Oxford as a treat, and had calculated upon turning him down at the end of a small covert, hallooing the hounds away, and giving the governor the slip : but our plans
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Tvere most unpleasantly defeated, by the nnf(>rtnnate fox being stifled in the bag before his arrival. As misfortunes seldom come singly, it so happened that we were from home the day this fox was brought, and the man fell in with my father, who soon discovered the truth, but said nothing about it until after dinner, when he remarked. " I think you young gentlemen ex- pected a present to-day from Oxford." It was no use denying it, for we saw the mischief in his eye. Einging the bell, he desired the footman to bring in the bag which had arrived, and to our horror Thomas soon made his appearance with the bag in question, out of which he drew one of the finest greyhound foxes I had ever seen, dead and stifl".
" Well, my boys," said the governor, " you intended to play me a trick, but the tables are turned, and I have only to impress upon your minds, that if ever you attempt to make the hounds run after a fox, they will then become a lot of curs, and, as such, I will not keep them another week." Although there were no fox-hounds in our country, my father never would allow his hounds to change from their own legitimate game, and after-experience has taught me that he was perfectly right.
CHAPTER XLIII
Advantages of hare-liunting in some respects over fox-liunting — deduction of expenses in fox-himtin^ establisliuients to meet the times — Mr. Yeatman and his pack of harriers — ^Uufair prejudices against hare-hunting — A random shot at fox-hanters — LiberaUty the true spirit of fox-hunters — Liberal game-preservers^The Squire of C*****n — Foxes do not live upon game only — Letter from an old fox-hunter — Artful keepers turning down foxes when the hounds meet to draw then* preserves — Way to detect such practices.
Haee-hiin^ting has some advantages over fox-hunting. The expenses attending it are trifling ; you can select days best suited to sport without gi%dng ofience, or causing inconvenience to others. If the day you have appointed turns out boisterous, you can go out the next. There is no earth-stopping to be done, therefore one day will do as vrell as another. Harriers also cannot be worked too much in reason. You can select also your own hour, and make your amusement subservient to other en- gagements or avocations. For these reasons I should prefer
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keeping harriers to fox-hounds, as so many inconveniences and responsibilities are attached to the latter in the present day.
The constajit changes which are taking place annually, almost, in fox-hunting establishments, prove that the system is carried out too far ; and as the resources of country gentlemen are now so much reduced, my firm impression is, that fox-hunting must be brought down to its proper level, and conducted upon a much more economical footing to suit these free-trade times. No doubt, in the best countries, where there is no lack of friends and supporters, the thing will be carried on as usual, and, also, where there is a rich man at the head of the establishment, who is a thorough sportsman. But in many of the provincial countries, where the establishment is dependent upon subscrip- tions raised by the neighbouring gentry, the fifties and five-and- twenties must dwindle down to half that amount ; and there is a good cause for it, when landlords are called upon to lower their rents ten, twenty, and thirty per cent.
We are told by free-traders that everything is cheaper. It may be to the fundholder and money maker, but the landlord and farmer still pay dearer than ever. He buys his cloth cheaper, but he loses in the price of wool. Cheap bread is no very great advantage, when he loses ten shillings on his sack of wheat, and so on in proportion. He may buy, it is true, a smart- looking silk hat for 12s. or 14s., where he used to give 25s. for a beaver ; but there is no economy in this, as one good beaver would wear out half a dozen of these flimsy concerns. So, to meet the times, fewer servants must be kept, a less number of horses, and, if they cannot let their land, the squires must farm themselves, make their own bread and cheese, kill their own mutton, substitute strong beer after dinner for port wine, and cherry brandy for maraschino. Those who can club together to have a little amusement in the dead months must keep a few couples of hounds each, the pack being assembled on hunting mornings by sound of horn, as in the olden time, and the old earthstopper on his pony re-established to do the work of the hunt. To this pass that things will soon come in the corn- growing districts is my humble opinion. I hope I may be deceived.
Harriers, perhaps, will then be more in the ascendant, as the Game-laws will go next, and hares become just plentiful enough for this pastime only. Fox-hounds are all the rage in the pre- sent day, and thistle-whippers, as they are facetiously called, scarcely dare show their names in print. There are some few, however, who have still the hardihood to parade their little dogs before the public in the columns of BeWs Life, and at the
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head of the list stands the worthy master of the B.V.H.. who, taking him all in all, may be considered as the ]\Ieynell of his day in the harrier line. Mr. Yeatman certainly stands confessed as the leading and most brilliant star in his profession, and by all accounts, his pack must be quite perfection. They are, I am told, all thorough-bred fox-hounds, standing from twenty to twenty-one inches in height, with good legs and feet ; and, if we are to judge by the runs we sometimes see recorded in BelVs Life, they are as clever in their performances as they are in their appearance. I still must think, however, that thorough- bred fox-hounds are more than a match for the timid hare ; and I should prefer the cross I have named above, not because they have better noses, but because they have less speed and are less flighty.
