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THOUGHTS

HUNTING

THOUGHTS

ON

HUNTING,

in a series of familiar letters
to a friend. ,

By peter BECKFORD, Esq.

^ jS'Sb) <!BDttion.

TO WHICH IS ADDED,

A CHAPTER ON COURSING.

SI QUID NOVISTI RECTIUS ISTIS,
CANDIDUS IMPERTI : SI NON, HIS UTBRB MECUM.

Hor.

LONDON :

COWIE, JOLLAND, & CO., 31, POULTRY.

1840.

LONDON :

Printed by Maurice & Co., Fenchurch-street.

PREFACE.

In the Preface to a former edition of Beck-
ford's Thoughts, it is observed that " no work
on the subject of Hunting had been published
before its appearance, except an anonymous
pubhcation in 1733." This apology cannot
be made for the present edition, for within
the last twenty years we have had, besides
Magazines and other periodicals devoted ex-
clusively to the sportsman, numerous works
on this, as well as every other branch of Field
Sports, many of which are written by authors
of established reputation, and great experience
in the subjects on which they treat. Beckford,
notwithstanding, holds the same position which
he has occupied for upwards of forty years.
He has always been considered by the sporting
world an unquestionable authority on every
A 2

vj PREFACE.

thing relating to Hunting, and the first writers
of the day on the subject, have acknowledged
their obligations to his pages. In the words
of the author of British Field Spons, " he
has so well described our present practice of
hunting, and given such solid and rational ad-
vice on the subject, that his treatise has, from
the day of its publication, become a general
text-book."

This edition is published in a more convenient
form, and at a considerably less price than any
former one, with a view of giving a more ex-
tended circulation to a work, which indepen-
dently of its value in the eyes of the sportsman,
has always been perused with pleasure by all
classes of readers.

The publishers have only further to add, that
in order to make the work still more complete,
a chapter on Coursing has been appended,
comprising the rules and laws relating to
that sport.

CONTENTS.

LETTER I.

The subject introduced — Hunting recommended, not
as an entertaining exercise only, but also as a whole-
some one — Cervantes, and the Spectator, their opi-
nion of hunting — For whom these letters are in-
tended page I — 15

LETTER n.

The kennel described in all its parts . . . 16 — 27

LETTER in.

Of hounds in general — Hounds of the middle size re-
commended— A perfect hound described — Skirters
disapproved of — Some objections to a large pack

28—36

LETTER IV.

Of feeding hounds, and managing them in the kennel —
Of the feeder 37—53

Vm CONTEXTS.

LETTER V.

Of breeding hounds, and naming ihem — Of the treat-
ment of the whelps, when first talien into the ken-
nel— Of rounding them, and spaying bitches — Of
the number necessary to keep up the stock — A list
of names 54 — 73

LETTER VL

Of coupling young hounds, and breaking them from
sheep — Of the entering them 74 — 84

LETTER VIL

The same subject continued — Different methods of en-
tering young fox -hounds described — Entering them
at the marten cat recommended — Entering them
at hare censured 85 — 106

LETTER VIII.

Of diseases and their remedies — A curious prescription
for the cure of the mange, either in man or beast —
Observations on madness 107 — 121

LETTER IX.

Of the huntsman and whipper-in — Observations on
scent 122—132

CONTENTS. IX

LETTER X.

Hare-hunting described in all its parts — Of the kind
of hound best suited to that diversion — Of the best
method of hunting them — Of the trail in the morn-
ing— Of hare-finders — A particular method of hare-
hunting related — Curious advice about dressing a
hare 133—146

LETTER XL

Hare-hunting continued — The many shifts which a
hare makes described — A hint to such sportsmen
as continue talking when their hounds are at
fault — Chopping hares censured ; directions how
to prevent it — Of the harmony of a pack — A hint
to such sportsmen as ride over their hounds

147—155

LETTER Xn.

Of a hare-warren — The hares how caught — Best me-
thod of turning them out — How a hare may be made
to run straight — Time to leave off hare-hunting — Of
stag-hunting at Turin 156 — 161

LETTER Xin.

The description of a fox-chase attempted . 162 — 172

LETTER XIV.

Remarks on the foregoing letter — When an early hour
is recommended — Some observations on the drawing
of hounds — A gentleman's extraordinary knowledge
ofhunting 173—183

CONTENTS.

LETTER XV.

Remarks on letter xiii continued — Some directions to
the huntsman and whipper-in — Of style in killing a
fox — Of changing from one fox to another — Rules to
be observed when this happens — Some observations
on the casting of hounds — Riding too close upon them
censured 184—194

LETTER XVL

Remarks on letter xiii still continued' — Of halloos —
Some remarkable instances of them — When a fox
ought not to be given up— When is the best time to
eat him 195—202

LETTER XVn.

A digression in favour of fox-hunting — View halloos,
when too fre([uently given, censured — Of stopping the
tail hounds, and throwing them in at head — Of skir-
ters, when they do hurt — When foxes are in too great
plenty how to disperse them — A Frenchman's opinion
of a fox-chase 203 — 213

LETTER XVIII.

When an excellent whipper-in may be of more use than
an excellent huntsman — Duty of a whipper-in — Of
steadiness — Of hounds that kill sheep — A curious
letter from a huntsman 214 — 231

CONTENTS. XI

LETTER XIX.

How a huntsman should draw his hounds . 232 — 250

LETTER XX.

How he should cast his hounds — What constitutes a
perfect huntsman 251 — 2/0

LETTER XXL

A hare-hunter an improper huntsman to a pack of
fox-hounds — The harrier and the fox-hound, in
what they materially differ — Much encouragement to
hounds on bad scenting' days objected to 271 — 282

LETTER XXn.

Blood necessary to a pack of fox-hounds — The likeliest
method to procure it — Of accidents that happen
in fox-hunting — Of the proper time to leave off
fox-hunting — A wanton destruction of foxes cen-
sured— An extraordinary character of a huntsman

283—300

LETTER XXI iL

Bag-foxes, some objections to them — A fox-court
recommended — Directions how cubs should be treat-
ed— Some caution necessary in buying foxes — Of
digging foxes — Badgers objected to — A method to
stink an earth — How badgers may be caught — Of
terriers — Of destroying foxes — A remarkable instance
of the lex talionis 301—316

CONTENTS.

LETTER XXIV.

Subject concluded — Some observations concerning the
management of a hunter — Some hunting objected
to — Virgil, Horace, Pliny, their opinion of a country
life — Hunting not so dangerous us it is thought to he
— Some curious quotations from other authors — A
hunting song . 317 — 336

On coursing — Its antiquity — Object of the sportsman —
Coursing meetings — Extraordinary courses — Rules
and laws of coursing 337 — 344

THOUGHTS ON HUNTING.

LETTER I.