Fox-hounds always require to be kept above their work ; but that is not the case with harriers — the more work they have the better they will be. If fed on good old oatmeal, and well treated, they will hunt three days a week. There is seldom a complaint in any country of having too many foxes ; they are easily dispersed ; but too many hares are almost fatal to sport with harriers. They will not disperse and shift their quarters like foxes ; and you will be running and changing all day long, until the hounds are disgusted. I have seen greyhounds so over-coursed and bewildered with many hares that they came to a stand, and would not attempt to race after another hare ; and this, I think, would be the case with a pack of harriers, where game was too plentiful. To run two or three good hares down in a day is sufficient entertainment for man, horse, and liound, particularly as we are not to make a serious business of it.
In these days, good hare-hunting countries are become scarce ; the hattue men repudiate them on one side, and the numerous packs of fox-hounds snub them on the other ; so that our poor friends, the thistle-whippers, have a very poor chance for their amusement. There is certainly a prejudice against harriers, and I think a very unfounded and unjust one. Where they are well conducted, with a real gentleman sportsman as their owner, they cannot materially, if at all, interfere with either fox- hunting or game-preserving; but it must be admitted that a pack of curs, with anything but a gentleman at their head, is a perfect nuisance in any country hunted by fox-hounds. When I kept fox-hounds there were two packs of harriers in my country; but their owners were gentlemen, and became par- ticular friends of my own, and they never in any way interfered with our sport. But there was also, at the extreme point of
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OTir country, a scratcli pack of curs, with a cur manager as well, wliicli were my abomination. They were perpetually at some imderhand work, running into my fox coverts on purpose ; that is, pretending to run a hare there, and then finding a fox; buying up foxes to turn out on the sly, and disturbing the country the day before the fox-liounds were appointed to meet there. Such tricks as these give rise to and perpetuate the dislike which is often found to prevail with masters of fox- hounds against harriers. But where each man legitimately follows his own calling, these prejudices should not exist. There is plenty of room in this land of liberty for every man to follow his own pursuits, without infringing upon the rights of another.
Fox-hunting is all very well in its way ; so is hare-hunting ; so also is game-preserving ; neither is there any reason or just cause why fox-hunters, hare-hunters, and game-preservers should not co-exist in the same country, and be upon the best terms, as neighbours ought to be. Our friends of the trigger must not suppose that fox-hunters wish by any means to inter- fere with their just prerogative in preserving game ; they are, I hoxje, too liberal-minded to be either envious or jealous of others amusing themselves as they may think proper after another fashion. All they ask is, that as they have no wish to inter- rupt their sport, so game-preservers will act in the same spirit of forbearance towards them, and not interfere with their amusement by allowing their keepers to kill their game. Surely this is no very great favour after all, and if one fox can afford so much amusement to more than a hundred of his neighbours, the illiberality of any game-preserver who destroys foxes cannot be very questionable.
A double-barrel was fired in BelVs Life ^ short time since at illiberal fox-hiuiters and lohining farmers by a random shot, who fancies, perhaps, he has peppered us a little, and if we don't like it, we are to be treated to a bite of the steel traps to settle us — ^that is, if we are 7iastij ; but our friend of the trigger is, I dare say, a very nice young man, who possibly may keep tame rabbits, as well as tame pheasants, and amuse himself in various other innocent recreations. I think, however, he has gone a little -wide of the mark, in endeavouring to tax fox-hunters with illiherality and nastiness. These gentle appellations properly belong to fox-killing game-preservers, and to them only. We plead not guilty to this soft impeachment. The very spirit of fox-hunting is antagonistic to illiberality. We follow a pursuit in which all alike may join witbout let or hindrance, and the more amusement we can afiord to the many, or the million, if
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you like it, the greater our gratification. Selfishness forms no part of our profession. A master of fox-hounds does not say, Odi profanum vidgus et arceo, but welcome all alike, from the peer to the peasant. He does not ask game-preservers to spare foxes for his own gratification, but for the amusement of the country generally.
A master of fox-hounds is a public servant, and as such it is incumbent upon him to conciliate, as much as possible, those with whom conciliation will avail ; but it is no proof of illi- berality on his part, if, after fair remonstrances have failed, he is obliged to denounce some who are selfishly endeavouring to mar the very object it is his business constantly to keep in view — the sport of the community at large. All large game- preservers are not necessarily fox destroyers ; but, on the con- trary, many of them are our best friends and supporters, and we are neitlier unmindful of, nor ungrateful for, their generous assistance to our cause. To this fact the experience of every master of hounds in every country will bear testimony.
In my own countiy, when I kept fox-hounds, one of our very best friends was a large game-preserver. He was no fox-hunter himself, seldom mounting; a horse ; but he was a strict pre- server of foxes, and I will say no man was more generally respected throughout the whole country. He not only patron- ized the hounds, but one of our fixtures, and the most popular of all, was on the lawn in front of his house. To this place pf meeting men from other haunts would flock with alacrity, in well-founded expectation of a good fox and a good day's sport. His house was open on these occasions to all of our illiberal cloth, and a glass of jumping powder freely offered to those who liked to avail themselves of his hospitality. Were we fox- hunters insensible to such acts of kindness and liberality, or did they not call forth corresponding feelings on our part ? I will venture to say there was not one true-hearted fox-hunter among us all, including the whining ia^rmers, as well, who would not have gone through fire and water to serve this gentleman or any of his family.
There were no large woodlands here to draw ; the coverts were all small — in fact, mere spinneys. Upon the lawn might be seen from two to three hundred pheasants called together in the morning by the keeper to be fed, and upon that lawn, with all these pheasants and hares almost innumerable, have I found a litter of cubs, and hunted them on foot among the laurels. In one season I found eight foxes in this gentleman's preserves, and killed seven of them, all with good runs. I state these facts to prove that foxes and game can exist together, and that
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 287
we fox-hunters are not illiberal or foolish, enough to abuse all game-preservers in a mass, many of whom we acknowledge to be not only our best, but most disinterested friends.
Let all lovers of the trigger imitate the worthy example of
the Squire of C n. I have not selected him as a solitary
instance of joint game and fox-preserving in the whole of our country, there were many others who followed his example, but they were proprietors of fox-coverts, which this gentleman was not — he had no such thing as a real fox covert upon the whole of his property. The jjlaces we found foxes in were small plantations of hr and alder of about three or four acres, none exceeding ten, and I should not have had any just cause of complaint had I drawn such places, season after season, without finding a fox. blasters of hounds know tolerably well where they ought to find foxes — in coverts natural to them, and where from time immemorial they have been known always to resort ; but when we find them in small spinneys such as these were, we feel a double obligation to men, who thus go out of their way to cater for the public amusement. This gentleman turned down young foxes in these places (when there were none bred on the spot) among all his host of hares and pheasants, and made his keepers feed them with rabbits. We honour and respect men of such public spirited feelings as these, to whom all honour is due.
But wliy are we to spare game-preservers of a different class, who spare neither us nor our foxes ? We will not admit that foxes are fed by the game-preserver, and him only. We know that a stray hare or wounded pheasant may occasionally be purloined from a great man's preserves by Mr. Reynard, and small blame to him for so doing ; but we know also that a fox feeds upon rabbits, mice, beetles, and other such small fry, and that he does sometimes pay a visit to a farm-yard if it lies in his beat, and carry away a fowl from a poor ■whining farmer ^ who, after all, does not make half so much fuss about a couple or two of chickens as his wealthy landlord does about a j^altry cock pheasant.
There may possibly be a question whether pheasants ought to be considered as ferce naturae. In the manner they are now reared and preserved my opinion is that they are not ; but there can be no question as to a fox being an animal ferce naturce. He is here to-day and gone to-morrow. W e may find him in a game-preserve it is true, but as he will run eight or ten miles straight away in another locality, it would puzzle even the Poor-law Commissioners to assign him his proper place of settlement ; and I think a game-preserver has made an equally
288 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
wide shot in asserting that a fox is supplied from his victualling department alone.
Some game-preservers appear to me to be labouring under an attack of foxoj)hob la, which has infected their whole system, and look u})on Mr. Wiley as a rampant and roaring lion, walk- ing about their preserves from morning till night, with his mouth wide open, seeking how many pheasants and hares he can devour; or perhaps they recollect a certain funny little picture which excited their particular attention when children, in which a fox is represented as sitting under a tree with his mouth open, expecting a cock which is perched on the top, to fall into it as a matter of course. They should have seen also the answer put into the mouth of this said cock by a wag to this polite invitation to fall into the fox's open jaws and be eaten — " / tvish you may get it."" Pheasants are at roost when foxes begin their evening rambles, and few would suppose a fox such an ass as to sit under a tree half the night with his mouth wide open in the vague expectation of a pheasant drop- ping into it.
A letter has been forwarded to me, signed " An Old Fox- hunter," part of which I will transcribe, although it may be cal- culated to draw forth another shot from Mr. Ramrod : —
" I have at this moment in my eye a keeper of this descrip- tion ; the fellow sometimes shows a litter of cubs the first time the hounds draw his coverts, but after that, if hounds run into them, or draw them unexpectedly, there is no more symptoms of a fox than if the animal had never existed. Let the fixture be somewhere for the express purpose of drawing this man's coverts, and there is scarcely a more sure find within the pre- cincts of the hunt ; no danger of changing foxes, however — no second fox. Now, really, as a matter of curiosity, I shall be greatly obliged if ' Scrutator' will do me the favour to enlighten me as to this fellow's plan of operations. We don't hear of his importing foxes by the rail ; in the old coaching days (for I have known him long) he did not have them down by those conveyances. Does he borrow a fox of his neighbour *? does he drag them to his coverts % if he did, we should sometimes find a brace of foxes on his ground. Does he bottle, or rather barn his foxes, like a good liousekeeper, ' for use when wanted ? In fact, what does he do T
The trick practised by this old artful keeper is a stale one to me, as I have often known it adopted by these velveteen gentry. From the facts above stated, there can be very little doubt that this man is a regular fox-destroyer, and the more dangerous because he is apparently a fox-preserver, He attempts to
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 289
disarm suspicion, and with the majority of men who go out hunting, his plan succeeds. A master of hounds is almost puz- zled how to deal with him, although he may be satisfied in his own mind of his malpractices. You cannot assert that he kills foxes, without proof positive ; you may hint your suspicions to the master or the man, but you are met, in limine, with the retort courteous, "What just cause of complaint have you? whenever the coverts are drawn there is a fox." There is your answer. _ You have, in fact, nothing to say. Your only plan is to be quiet, watch him carefully, and you will catch him out.