Bristol Hot-Wells, March 20, 1779-
You could not have chosen, my friend, a bet-
ter time than the present, to remind me of my
promise to send you my Thoughts on Hunting;
for the accident which brought me hither is hkely
to detain me some time, nor have I any longer an
excuse for not obeying your commands. Indeed
I have hitherto excused myself, in hopes some
publication or other on that subject might have
rendered these Letters unnecessary ; but as no-
thing of the kind has appeared, notwithstanding
it is so much wanted, I am myself at this time
sufficiently idle to undertake the task, nor shall
1 think it a trifling subject to write on, if you
think it a necessary one : I wish the experience
I have had of that diversion may enable me to
answer the many questions you are pleased to
make concerning it.

1£ PREFERENCE FOR PROSE.

Knowing your partiality to rhyme, I could
wish to send you my thoughts in verse ; but as
this would take me longer time, without answer-
ing your purpose better, I mvist beg you to
accept them in humble prose, — in my opinion
better suited to the subject. Didactic essays
should be as little clogged as possible ; they
should proceed regularly and clearly ; should
be easily written, and as easily understood, hav-
ing less to do with words than things. The
game of cramho is out of fashion, to the no
small prejudice of the rhyming tribe; and be-
fore I could find a rhyme to porringer, I should
hope to finish a great part of these Letters. I
shall therefore, without further delay, proceed
upon them ; this however I must desire to be
first understood between us, that when, to save
trouble to us both, I say a thing is, without
tacking a salvo to the tail of it, such as, in my
opinion, — to the best of my judgment, &c. &c. —
you shall not call my humility in question, as
the assertion is not meant to be mathematically
certain. When I have any better authority than
my own, such as Somervile for instance, (who, by
the by, is the only one, I believe, who has writ-
ten on this subject to be understood,) I shall take
the liberty of giving it you in his own words, to
save you the trouble of turning to him.

THEORY OF HUNTING. d

You may remember, perhaps, when we were
hunting together at Turin, and the hounds had
lost the stag, and the piqueurs (still more in fault
than they) knew not which way to try, the king
bid them ask Milord Anglois ; — nor is it to be
wondered at if an Englishman should be thought
to understand the art of hunting, when the
hounds this country produces are universally
allowed to be the best in the whole world, —
from which I think this inference may be drawn,
that although every man who follows this diver-
sion may not understand it, yet that it is extra-
ordinary of the many that do, that one only of
any note should have written on the subject. It
is rather unfortunate for me that the ingenious
sportsman should have preferred writing an ele-
gant poem to an useful lesson ; since if he had
pleased, he might easily have saved me the trou-
ble of writing these Letters. Is it not strange
that in a country where the press is in one con-
tinued labour with opinions of almost every kind,
from the most serious and instructive to the most
ridiculous and trifling j a country, besides, so fa-
mous for the best hounds, and the best horses to
follow them, whose authors sometimes hunt, and
whose sportsmen sometimes write, that only the
practical part of hunting should be understood ?
B 2

4

SILENCE OF AUTHORS

There is, however, no doubt but that the practi-
cal part of it would be improved, were theory
to accompany it.

France, Germany, and Italy, are also silent,
I believe, on this subject, though each of these
countries has had its sportsmen. Foxes, it is
true, they never hunt, and hares but seldom ;
yet the stag and wild boar in France and in Ger-
many are still pursued with the utmost splendour
and magnificence. In Italy, I believe there has
been no hunting since the death of the Duke of
Parma : he was very fond of it, and I apprehend
all hunting in that country ceased with him.
The only sportsmen now remaining are gentle-
men in green coats, who, taking their couteaux
de chasse along with them, walk into the fields
to catch small birds, which they call andar a la
caccia, or in plain English going a hunting:
yet it has not been so with horsemanship ; that
has been treated scientifically by all — in Italy
by PignatcUi, — in Germany by Isenbourg, —
and in France by La Gueriniere : nor are the
useful lessons of the Duke of Newcastle confined
to this country only ; they are both read and
practised every where ; nor is he the only noble
lord who has written on the subject. While on
hunting all are silent ; and were it not for the

ON THIS SUBJECT. 5

muse of Somervile, which has so judiciously and
so sweetly sung, the dog, that useful, that honest,
that faithful, that disinterested, that entertaining
animal, would be suffered to pass unnoticed and
undistinguished.

A Northern court once, indeed, did honour
this animal with a particular mark of appro-
bation and respect ; but the fidelity of the dog
has since given place to the sagacity of the ele-
phant.* Naturalists, it is true, have included
dogs in the specific descriptions they have given
us of animals. Authors may have written on
hunting, and booksellers may know many, that
to sportsmen are unknown ; but I again repeat
that I know not any writer, ancient or modern,
from the time of Nimrod to the present day (one
only excepted) who has given any useful infor-
mation to a sportsman.*!'

It may be objected, that the hunting of a pack
of hounds depends on the huntsman ; and that
the huntsman, generally speaking, is an illiterate
fellow, wlio seldom can either read or write ; —
this cannot well be denied. I must therefore

* Vide Mr. Pope's Letter to Mr. Cromwell.

t Many French authors have given rules for hunting the
hare and stag ; to make this passage less exceptionable,
therefore, it maybe better perhaps, instead oi sportsmen, to
r ead fox-hunter.

6 QUALITIES NECESSARY

observe that it is impossible the business of a
kennel should go on as it ought, unless the mas-
ter himself knows something of it ; for there
must be an understanding somewhere ; nor can
any gentleman enjoy this noble diversion in per-
fection without it.

It is the opinion of a great sportsman, that it
is as difficult to find a perfect huntsman as a good
prime-minister. Without taking upon me to
determine what requisites may be necessary to
form a good prime-minister, I will describe some
of those which are essentially necessary towards
making a perfect huntsman ; qualities which, I
will venture to say, would not disgrace more
brilliant situations : — such as a clear head, nice
obsei'vation, quick apprehension, undaunted cou-
rage, strength of constitution, activity of body,
a good ear, and a good voice.

There is not any one of those branches of
knowledge commonly dignified with the title of
arts, which has not its rudiments or principles,
through which a competent knowledge, if not
perfection, may be obtained : whereas hunting,
the sole business of some, and the amusement of
tlie greatest part of the youth of this kingdom,
seems left alone to chance. Its pursuit puts us
both to greater expense and greater inconvenience

FOR A HUNTSMAN. 7

than any thing besides, and yet we trust our
diversion in it to the sole guidance of a hunts-
man : we follow just as he chooses to lead us ;
and we suffer the success or disappointment of
the chase to depend solely on the judgment of a
fellow, who is frequently a greater brute than
the creature on which he rides. I would not be
understood to mean by this, that a huntsman
should be a scholar, or that every gentleman
should hunt his own hounds. A huntsman need
not be a man of letters ; but give me leave to
say, that had he the best understanding, he
would frequently find opportunities of exer-
cising it, and intricacies which might put it to
the test. You will say, perhaps, there is some-
thing too laborious in the occupation of a hunts-
man for a gentleman to take it upon himself ;
you may also think that it is beneath him : I
agree with you in both ; yet I hope he may
have leave to understand it. If he follows the
diversion, it is a sign of his liking it; and if
he likes it, surely it is some disgrace to him to
be ignorant of it.