From the description given of this man's coverts, and the fact ol there being a litter of cubs occasionally bred there, I should suppose them to be a natural resort of foxes, and such being the case, he has no occasion to employ railroads or stage coaches to convey them to his locality. They come there without having their passage paid, willingly and uninvited, perhaps, although we are aware of certain drugs, by which foxes may be drawn to a certain spot, even from long distances. This dodge possibly may be practised in this instance, although it strikes me as an unnecessary one. The country around being regularly hunted by hounds, foxes will resort to this man's coverts for quietude, if not attracted there by game, and few have an idea of the num- ber of foxes disposed of in one season by an old and skilful keeper so situated. There are many ways of catching foxes without injuring them : and if there is in addition a head of earths on the ground, here is a live trap at once ready made to his hand. I should not be surprised if this man destroys from ten to fifteen brace of foxes in a season. He will keep one always in reserve for the hounds against their drawing his coverts, selecting the freshest and last caught or least injured. This fox will be carefully concealed in some out-of-the-way place, and let loose the same morning the hounds are expected. This being done, the keeper puts on a bold face, and goes to meet the hounds, in apparently the most cordial manner. If asked about foxes, he will demurely say, " I think you will find, sir, in our coverts this morning •" or he may complain, as some do, " of being eaten up with foxes."
The huntsman and hounds are the most likely to find out this old gentleman in his tricks. Let the former carefully observe the hehavimir of his old hounds, when the fox \^ found, and also when he is hilled ; for they will tell him to a certainty whether the fox has been handled or not. Let the pads also, the brush and neck, be well examined before he is given to the hounds. The fox being turned down perhaps two or three hours before the hounds arrive, will have had time to roll himself, and become
u
290 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
tolerably fresh and sweet, so that he may deceive all except the old hounds, master, huntsman, wliips, and the whole field. Upon these occasions the keeper or his assistants will be the first, per- haps, to halloo the fox. They sometimes overshoot the mark in their eagerness. I suspect a fox found by a keeper, and not hy the hounds, having been played these tricks myself, but I always found them out.
I was once drawing a ticklish place of this sort, where I knew foxes were trapped regularly, when in the middle of a large covert, the keeper began hallooing and screaming in a bye drive. We were down with him in a twinkling. " Well," I said, " what's all that clatter about ?" " Fox just crossed over the ride, sir, where you are standing." The hounds were on the spot, but they would not own the scent ; the old ones looked up instead of putting their noses down. "Very odd," said the man, " the hounds wont hunt the fox, Mdien I seed him only a few minutes ago in that very place." " My hounds," I replied, " tell me that the fox you just now saw came out of your pocket, or a bag which is now hid under a stoul in that high wood, and I believe them ; no tricks upon travellers will do with us."
The man bundled off as soon as he could. The fox was again hallooed over another drive, where several horsemen were stationed with the master of the coverts himself; still the hounds would not settle to the scent. I at once blew my horn, and took the hounds away. An old sportsman rode directly up, and asked what I was going to do. " Do," I replied, " my hounds don't hunt bagmen. I shall draw elsewhere for a wild fox." This announcement created, as may be supposed, quite a sensation ; but turning a deaf ear to remonstrances and en- treaties alike, I left the coverts directly. I, of course, got a tolerable sprinkling of abuse, which I cared about as little for as a duck tor cold water. But I had one good stanch fox- hunting friend, who took my part behind my back. He said aloud for all to hear, " He is quite right ; I applaud him for his firmness. It was an insult to a master of fox-hounds to turn a hagman down before his hounds." I was never again treated to a bagman in those coverts, but we always found wUd foxes there afterwards — not a fux only.
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 291
CHAPTER XLIV.
On bag'-foxes — Scratch packs hunting them — An old fox -hunter convicting a master of harriers of his malpractices — Improving our breed of foxes — Eun with a dark-coloured fox — List of hounds on hunting days — Diai-y — Effects of bathing hounds after hunting.
I EEMEMBER a bagman being exposed to view by an old fox- hunter (who was up to a dodge or two) in a very adroit manner. Upon the outskirts of a fox-hunting country there lived, and, for aught I know to the contrary, lives there still, the master of a scratch jjack of harriers. He was neither a farmer nor a cattle-dealer, nor a pork butcher, but all these combined to- gether, and a little knowledge of dog-stealing as well, consti- tuted about as recherche a character as could well lay claim to the title of sportsman, which he had the assurance to call him- self. His locale being within two miles of a large city, he was patronized by many dashing blades, ot rather equivocal pre- tensions to the name of gentlemen, and certain professionals of low standing, who, by subscribing a few pounds to support this scratch concern, passed off as hawks among these small birds, when they would not have obtained any notice at all with the fox-hounds. To cater for his patrons' amusement, this worthy master used to obtain foxes from the country of the fox-hounds, which he turned down upon the sly in some out-lying place, pretending of course that he could not ride up to stop his hounds (which was true enough) from running fox. This ex- cuse was always ready when he thought himself likely to get into hot water with any genuine fox-hunter. As, however, there were some outside spinneys, not regular fox coverts, to which fox-hounds seldom or ever went, his occasionally finding and running a fox was thought little of for some time. It was only when the thing became rather more common, and a run or two was put into print, that the suspicions of the master of the fo3f hounds and some of his field were excited, that there were more outlying foxes found by this marauder than the smaU district he laid claim to was likely to afford.
It was known in well-informed circles that this hare-hunting
Erofessor was not in the habit of making any wide distinction etween meum and tuum, and a pretty strong hint was given him that if such practices were continued, the limits of his country would be curtailed. The hint had the effect only of making him more cautious, by shifting his scene of action out of the precincts of the fox-hounds.
U2
292 HOUSES AND HOUNDS.
An old fox-lninter being resolved to catch liim out and con- vict him of hunting bag foxes, found out his next place of meeting, when they expected to have a day's sport, which was always to be known at a certain Sadler's shop in the gay city, and joined the cry. His appearance, however, was not particu- larly agreeable to the consjjirators, but things were conducted so snug that they fancied he would be outv»^itted. After pre- tending to draw for a hare over some fallows, and up a hedge row or two, they trotted off to a small covert, from which the hounds went away almost as soon as thrown in, on the other side. " Stole away," cried the professor at the top of his cracked voice ; but our old fox-hunter was soon with them, and kept his place in the foremost rank, notwithstanding the exertions of a self-styled captain, who considered himself the leader of the concern. The straight course pursued by the animal before them soon led him to surmise there was something more than a jack hare before the hounds, which opinion he openly expressed. " Oh, very likely," said the captain. " Perhaps it is a fox — there are some wild outlying ones in these parts." "And," rejoined the old fox-hunter, " I have a notion there are a few bagmen as well ; and that this is one I have very little doubt." " We don't do those things, I assure you," said the other. " Then your neighbours belie you ; but we shall soon see."
In about fifty minutes the fox was run into and killed, when our old fox-hunter jumped off his horse, and appropriated the brush to himself, which having carefully examined, he held in Ms hand, until all the field came up. Last of all, the worthy master made his appearance, puffing and blowing like a gram- pus. " Well, gentlemen," he said, " we have had a capital run ; but who would have thought of finding a fox in that little place?" "Not you, I'll be sworn," exclaimed the old fox- hunter, with a sly look, " if you had not put him there first." " I put him there, sir *? I know nothing about him." " Well, then, you persist in saying that this is a wild fox, do you f " In course I do," replied the master. "Then I'll prove that to be false, any way," said the old fox-hunter; "here is the proof" — so blowing back the fur on the brush, he drew forth certain bits of oat chaff', which had worked their way down to and adhered to the dock — these he displayed to the discomfited professor and his wondering field. There were no more asser- tions made in contradiction to this damning proof. Our old fox-hunter coolly remarking, that " wild foxes did not make their kennels in corn him,'' rode off with his brush. This was a very neat way of discovering a bagman, and a hint worth attending to; but, as all bag foxes may not be put either
HORSES AND HOUNLS. 293
into corn-bins or corn-sacks, these proofs may sometimes be V\'anting,
There are, however, many other signs which are known to old fox-hunters. They generally run down wind, but, being ignorant of their country, have no point to make, and appear to loiter before the hounds. The scent also is too good — the hounds running wild at it. I am alluding now to bag foxes when turned down before harriers, for I am quite sure, that any good pack of fox-hounds would not run a bag-fox at all, unless hal- looed on and encouraged ; and then even they would not enjoy the scent, which is so different from that of a wild fox.
I heard once of an old fox which had been caught and hunted three times in one season by a pack of harriers, and found his way home each time, having been turned loose thirty miles from the earth where he was taken. This was in " days of auld lang syne," when the fine greyhound fox was the prevailing one in this country. We are very particular in these times to have horses and hounds both of the best blood, and in first-rate con- dition, but not the slightest attention is paid to the breed of foxes, which is of rather more importance than at first sight may appear. To show sport the breed of foxes should not be overlooked so much as is generally the case, for without good foxes you cannot have good runs. The large importations of French foxes have in many hunting countries done a great deal of mischief. This little red species is quite distinct in its habits and character from the old greyhound fox, and will never show any sport at all until they are three or four years old. They seldom go far from home, and when found, eitlier hang to the coverts or make short rings, running more like hares ; neither have they the strength or power to stand long before a good pack of hounds.
Many think a fox is a fox, and that every fox ought to run ; but there is as much difference almost in the breed of foxes as in the breed of dogs; and I am quite satisfied that many countries with which I am acquainted require a cross in their foxes as much as they do in their hounds. It may be asked where these greyhound foxes are to be found. Without injuring or robbing any hunt, they may be procured from the Highlands of Scotland, where numbers are annually destroyed by the hill keepers ; also from some parts of Wales, and some parts of Devonshire on the coast, where fox-hounds are not kept. They may also be imported from Germany. ^\lien I first began keep- ing fox-hounds, I obtained several young foxes of this species, and, by judicious management, they afforded excellent sport. They were turned into a head of earths in the best part of our
294 HORSES AXD HOUNDS.
country, four to an earth, and there fed regularly until the month of September, when they were old enough to shift for themselves. The earths were always left open when we drew the coverts in which they had been placed, as they were intended for stock, and it was not my purpose to kill one of these foxes during their first season. They were, however, of a very ram- bling disposition, and after Christmas, we found several of them many miles from their homes. Some were unavoidably killed, but the greater part were saved by going to ground ; and thus a foundation was laid, which lasted the many years I kept hounds, and perpetuated a good, hard-running race of foxes.