I find it will not be necessary to say much to
recommend a diversion to you,* which you so

• Since the above v/as written, hunting has undergone
a severe censure, (vide Monthly Review for September,

8 ANTIQUITY OF HUNTING.

professedly admire ; it would be needless there-
fore to enumerate the heroes of antiquity who
were taught the art of hunting, or the many
great men, among whom was the famous Galen,
who join in recommending it. I shall, however,
remind you that your beloved hero, Henry the
Fourth of France, made it his chief amusement,
and his very love-letters, strange as it may
appear, are full of little else ; and that one of
the greatest ministers this country ever produ-
ced was so fond of this diversion, that the first
letter he opened, as I have been told, was gene-
rally that of his huntsman. In most countries,
from the earliest times, hunting has been a prin-
cipal occupation of the people, either for use or
amusement, and many princes have made it their

1781) ; nor will any thing satisfy the critic less than its
total abolition. He recommends feats of agility to be prac-
tised and exhibited instefcd of it. Whether the amendment
proposed by the learned gentleman be desirable or not, I
shall forbear to determine ; taking the liberty, however, to
remind him, that as hunting hath stood its gi'ound trom the
earliest times, been encouraged and approved by the best
authorities, and practised by the greatest men, it cannot
now be supposed either to dread criticism, or to need sup-
port. Hunting originates in Nature itself; and it is in
perfect correspondence with this law of Nature, that the
several animals are provided with necessary means of attack
and defence.

ITS ADVANTAGES. 9

chief deliffht ; — a circumstance which occasioned
the following hon mot. Louis the Fifteenth was
so passionately fond of this diversion, that it
occupied him entirely ; the King of Prussia,
who never hunts, gives up a great deal of his
time to music, and plays himself on the flute : a
German, last war, meeting a Frenchman, asked
him very impertinently, ^^Si son maitre chassoit
toujours ?" — " Oui, oui,'''' replied the other ; " il
ne joue jamais de lajiute^'' The reply was ex-
cellent, but it would have been as well, perhaps,
for mankind, if that great man had never been
otherwise employed. — Hunting is the soul of a
country life : it gives health to the body, and
content to the mind ; and is one of the few plea-
sures we can enjoy in society, without prejudice
either to ourselves or our friends.

The Spectator has drawn with infinite humour
the character of a man who passes his whole life
in pursuit of trifles ; and I have no doubt other
Will Wimbles might still be found. I hope,
however, he did not think they were confined to
the country only. Triflers there are of every
denomination. — Are we not all triflers "i and are
we not told that all is vanity .'' The Spectator,
without doubt, felt great compassion for Mr.
Wimble ; yet Mr. Wimble might not have been
B 3

10 RECOMMENDED BY THE SPECTATOR.

a proper object of it ; since it is more than pro-
bable he was a happy man, if the employing of
his time in obliging others and pleasing himself
can be thought to have made him so. Whether
vanity misleads us or not in the choice of our
pursuits, the pleasures or advantages which re-
sult from them will best determine. I fear the
occupation of few gentlemen will allow of nice
scrutiny ; occupations therefore that amuse, and
are at the same time innocent, that promote
exercise and conduce to health, though they
may appear trifles in the eyes of others, certain-
ly are not so to those who enjoy them : of this
number I think I may reckon hunting ; and I
am particularly glad the same author furnishes
a quotation in support of it : " For my own
part," says this elegant writer, " I intend to hunt
twice a-week during my stay with Sir Roger;
and shall prescribe the moderate use of this
exercise to all my country friends, as the best
physic for mending a bad constitution, and pre-
serving a good one." The inimitable Cervantes
also makes honourable mention of this diversion:
he makes Sancho say, " Mercy on me, what plea-
sure can you find, any of ye all, in killing a poor
beast that never meant any harm.''" that the
Duke may reply, " You are mistaken, Sancho ;

CHARACTEKIZEU BY CERVANTES* 11

hunting wild beasts is the most proper exercise
for knights and pi'inces; for in the chase of a
stout noble beast may be represented the whole
art of war, stratagems, policy, and ambuscades,
with all other devices usually practised to over-
come an enemy with safety. Here we are expo-
sed to the extremities of heat and cold ; ease
and laziness can have no room in this diversion :
by this we are inured to toil and hardship ; our
limbs are strengthened, our joints made supple,
and our whole body hale and active : in short,
it is an exercise that may be beneficial to many,
and can be prejudicial to none." Small indeed
is the number of those who, in the course of
five thousand years, have employed themselves
in the advancement of useful knowledge. Man-
kind have been blessed with but one Titus, that
we know of; and it is to be feared he has had
but few imitators. Days and years fly away,
without any account taken of them ; and how
many may reasonably be supposed to pass with-
out affording even amusement to others, or
satisfaction to ourselves ? Much more, I think,
may be said in favour of the Wimbles ; but it
must be confessed, that the man who spends his
whole time in trifles, passes it contemptibly,
compared with those who are employed in re-

12 ' CHIEF OBJECT IN

searches after knowledge useful to mankind, or
in professions useful to the state.

I am glad to find you approve of the plan I
ptopose to observe in the course of these Letters,
in which it shall be my endeavour to omit no-
thing that may be necessary for you to know;
at least, as far as my own observation and ex-
perience will give me leave. The experience I
have had may be of use to you at present ;
others perhaps hereafter may write more judi-
ciously and more fully on the subject. You
know it is my interest to wish they would.
The few who have written on hunting refer you
to their predecessors for great part of the infor-
mation you might expect from them ; and who
their predecessors were I have yet to learn.
Even Somervile is less copious than I could
wish, and has purposely omitted what is not to
be found elsewhere ; — I mean receipts for the
cure of such diseases as hounds are subject to.
He holds such information cheap, and beneath
his lofty muse. Prose has no excuse, and you
may depend on every information I can give
The familiar manner in which my thoughts will
be conveyed to you in these Letters will suffici-
ently evince the intention of the author. They
are written with no other design tlian to be of

WRITING THESE LETTERS. 13

use to sportsmen. Were my aim to amuse, I
would not endeavour to instruct. A song might
suit the purpose better than an essay. To im-
prove health by promoting exercise ; — to excite
gentlemen who are fond of hunting to obtain the
knowledge necessary to enjoy it in perfection ;
— and to lessen the punishments which are too
often inflicted on an animal so friendly to man,
are the chief ends intended by the following
Letters.

I shall not pretend to lay down rules which
are to be equally good in every country ; I shall
think myself sufficiently justified in recommend-
ing such as have been tried with success in the
countries where I have generally hunted. As
almost every country has a different dialect, you
will also excuse, I hope, any terms that may not
be current with you : I will take the best care
I can that their number shall be few. I need
not, I think, advise you not to adopt too easily
the opinions of other men. You will hear a tall
man say, it is nonsense to ride any but large
horses ; and every little man in company will
immediately sell his little horses, buy such as he
can hardly mount, and ride them in hilly coun-
tries, for which they are totally unfit. Pride
induces some men to dictate ; indolence makes

14 CHIEF OBJECT IN

others like to be dictated to ; so both find their
account in it. You will not let this mislead
you : you will dare to think for yourself. Nor
will you believe every man who pretends to
know what you like better than you do your-
self. There is a degree of coxcombry, I be-
lieve, in every thing. You have heard, I make
no doubt, that greyhounds are either black, or
white, or black and white ; and if you have
any faith in those who say they know best, they
will tell you there are no others.* Prejudice,
however, is by far too blind a guide to be de-
pended on.