The second season these foxes afforded us extraordinary sport, for, being ear-marked, we knew them when brought to hand. For many seasons I continued to turn down two or three litters of these foxes, to add to the stock, treating them in the same manner as the first. I could have procured French, or the small species of red fox, at half the expense and trouble ; but, ex- cept ^ for the purpose of blooding hounds, I would have nothing to do with them. To prove how necessary it is to in- fuse fresh blood of the true sort, I may add, that since my relinquishing the country, few of this true breed now remain, having since been mixed with the red fox, and that is now the prevailing fox of the country. The true greyhound fox is of a light grey colour, bushy about the head, long in the body, and stands high upon his legs. The bulldog fox is the next in size — of a reddish grey, and common in most fox-hunting countries. These will afford good runs also ; but the greyhound breed is far superior to them in every respect.
On one occasion I met with a large dark-coloured fox, with a yellow breast, instead of white, at the extreme point of our country, which ran about eighteen miles, but not straight. _We found liim on a bad scenting day, with a hot sun and keen wind, in the month of February ; running was out of the question, but we held on to him for about six miles into a large covert in the centre of our country, where we got upon better terms, and after a turn or two round the big wood, he turned his head for home again, which he nearly reached, when being headed he retraced his steps, making again for the large covert, which he was des- tined never to reach ; for waiting in a small brake we got up with him, and he was pulled down within one field of the large wood, myself, hounds, and fox, jumping the last fence together, over which we tumbled in company, a large stake having run up between my horse's shoulder and ribs, which had nearly proved fatal to him. By the application of plenty of hot water, and by keeping the wound open with a long candle,
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 295
no mischief resulted but the loss of his services in the field for a few weeks. The time occupied in hunting this fox, running being out of the question, was three hours and a half, through a woodland country, with two disagreeable brooks to cross twice, and but for his waiting for us two or three times we should scarcely have overhauled him at last ; a straight running fox of the greyhound sort would have run us out of scent alto- getlier in about forty minutes.
Every huntsman should take with him into the field a list of his pack for that day's hunting. This list should be entered also in a diar>^ of each day's sport, with remarks about the hounds' work ; it will be good authority to refer to at the end of the season, before the draft is made, and show the hounds which have done the most during the season, and have hunted the gTeatest number of days. A book of this description was always kept by me, in which these entries were made, and also remarks about the weather, the coverts which were dra^^Ti, the earths which were stopped, and the number of foxes found. This I found of great sers'ice at the end of the season, as it enabled me to see at once what was due to each earth-stopper, and who were entitled to any extra reward.
It is the custom in some kennels to plunge the hounds into a warm bath after hunting, and to shut them up together when washed for a short time before they are fed. There are few who do not admit the efiicacy of hot water, or who have not expe- rienced the soothing effects of a warm bath after severe labour. To the human frame, with a good dry rubbing afterwards, nothing can be more refreshing, but ^^dthout this dry rubbing we all know half the efficacy would be lost. By a sudden chill or cold blast the pores of the skin, thus opened by the appli- cation of the warm water, would be suddenly checked, and more harm than good would be the result of it ; rubbing keeps up the action of the skin, and superinduces that glow over the whole frame which is so luxurious. Having tried the experi- ment with my own hounds for one entire season without any satisfactory result, I abandoned it._ The warm bath is all very well, but the difficulty lies in having the hounds rubbed tho- roughly dry afterwards, which requires much more labour and time than many suppose.
To liave the tiling done thoroughly well, I attended the operation myself, with three assistants, but it occupied more than an hour to bathe and rub tolerably dry about eighteen couples of hounds, and then they were not in my opinion half dry. It is true, they assisted each other in this respect, but I never could see yet any good result from one hound licking off the
296 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
dirt and hair from another's coat. It was, however, one of the fashions of that day, and, not to be considered out of the fashion, I gave it a fair trial ; but one season satisfied me that it could not be adopted as a general practice, without more injury than benefit to the hounds. Where there is a lodging-room, heated with hot air, into which the hounds may be turned after the bath, it may do very well ; but subjecting them to the cold night air, in the depth of mnter, in passing them through the courts into the greenyard, after coming out of a reeking hot bath, cannot, in my opinion, be otherwise than injurious,
CHAPTER XLV.
Estimates of expenses of a fox-hunting establishment — Wages, food, and allowances — Quality of land — Expenses for two days a week — Selection of hunters — Objection to "screws" — Other items of expense — Saddles, bridles, rugs, &c. — Economy may and should be observed — Reasons for leaving out of the list the farrier — The huntsman's book, or annual biU — Earth-stopping, and fees to keepers — Advantages of the old system in preventiag needless extortion — Proposals for a remedy of the evil — Opinion of Mr. Delme EadclifFe.
As various estimates have been made by diiferent writers on the expenses of a fox-hunting establishment, it may not be amiss to give a rough estimate of the necessary outlay, and an- nual disbursement of a two days per week establishment. Fees to keepers, earth-stopping, and such like extras, are not included in this calculation, as they vary sa very much, according to the district, that ho one can form anything more than a wide guess as to their probable amount. The wages of servants are entirely irrespective of perquisites or field money, and therefore admit of modification, when a sure income from these resources can be reckoned on. The servants are allowed to be of first-class, but the master's individual expenses are not included, as he is supposed to keep a stud for his own amusement. The calcula- tion is made for a provincial country, where the master Imnts his own hounds, and conducts the afi'air upon a liberal scale.