I have read somewhere that there is no book
so bad, but a judicious reader may derive some
advantage from the reading of it : I hope these
Letters will not prove the only exception.
Should they fall into the hands of such as are
not sportsmen, I need not, I think, make any
excuses to them for the contents, since the title
sufficiently shows for whom they were designed.
Nor are they meant for such sportsmen as need
not instruction, but for those that do ; to whom,

* There is a fashion in greyliounds : some coursers even
pretend, that all not being of the fashionable colour, are
curs, and not greyliounds. Greyhound seems to be a cor-
ruption from some other word ; most probably from gaze-
hound.

WRITING THESE LETTERS. 15

I presume, in some parts at least, they may be
found of use. As a great book has been long
looked upon as a great evil, I shall take care
not to sin that way at least, and shall endeavour
to make these Letters as short as the extent of
my subject will admit.

I shall now take my leave of you for the pre-
sent. In my next letter I shall proceed accord-
ing to your desire, till I have answered all your
questions. Remember you are not to expect
entertainment ; I wish you may find some in-
struction : the dryness of the subject may ex-
cuse your want of the one, and I cannot doubt
of your indulgence should / fail in the other,
whilst I am obeying your commands.

16 GEKEUAL OBSERVATIONS

LETTER II.

Since you intend to make hunting your chief
amusement in the country, you are certainly in
the right to give it some consideration before
you begin, and not, like Master Stephen in the
play, buy first a hawk, and then hunt after a
book to keep it by. — I am glad to find that you
intend to build a new kennel, as I flatter myself
the experience I have had may be of some use
to you in the building of it. It is not only the
first thing you should do, but it is also the most
important. As often as your mind may alter,
so often may you easily change from one kind
of hound to another ; but your kennel will still
remain the same; will always keep its original
imperfections, unless altered at a great expense,
to be less perfect at last than it might have been
made at first, had you pursued a proper plan.
It is true, hounds may be kept in barns and sta-
bles ; but those who keep them in such places
can best inform you whether their hounds are
capable of answering the purposes for which
they are kept. The sense of smelling, the odora

ON THE KENNEL. 17

canum vis, as Virgil calls it, is so exquisite in a
hound, that I cannot but suppose every stench
is hurtful to it. It is that faculty on which all
our hopes depend ; it is that which must lead
us over greasy fallows, where the feet of the
game we pursue, being clogged, leave little
scent behind : as well as over stony roads,
through watery meads, and where sheep have
stained the ground.

Cleanliness is not only absolutely necessary to
the nose of the hound, but also to the preserva-
tion of his health. Dogs are naturally cleanly
animals: they seldom, when they can help it,
dung where they lie : air and fresh straw are
necessary to keep them healthy. They are sub-
ject to the mange ; a disorder to which poverty
and nastiness will very much contribute. This,
though easily stopped at its first appearance, if
suffered to continue long, greatly lessens the
powers of the animal ; and the remedies which
must then be used, being in themselves violent,
often injure his constitution: it had better be
prevented. Let the kennel therefore be your
particular care.

" Upon some little eminence erect,

And fronting to the ruddy dawn ; its courts

On either hand wide op'ning to receive

The sun's all-cheeiing beams, when mild he shines,

And gilds the mountain tops."

18 PLAN OF A KENNEL.

Such as Somervile directs may be the situation ;
its size must be suited to the number of its in-
habitants ; the architecture of it may be con-
formable to your own taste. Useless expense I
should not recommend ; yet as I suppose you
will often make it a visit, at least in the hunting
season, I could wish it might have a neatness
without, as well as cleanliness within, the more
to tempt you to it. I should for the same rea-
son wish it to be as near your house as you will
give it leave. I know there are many objections
to its being near : I foresee still more to its be-
ing at a distance. There is a vulgar saying,
that it is the master"'s eye that makes the horse
fat : I can assure you it is even more necessary
in the kennel, where cleanliness is not less essen-
tial than food.

There are, I make no doubt, many better
kennels than mine ; some of which, I think, you
should see before you begin to build : you can
but make use of my plan in case you should like
no other better. If, in the mean time, I am to
give you my opinion what a kennel ought to be,
I must send you a description of my own, for I
have not seen many others.

I would advise you to make it large enough
at first, as any addition to it afterwards must
spoil the appearance of it. I have been obliged

TWO KENNELS RECOMMENDED. 19

to add to mine, which was built from a plan of
my own, and intended, at first, for a pack of bea-
gles. As my feeding-yard is too small, I will
endeavour to remedy that defect in the plan I
send you, which plan may be still enlarged or
lessened, as you think fit, or as your occasions
may require.

I think two kennels absolutely necessary to
the well-being of the hounds ; when there is but
one, it is seldom sweet ; and when cleaned out,
the hounds, particularly in winter, suffer both
whilst it is cleaning, and as long as it remains
wet afterwards. To be more clearly understood
by you, I shall call one of these the hunting-
kennel, by which I mean that kennel into which
the hounds are drafted which are to hunt the
next day. Used always to the same kennel,
they will be drafted with little trouble; they
will answer to their names more readily ; and
you may count your hounds into the kennel with
as much ease as a shepherd counts his sheep
out of the fold.

When the feeder first comes to the kennel in
a morning, he should let out the hounds into the
outer court ; at the same time opening the door
of the hunting-kennel, lest want of rest, or bad
weather, should incline them to go into it. The

20 DUTIES OF THE KENNEL.

lodging-room should then be cleaned out, the
doors and windows of it opened, the litter shaken
up, and that whole kennel made sweet and clean
before the hounds return to it again. The great
court and the other kennels are not less to be
attended to, nor should you pass over in silence
any omission that is hurtful to your hounds.

The floor of each lodging-room should be
bricked, and sloped on both sides to run to the
centre, with a gutter left to carry off the water,
that when they are washed, they may be soon
dry. If water should stand through any fault
in the floor, it should be carefully mopped up ;
for as warmth is in the greatest degree necessary
to hounds after work, so damps are equally
prejudicial. You will think me, perhaps, too
particular in these directions; yet there can be
no harm in your knowing what your servants
ought to do ; as it is not impossible but it may
be sometimes necessary for you to see that it is
done. In your military profession you are per-
fectly acquainted with the dut}' of a common
soldier, and though you have no further business
with the minutiae of it, there is no doubt but
you still find the knowledge of them useful to
you : believe me, they may be useful here ; and
you will pardon me, I hope, if I wish to see

INTERIOR OF THE KENNEL. 21

you a Martinet in the kennel, as well as in the
field. Orders given without skill are seldom
well obeyed ; and where the master is either
ignorant or inattentive, the servant will be idle.
I also wish that, contrary to the usual prac-
tice in building kennels, you would have three
doors ; two in the front, and one in the back ;
the last to have a lattice window in it, with a
wooden shutter, which is constantly to be kept
dosed when the hounds are in, except in sum-
mer, when it should be left open all the day.
This door answers two very necessary purposes :
it gives an opportunity of carrying out the straw
when the lodging-room is cleaned, and as it is
opposite to the window, will be a means to let
in a thorough air, which will greatly contribute
to the keeping of it sweet and wholesome. The
other doors will be of use in drying the room,
when the hounds are out ; and as one is to be
kept shut and the other hooked back, (allowing
just room for a dog to pass,) they are not liable
to any objection. The great window in the
centre should have a folding shutter ; half, or
the whole of which, may be shut at nights,
according to the weather ; and your kennels, by
that means, may be kept warm or cool, just as
you please to have them. The two great lodg-

22 INTERIOR OF THE KENNEL.

ing-rooms are exactly alike, and as each has a
court belonging to it, are distinct kennels, and
are at the opposite ends of the building ; in the
centre of which is the boiling-house, and feed-
ing-yard ; and on each side a lesser kennel,
either for hounds that are drafted off; hounds
that are sick, or lame ; or for any other pur-
poses, as occasion may require : at the back of
which, as they are but half the depth of the two
great kennels, are places for coals, &c. for the
use of the kennel. There is also a small build-
ing in the rear for hot bitches. The plan will
show you the size of the whole. The floors of
the inner courts, like to those of the lodging-
rooms, are bricked and sloped to run to the
centre ; and a channel of water, brought in by
a leaden pipe, runs through the middle of them.
In the centre of each court is a well, large
enough to dip a bucket, to clean the kennels :
this must be faced with stone, or it will be often
out of repair. In the feeding-yard, you must
have a wooden cover.

The benches, which must be open, to let the
urine through, should have hinges and hooks in
the wall, that they may fold up, for the greater
convenience of washing out the kennel ; and they
should be made as low as possible, that a tired

THE COURT. 23

hound may have no difficulty in jumping up:*
let me add, also, that the boiler should be of
cast-iron.

The rest of the kennel consists of a large
court in front, which is also bricked, having a
grass-court adjoining, and a little brook running
through the middle of it. The earth that was
taken out of it, is thrown up into a mount,
where the hounds in summer delight to sit.
This court is planted round with trees, and has
besides a lime tree and some horse-chestnut trees
near the middle of it, for the sake of shade.
A high pale incloses the whole ; part of which,
to the height of about four feet, is close ; the
other open : the interstices are about two inches
wide. The grass-court is pitched near the pale,
to prevent the hounds from scratching out. If
you cannot guess the intention of the posts you
see in the courts, there is scarcely an inn-win-
dow on any road where the following line will
not let you into the secret, —

" So dogs will p — where dogs have p— 'd before."
This is done to save the trees, to which the

* Benches cannot be too low. If, owing to the smallness
of the hound, it should be difficult to render them low
enough, a projecting ledge will answer the same purpose ;
and the benches may be boarded at bottom, to prevent the
hound from creeping under.

24 APPENDAGES TO THE KENXEL.

urinary salts are prejudicial. If they are at
first backward in coming to them, bind some
straw round the bottom, and rub it with galba-
num. The brook in the grass-court may serve
as a stew : your fish will be very safe.*

At the back of the kennel is a house, thatched
and furzed up on the sides, big enough to con-
tain at least a load of straw. Here should be a
pit ready to receive the dung, and a gallows for
the flesh. The fallows should have a thatched
roof, and a "circular board at the posts of it, to
prevent vermin from climbing up.

A stove, I believe, is made use of in some
kennels ; but where the feeder is a good one, a
mop, properly used, will render it unnecessary.
I have a little hay-rick in the grass-yard, which
I think is of use to keep the hounds clean and
fine in their coats ; you will find them frequently
rubbing themselves against it : the shade of it
also is useful to them in summer. If ticks at
any time should be troublesome in your kennel,
let the walls of it be well washed ; if that does
not destroy them, the walls should then be white-
washed.

* It may also be used as a cold bath for such hounds as
stand in need of it : for lameness in the stifle, and for
strains, it will be found of service.

KENNEL DISCIPLINE. 25

In the summer, when you do not hunt, one
kennel will be sufficient ; the other then may be
for the young hounds, who should also have the
grass-court adjoining to it. It is best at that
time of the year to keep them separate, and it
prevents many accidents which otherwise might
happen ; nor should they be put together till
the hunting season begins.* If your hounds
are very quarrelsome, the feeder may sleep in a
cot, in the kennel adjoining; and if they are
well chastised at the first quarrel, his voice will
be sufficient to settle all their differences after-
wards."f* Close to the door of the kennel, let
there be always a quantity of little switches ;
which three narrow boards, nailed to one of the
posts, will easily contain.;];

- My kennel is close to the road-side, but it
was unavoidable. This is the reason why my

* The dogs and the bitches may also be kept separate
from each other during the summer months, where there
are conveniences for it.

-f- In a kennel in Oxfordshire the feeder pulls a bell,
which the hounds understand the meaning of: it silences
them immediately, and saves him the trouble of getting
out of his bed.

:{: "When hounds are perfectly obedient, whips are no
longer necessary ; switches, in my opinion, are preferable.
The whips I use are coach-whips, three leet long, the thong
half the length of the crop : they are more handy than
horse-whips, correct the hounds as well, and hurt them
less.

26 PLAiSI FOR A KENNEL.

front pale is close, and only the side ones open ;
it is a great faidt : avoid it if you can, and your
hounds will be the quieter.

Upon looking over my letter, I find, I begin
recommending, with Mr. Somervile, a high situ-
ation for the kennel, and afterwards talk of a
brook running through the middle of it: I am
afraid you will not be able to unite these two
advantages ; in which case, there is no doubt
but water should be preferred. The mount I
have mentioned will answer all the purposes of
an eminence : besides, there should be moveable
stages on wheels, for the hounds to lie upon ; at
any rate, however, let your soil be a dry one.

You will think, perhaps, my lodging-rooms
higher than is necessarv. I know thev are con-
siderably higher than is usual ; the intention of
which is, to give more air to the hounds ; and I
have not the least doubt but they are better for
it. I will no longer persecute you with this
unentertaining subject, but send you the plan of
my own kennel, and take my leave of you.

P. S. I send only the ground-plan and eleva-
tion, as the size of the outer-court, and grass-
court, are perfectly immaterial ; the one should
not be small, and the other should be as large
as you can conveniently make it.

CHOICE OF HOUND§. 27

LETTER III.

I BEGIN this letter with assuring you that I
have done with the kennel: without doubt, you
will think I had good need. If I have made
even the name frightful to you, comfort your-
self with the thoughts that it will not appear
again.

Your criticism on my switches I think unjust.
You tell me self-defence would of course make
you take that precaution. Do you always walk
with a whip in your hand, or do you think that
a walking-stick, which may be a good thing to
knock a dog on the head with, would be equally
proper to correct him should he be too familiar?
You forget, however, to put a better substitute
in the room of them.