First Whipper-in, £80. Clothes and £ s. d.
boots, £iO 90 0 0
Second do. £52. Do. do. £lO . 62 0 0
Feeder 31 0 0
£183 0
HORSES AXD HOUXDS.
297
Food for 30 couples of hounds.
12 tons of oatmeal, at £l5 per ton
Flesh
Fuel, at 5s. per week . Medicine for hounds .
180 36 13 10
£239 0 0
Six horses.
78 quarters of oats, at 25s. per quarter 15 tons of hay, at £3 per ton Shoeing and medicine
Sadler
Helper in stable, at 12s. per week Lad in do., at 6s. ...
Tax upon hounds Do. on four servants . . * Do. on six horses
Sundries
96 45 20 10 31 15 36 4 6
£263 0 0
685 0 0
15 0 0
£700 0 0
In this estimate everything is put down on a fair scale. The wages for first whipper-in are perhaps high for some countries. Six horses and thirty couples of hounds are sufficient to hunt at least five days a fortnight. No hunter, however, is worth keeping which cannot come out twice a week, and here each horse is allowed one day only. Two bushels of corn are allowed to every horse per week, throughout the -whole year, and hay also. To a gentleman, however, who has a farm in hand, the expenses will not amount so high, and the general produce from the land will be raised in proportion to the manure em- ployed upon it from the stable and the kennels. The bones also from the boiling-house will be of verj^ great service in pro- ducing root crops of heavy weight. In point of economy I consider a certain quantity of grass and arable land as a neces- sary appendage to a hunting establishment, if only sufficient to raise corn and hay for the horses. For this jjurpose, it is not necessary that the land should be of very first-rate quality, as
298 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
the lightest soils by the aid of the stable and kennel manure (particularly the latter) will in two seasons produce most luxuriant crops both of oats and grass. It was the custom for- merly in some large establishments to have the oatmeal prepared at home, and in dear seasons having made the experiment my- self, I succeeded in having some capital meal manufactured by a neighbouring miller ; but there is a good deal of trouble to be incurred, and not very much profit ; the article, however, is genuine and free from adulteration when home made, and that goes for something in these times of spurious compounds.
The outlay for two days a week will comprise six horses — four horses, at £50 each, for the servants, and two hacks, at £25, in all £250. I think these prices sufficient in a provincial country, and can only say, that some of the best horses I ever possessed cost me only £25 each, and they were quite first-rate, both as to size and breeding. Young horses of queerish tempers, or with a broken knee, are often parted with at low prices, which after being ridden one season by the whippers-in will become valuable hunters. To screws I have a great objection, and would never recommend them ; they will scarcely ever improve, and be abused by servants, as well as ridiculed by your field. There must be expended also in the purchase of hounds about £200. Saddles, bridles, rugs, &c., will cost £50 more; so that the whole outlay, independent of the annual expenses, may be computed at £500.
It may be objected in the calculation I have here made, that some items are omitted, which have formed part of the budget put forth by other chancellors of the fox-hunting exchequer ; but, as retrenchment is now become the order of the day, and the strictest economy to be observed in every department of the State, masters of hounds cannot do better than follow so good an example, and sail as near to the wind as possible, consistently of course with good and efficient management. The farrier does not appear at all on my list, as I consider his place quite a sinecure in a small establishment, and there- fore it is altogether omitted. In the place of farriery may be substituted, with much more benefit to the horses, hot water and common sense, which should be extensively used, and will cost nothing. A huntsman's book, or annual bill, reckoned by some at from 80/. to 100/., is entirely excluded, as offering a premium only for imposition and negligence. From my budget of expenses, earth-stopping also and fees to keepers are left out, not because they can be dispensed with, but that every master may make his own calculation of what he intends to distribute on these
HORSES AND HOUNDS. 299
accounts. The amount will vary from 100^. to 1000^., according to the country, and as it may suit his fancy to pay. It is to be hoped that the day is not far distant when every master of liounds will be relieved from this unfair drain upon his purse. Independent of the sums required to satisfy the exorbitant demands of blood-thirsty keepers, it is almost too much to ex- pect that gentlemen should be placed under the necessity of submitting to their impudent impositions. In the olden time a regular earth-stopper was appointed to do the work of the whole hunt, and if my recollection serves me, a picture of this functionary and his pony is to be found in Beckford. Tliis office could not have been abolished on account of its being a sine- cure, for the duties required are quite equal to those of a superin- tendent of police ; and I think that no hunt should be with- out a servant of this description. An active man, with a good pony, would be able to do the earth-stopping in any two-days- a-week country ; but where the country is wide, and admits of four days per week, two might be employed at a quarter the expense now incurred, and with much more satisfaction to the master of the hounds.