You desire to know, what kind of hound I
would recommend : as you mention not for any
particular chase, or country, I understand you
generally ; and shall answer, that I most approve
of hounds of the middle size. I believe all ani-
c 2

28 MIDDLE-STZF.D PREFERABLE.

nials of that description are strongest, and best
able to endure fatigue. In the height, as well
as the colour of hounds, most sportsmen have
their prejudices ; but in their shape at least, I
think they must all agree. I know sportsmen,
who boldly affirm, that a small hound will often-
times beat a large one ; that he will climb hills
better, and go through cover quicker ; — whilst
others are not less ready to assert, that a large
hound will make his way in any country, will
get better through the dirt, than a small one;
and that no fence, however high, can stop him.
You have now three opinions ; and T advise
you to adopt that which suits your country best:
there is, however, a certain size, best adapted
for business, which I take to be that between
the two extremes ; and I will venture to say,
that such hounds will not suffer themselves to
be disgraced in any country. Somervile, I find,
is of the same opinion.

" But here a mean
Observe, nor the large hound prefer, of size
" Gigantic ; he in the thick-woven covert
Painfully tugs, or in the tliorny brake
Torn and embarrassVl bleeds ; but if too small,
The pigmy brood in every furrow swims ;
Moil'd in the clogging clay, panting they lag
Behind inglorious ; or else shivering creep

SYMMETRY OF THE HOUND. 29

Benumb'd and faint beneath the shelf ring thorn.
For hounds of middle size, active and strong,
Will better answer all thy various ends,
And crown thy pleasing labours with success."

I perfectly agree with you, that to look well,
they should be all nearly of a size, and I even
think they should all look of the same family. —

" Facies non omnibus una,
Nee diversa tamen, qualem decet esse sororum."

If handsome withal, they are then perfect.
With regard to their being sizeable, what So-
mervile says is so much in your own way, that
I shall send it you : —

"As some brave captain, curious and exact.
By his fix'd standard forms in equal ranks
His gay battalion, as one man they move
Step after step, their size the same, their arms
Far gleaming, dart the same united blaze :
Reviewing generals his merit dwii ;
How regular ! how just ! and all his cares
Are well repaid, if mighty George approve.
So model thou tliy pack, if honour touch
Thy gen'rous soul, and the world's just applause."

There are necessary points in the shape of a
hound, which ought always to be attended to by
a sportsman ; for if he is not of a perfect sym-
metry, he will neither run fast, nor bear much
work : he has much to undergo, and should
have strength proportioned to it. Let his legs

30 A PERFi;CT HOUND DESCRIBED.

be straight as arrows; his feet round, and not
too large ; his chest deep, and back broad ; his
head small ; his neck thin ; his tail thick, and
brushy ; if he carries it well, so much the better.
This last point, however trifling it may appear
to you, gave rise to a very odd question. A
gentleman, (not much acquainted with hounds,)
as we were hunting together the other day, said,
" I observe, sir, that some of your dogs'* tails
stand up, and some hang down ; pray, sir, which
do you reckon the best hounds f Such young
hounds as are out at the elbows, and such as are
weak from the knee to the foot, should never be
taken into the pack.

I find that 1 have mentioned a small head, as
one of the necessary points about a hound : you
will please to understand it as relative to beauty
only ; for as to goodness, I believe large-headed
hounds are no way inferior. Somervile, in his
description of a perfect hound, makes no men-
tion of the head, leaving the size of it to Phidias
to determine ; he therefore must have thought
it of very little consequence. I send you his
words : —

" See there with count'nance blithe,
And with a courtly grin, the fawning hound
Salutes thee cow'ring : his wide op'ning nose
Upwards he curls, and his large sloe-black eyes

COLOUR NOT MATERIAL. 31

Melt in soft blandishments, and humble joy ;

His glossy skin, or yellow-pied, oi- blue,

In lights or shades by nature's pencil drawn,

Reflects the various tints ; his ears and legs

Fleckt here and there, in gay enamell'd pride,

llival the speclded pard; his rush-grown tail

O'er his broad back bends in an ample arch ;

On shoulders clean, upright and fii-m he stands ;

His round cat foot, straight hams, and wide-spread thighsi

And his low-dropping chest, confess his speed.

His strength, his wind, or on the steepy hill,

Or far extended plain ; in every part

So well proportion'd, that the nicer skill

Of Phidias himself can't blame thy choice.

Of such compose thy pack."

The colour I think the least material of all ;
and I think, with our friend Foote, that a good
dog, like a good candidate, cannot be of a bad
colour.

Men are too apt to be prejudiced by the sort
of hound they themselves have been most accus-
tomed to. Those who have been used to the
sharp-nosed fox-hound will hardly allow a large-
headed hound to be a fox-hound ; yet both
equally are fox -hounds : — speed and beauty are
the chief excellencies of the one; whilst stout-
ness and tenderness of nose in hunting,* are
characteristic of the other. I could tell you,

* II paroit que la finesse de I'odorat, dans les chiens, de-
pend de la grosseur plus que de la longueur du museau. —

BUFFON.

32 SPEED OF THE PACK.

that I have seen very good sport with very un-
handsome packs, consisting of hounds of various
sizes, differing from one another as much in
shape and look as in their colour ; nor could I
trace the least sign of consanguinity amongst
tliem : considered separately, the hounds were
good ; as a pack of hounds, they were not to be
commended ; nor could you be satisfied with
any thing that looked so very incomplete. You
will find nothing so essential to your sport, as
that your hounds should run well together ; nor
can this end be better attained than by keeping
them as near as you can of the same sort, size,
and shape.

A great excellence in a pack of hounds, is the
head they carry ; and that pack may be said to
go the fastest that can run ten miles the soonest,
notwithstanding the hounds, separately, may not
run so fast as many others. A pack of hounds
considered in a collective body go fast in pro-
portion to the excellence of their noses, and the
head they carry ; as that traveller generally gets
soonest to his journey's end who stops least upon
the road. Some hounds that I have hunted
with would creep all through the same hole,
though they might have leapt the hedge, and
would follow one another in a string, as true as

ANECDOTE OF WILL CRANE. 33

a team of cart-horses. I had rather see them,
like the horses of the sun, all abreast.

A friend of mine killed thirty-seven brace of
foxes in one season : twenty-nine of the foxes
were killed without any intermission. I must
tell you at the same time, that they were killed
with hounds bred from a pack of harriers ; nor
had they, I believe, a single skirter belonging to
them. There is a pack now in my neighbour-
hood, of all sorts and sizes, which seldom miss a
fox ; when they run, there is a long string of
them, and every fault is hit off by an old south-
ern hound. However, out of the last eighteen
foxes they hunted, they killed seventeen ; and I
have no doubt, but as they become more com-
plete, more foxes will escape from them. Packs
which are composed of hounds of various kinds
seldom run well together, nor do their tongues
harmonize, yet they generally, I think, kill most
foxes; but I must confess, that unless I like
their style of killing them, whatever may be
their success, I cannot be completely satisfied.
I once asked the famous Will Crane, how his
hounds behaved. " Very well, «ir," he replied :
"they never come to a fault, hut they spread
like a sky-rocket^ Thus it should always be.
c 3

34 NUMBER OF HOUNDS

A famous sportsman asked a gentleman what
he thought of his hounds. " Your pack is com-
posed, sir,"" said he, " of dogs which any other
man would hang ; — they are all skirters.'''' This
was taken as a compliment. However, do not
think I recommend it to you as such ; for
though I am a great advocate for style, in the
killing of a fox, yet I never forgive a professed
skirter : where game is in plenty, they are always
changing, and are the loss of more foxes than
they kill.

You ask me, how many hounds you ought to
keep ? It is a question not easy to answer : from
twenty to thirty couple are as many, 1 think, as
you should ever take into the field. The pro-
priety of any number must depend on the
strength of your pack, and the country you are
to hunt : the quantity of hounds it may be
necessary to keep, to furnish that number for a
whole season, must also depend on the country
where you hunt ; as some countries lame hounds
more than others. The taking out too many
hounds, Mr. Somervile very properly calls a?i
useless incumbrance. It is not so material what
the number is, as it is that all your hounds
should be steady, and as nearly as possible of
equal speed.

NECESSARY TO BE KEPT. 35

When packs are very large, the hounds are
seldom sufficiently hunted to be good. Few
people choose to hunt every day; and if they did,
it is not likely the weather in winter would give
them leave. You would always be obliged,
therefore, either to take out a very large pack,
or a great number of hounds must be left behind :
in the first case, too many hounds in the field
would probably spoil your sport ; in the second,
hounds that remain for any time without work
always get out of wind, and oftentimes become
riotous. About forty couple, I think, will best
answer your purpose. Forty couple of hunting
hounds will enable you to hunt three, or even
four times a-week ; and I will venture to say,
will kill more foxes than a greater number.
Hounds, to be good, must be kept constantly
hunted ; and if I should hereafter say a fox-
hound should be above his work, it will not be
a young fox-hound I shall mean, for I think
they should seldom be left at home as long as
they are able to hunt : the old and lame, and
such as are low in flesh, you should leave ; and
such as you are sure idleness cannot spoil.

It is a great fault to keep too many old
hounds : if you choose your hounds should run
well together, you should not keep any longer

36 CHEAP HOUNDS,

than five or six seasons; though there is no
saying, wrth certainty, what number of seasons
a hound will last. Like us, some of them have
better constitutions than others, and conse-
quently will bear more work ; and the duration
of all bodies depends as well on the usage they
meet with, as on the materials of which they
are made.

You ask, whether you had not better buy a
complete pack at once, than be at the trouble of
breeding one? Certainly you had, if such an
opportunity should offer. It sometimes happens,
that hounds are to be bought for less money
than you could breed them. The gentleman to
whom my house formerly belonged had a most
famous pack of fox-hounds. His goods, &c.
were appraised and sold ; which, when the ap-
praiser had done, he was put in mind of the
hounds. — " Well, gentlemen," said he, " what
shall I appraise them at? a shilling a-piece ?'"''
— " Oh ! it is too little !"— " Is it so.?" said the
appraiser : " why it is more than / would give
for them^ I assure you.''''

Hounds are not bought so cheap at Tatter-
saWs.

KENNEL MANAGEMENT. SJ

LETTER IV.

I AM glad you do not disapprove the advan-
tage I have made of my friend Somervile. I
was doubtful whether you would not have
abused me for it, and have compared me to
some of those would-be fine gentlemen, who, to
cut a figure, tack an embroidered edging on their
coarse cloth. I shall be cautious, however, of
abusing your indulgence, and shall not quote
my poet oftener than is necessary ; but where
we think the same thing, you had better take it
in his words than mine. I shall now proceed in
an account of the feeding of hounds, and ma-
nagement of them in the kennel.

A good feeder is an essential part of your esta-
blishment. Let him be young and active, and
have the reputation at least of not disliking
work : he should be good-tempered, for the sake
of the animals intrusted to his care ; and who,
however they may be treated by him, cannot
complain. He should be one who will strictly

38 A GOOD FEEDER ESSENTIAL.

obey any orders you may give, as well with
regard to the management, as to the breeding of"
the hounds ; and should not be solely under the
direction of your huntsman. It is true I have
seen it otherwise : I have known a pack of
hounds belong, as it were, entirely to the hunts-
man— a stable of horses belong to the groom —
whilst the master had little more power in the
direction of either, than a perfect stranger. This
you will not suffer. I know you choose to keep
the supreme command in your own hands : and
though you permit your servants to remonstrate,
you do not suffer them to disobey. He who
allows a huntsman to manage his hounds as he
pleases, without control, literally keeps them for
his amusement. You desire to know what is
required of a feeder : I will tell you as well as
I can.

As our sport depends entirely on that exqui-
site sense of smelling, so peculiar to the hound,
care must be taken to preserve it ; and cleanli-
ness is the surest means. The keeping your
kennel sweet and clean cannot therefore be too
much recommended to the feeder, nor should
you, on any account, admit the least deviation
from it. If he sees you exact, he will be so
himself. This is a very essential part of his

DUTIES OF THE FEEDER. 39

business. The boiling for the hounds, mixing
of the meat, and getting it ready for them at
proper hours, is what your huntsman will of
course take proper care of; nor is it ever likely
to be forgotten. I must caution you not to let
your dogs have their meat too hot, for I have
known it to have bad consequences : you should
also order it to be mixed up as thick as possible.
When the feeder has cleaned his kennel in the
morning, and prepared his meat, it is usual for
him, on hunting-days (in an establishment like
yours) to exercise the horses of the huntsman
and whipper-in ; and in many stables it is also
the feeder who looks after the huntsman's horse
when he comes in from hunting, whilst the hunts-
man feeds the hovmds. When the hounds are not
out, the huntsman and whipper-in, of course, will
exercise their own horses ; and that day the feed-
er has little else to mind but the cleaning of his
kennel. Every possible contrivance has been
attended to in the plan I sent you, to make that
part of his work easy ; all the courts, except the
grass one, being bricked and sloped on purpose.
There is also plenty of water, without any trou-
ble in fetching it ; and a thorough air through
the kennels, to assist in drying them again.
Should you choose to increase your number of

40 CLEANLINESS ENJOINED.

servants in the stable, in that case, the business
of the feeder may be confined entirely to the
kennel. There should be always two to feed
hounds properly, the feeder and the huntsman.

Somervile strongly recommends cleanliness in
the following lines : —

" O'er all let cleanliness preside, no scraps
Bestrew the pavement, and no half-pick'd bones,
To kindle fierce debate, or to disgust
That nicer sense, on which the sportsman's hope,
And all his future triumphs, must depend.
Soon as the prowling pack with eager joy
Have lapp'd their smoking viands, morn or eve,
From the full cistern lead the ductile streams
To wash thy court well- paved, nor spare thy pains,
For much to health will cleanliness avail.
Seek'st thou for hounds to climb the rocky steep,
And brush th' entangled covert, whose nice scent
O'er greasy fiillows and frequented roads
Can pick the dubious way ? Banish far off
Each noisome stench ; let no offensive smell
Invade thy wide inclosure ; but admit
The nitrous air and purifying breeze."