Objections may, and probably will be, raised by game pre- servers, at the suggestion of their keepers, against this inno- vation and intrusion upon the privileges of the latter gentle- men ; but, as a regular servant of the establishment, for whose good conduct the master would of course be responsible, these objections may be obviated. The attempt, I am aware, must be delicately and cautiously made at first, but it may be done by the master representing to the different proprietors of coverts that there is no fund available for these extraordinary expenses (supposing the case to be so), and therefore it is pro- posed to revive the old system for the general welfare of the hunt, and to keep the disbursements within a more narrow compass. It must be expected that some game preservers will not fall in with this plan, but this will be of little consequence, as I feel well assured that all real well-wishers to the cause of fox-hunting will readily lend their aid in furtherance of a system, which would save their pockets and add to their amusement. A good active servant to perform this work, with the keep of a rough pony, would not cost more than 50/. per annum. His place of residence must be near the kennels to receive his orders ; and if the stopping has to be done at a dis- tance, he would have to put up at some way-side public or farm-house the previous day, to prepare for his night's work, and attend the hounds at their places of drawing the next morning.
300 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
As far as it was feasible, I pursued this plan for many years with great success, but in our country, containing very few fox- hunters, as proprietors of coverts, I was of necessity thrown very much into the power of keepers, and unable to extend it throughout as a general system. I perfectly coincide with Mr. Delme Radcliffe's opinion, that " I would have the preservation of the foxes, and the stopping of the earths for hunting matters, entirely dependent upon their respective proprietors. I would have every lord of a domain make a point of enforcing his de- termination to contribute gratuitously all in his power to the noble sport." Would that this were the case ! that this con- summation, so ardently desired by every true fox-hunter, might be accomplished! but I fear such a state of harmony and mutual co-operation is reserved for the golden age. From my experience of such matters, little assistance can be expected from non-hunting men, who often think the favour sufficiently great to allow a master of hounds to draw their coverts, and rather consider it due to their servants, keepers, or woodmen, to be paid a very handsome remuneration for their extra work in earth-stopping. It is principally on this account that I have suggested the expediency of the master employing a general earth-stopper, to get rid of this annual imposition and drain on his purse ; but so tenacious are some men of their rights, " to do as they like with their own," it must be expected that some impediments would be thrown in his way. There are not w^anting in most countries men who are jealous of the fox- hounds, and instead of assisting the master, they throw every obstacle in his way ; endeavouring to increase his expenses, in the hope of driving him from the country. It is, I am con- vinced, this pressure from all quarters upon the purse of the master, which prevents gentlemen of moderate means from taking the management of hounds ; the expenses in these times are perfectly ruinous to all except a man of large fortune : and this accounts for the changes which are always going on in fox- hunting establishments.
In scarcely any country are the subscriptions, even when regularly paid up, sufficient to meet the annual outgoings, and most masters have to dip their hands very deep into their own pockets, to meet the extras — which are legion. It may be urged, as recommended by some writers on Fox-hunting, why not do away with earth-stopping altogether, and thus at once cut off root and branch all expenses attendant on stopping them? This plan has been tried by other masters as well as myself; the result with others I know not, although from the practice
HORSES AXD HOUNDS. 301
not being continued, I presume it has been in otlier cases, as with mine, a failure. When we can alter the nature of foxes, it may succeed, and not before. The natural home of most foxes lies in the bowels of the earth, the refuge they always seek when hunted by hounds, and the general nursery of their cubs. There are, it is true, some clay countries, where earths are less frequent, and where foxes both lie and breed above ground, but these are the exceptions to the general rule. In all soils which rest upon sand, gravel, or rock, earths abound, and foxes for generations past have been accustomed to harbour in them.
Having one part of my country very much infested with fox stealers, I resolved to do away with all the earths in that locality, and accordingly having taken all due precaution in stopping them up, I kept them in this state for two or three seasons ; but I lost more foxes by poachers by this plan than the other. Earths they would and did find in less secure situations, and we often had blank days by their resorting to places which we knew nothing of. In one particular covert, which had always pre\dously held foxes, we did not find one for some time during the winter months, but on one fine day in the spring of the year, we unkennelled a leash, almost together, which went straight away, and ran to ground some miles distant, in a bank close to a large town, which we had never before heard of as containing earths ; this place also was well tarred first and then stopped. They then led us a dance to other out-of-the-way places, and finding their determination to seek refuge some- where underground, I was obliged to re-open all the main earths nearer home, and keep them continually cleared out. There were also some very favourite woods for foxes, in which were some large rock earths in the neighbouring country ; these owing to their distance from the kennels were ordered to be kept stopped during the season ; the consequence was, that few foxes were found there afterwards ; many, I am satisfied, from the carelessness of the earth-stoppers, were stopped in, and starved to death ; and others, I also know, went away to coverts belonging to a fox-killing game preserver, and there met an ignominious fate. Foxes, like cats, have an instinctive attach- ment to the places of their birth, but when continually forced from their homes, both above and below ground, will seek other abodes free from molestation. Drains, old rabbit-burrows and such places, are then resorted to, from which, when discovered, they may be more easily taken. I remember upon one occasion running a fox, after a severe chase, into an old lime-kiln, from which he was easily extracted, and whilst the hounds were kill'
302 HORSES AND HOUNDS.
ing this fox, another fresh one bolted out of the same place, and strange to say, jumping over the backs of the whole pack, made his escape, without a hound seeing him, so busily were they all engaged in breaking up his companion.
THE END.
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