Somervile is so perfectly right in this, that if
you can make your kennel a visit every day,
vour hounds will be the better for it : when I
have been long absent from mine, I have always
perceived a difference in their looks. I shall
now take notice of that part of the management
of hounds in the kennel which concerns the hunts-

huntsman's keknel duties. 41

man, as well as the feeder. Your huntsman
must always attend the feeding of the hounds,
which should be drafted according to the con-
dition they are in. In all packs, some hounds
will feed better than others ; some there are
that will do with less meat ; and it requires a
nice eye, and great attention, to keep them all
in equal flesh : — it is what distinguishes a good
kennel-huntsman, and has its merit. It is sel-
dom, I think, that huntsmen give this particular
all the attention it deserves : they feed their
hounds in too great a hurry ; and not often, I
believe, take the trouble of casting their eye over
them before they begin : and yet, to distinguish,
with any nicety, the order a pack of hounds are
in, and the different degrees of it, is surely no
easy task; and, to be done well, requires no
small degree of circumspection ; you had better
not expect your huntsman to be very exact ;
where precision is required, he will most pro-
bably fail.

When I am present myself, I make several
drafts. When my huntsman feeds them, he calls
them all over by their names, letting in each
hound as he is called : it has its use, — it uses
them to their names, and teaches them to be
obedient. Were it not for this, I should dis-

42 ON THE FEEDING

approve of it entirely ; since it certainly requires
more coolness and deliberation to distinguish
with precision which are best entitled to prece-
dence than this method of feeding will admit of;
and unless flesh is in great plenty, those that are
called in last may not have a taste of it. To
prevent this inconvenience, such as are low in
flesh had better, I think, be all drafted off into a
separate kennel;* by this means the hounds
that require Jlesh will have an equal share of it.
If any are much poorer than the rest, they
should be fed again — such hounds cannot be fed
too often. If any in the pack are too fat, they
should be drafted off", and not suff^ered to fill
themselves. The others should eat what they
will of the meat. The days my hounds have
greens or sulphur, they generally are let in all
together ; and such as rec\u\ve Jlesh have it given
to them afterwards. Having a good kennel-
huntsman, it is not often I take this trouble :
yet I seldom go into my kennel, but I give my-

* By thus separating from the rest such as are poor, you
will proceed to the feeding of your hounds with more accu-
racy and less trouble ; and though they be at first drafted
off in the manner above described, it is still meant that
they should be let in to feed, one by one, as they answer to
their names ; or else, as it will frequently happen, they
may be better fed than taught.

OF HOUNDS. 43

self the pleasure of seeing such hounds fed as
appear to me to be in want of it. I have been
told that in one kennel, in particular, the hounds
are under such excellent management, that they
constantly are fed with the door of the feeding-
yard open ; and the rough nature of the fox-
hound is changed into so much politeness, that
he waits at the door till he is invited in ; and
what perhaps is not less extraordinary, he comes
out again, whether he has satisfied his hunger or
not, the moment he is desired — the effect of se-
vere discipline. But since this is not absolutely
necessary, and hounds may be good without it ;
and since I well know your other amusements
will not permit you to attend to all this manoeuv
ring, I would by no means wish you to give such
power to your huntsman. The business would
be injudiciously done, and most probably would
not answer your expectations. The hound
would be tormented mal-d-propos, — an animal
so little deserving of it from our hands, that I
should be sorry to disturb his hours of repose by
unnecessary severity. You will perceive it is a
nice affair; and I assure you I know no hunts-
man who is equal to it. The gentleman who
has carried this matter to its utmost perfection,
has attended to it regularly himself; has con-
stantly acted on fixed principles, from which he

44 METHOD AND

has never deviated ; and I believe has succeeded
to the very utmost of his wishes. All hounds (and
more especially 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 belly -full, one way, they
seldom fail to have it the other.-}- It is not, how-
ever, 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 discre-
tion, lest the whip should fall heavily in the
kennel on such as never deserve it in the field.
My hounds are generally fed about eleven

• There is no better method of teaching a hound obe-
dience : when you call him, he should approach you ; and
when you touch him with your stick, he should follow you
any where.

f " Thus we find, eat or not eat, work or play, whipping
is always in season." — (Vide Monthly Review.) The critic
treats this passage with great severity. He would have
spared it, without doubt, had he understood that it was in-
troduced on purpose to correct the abuse of kennel-disci-
pline. Unacquainted as the reviewer seems to be with the
subject, it is no wonder that he should mistake a meaning,
perhaps rather unfairly stated by the author, in favour of
that humanity which he is supposed so much to want.
Hounds are called in to feed, one by one, and such only are
corrected as come uncalled for : nor is correction unjust, so
long as it shall fall on the disobedient only. Obedience is
an useful lesson, and though it cannot be practised too
often, it should be taught them at a more idle time.

TIME OF FEEDIXG. 45

o"'clock ; * and if I am present myself, I take the
same opportunity to make my draft for the next
day's hunting. I seldom, when I can help it,
leave this to my huntsman ; though it is neces-
sary he should be present when the draft is made,
that he may know what hounds he has out.

It is a bad custom to use hounds to the boil-
ing-house, as it is apt to make them nice, and
may prevent them from ever eating the kennel
meat. What they have should always be given
them in the feeding-yard ; and for the same rea-
son, though it should be flesh, it is better it
should have some meal mixed with it.

If your hounds are low in flesh, and have far
to go to cover, they may all have a little thin

* Having found it necessary to alter my method of feed-
ing hounds, it may not be improper to take notice of it here.
They are now fed at eight o'clock, instead of eleven. Their
first feed is of barley and oatmeal mixed, an equal quantity
of each. Flesh is afterwards mixed up with the remainder,
for such hounds as are poor, who are then drafted off into
another kennel, and let in to feed all together. When the
flesh is all eaten, the pack are again let in, and ai"e by this
means cheated into a second appetite. At three o'clock,
those that are to hunt the next day are drafted into the
hunting-kennel ; they are then let into the feeding-yard,
where a small quantity of oatmeal (about three buckets) is
prepared for them, mixed up thick. Such as are tender, or
bad feeders, have a handful of boiled flesh given to them
afterwards. When they are not to hunt the next day, they
are fed once only, at ele\'en o'clock.

46 TREATMENT BEFORE

lap again in the evening ; but this should never
be done if you hunt early.* Hounds, I think,
should be sharp-set before hunting; they run
the better for it.-f-

If many of your hounds, after long rest,
should be too fat, :j: by feeding them for a day
or two on thinner meat than you give the others,
you will find it answer better, I think, than the
usual method of giving them the same meat,
and stinting them in the quantity of it.

If your hounds are turned into the grass-court
to empty themselves after they have been fed,
it will contribute not a little to the cleanliness
of the kennel.

I have heard that it is a custom in some ken-
nels, to shut up the hounds for a couple of hours
after they come in from hunting, before they are
fed ; and that other hounds are shut up with
them, to lick them clean. § My usual way is to

* Hounds that are tender feeders cannot be fed too late,
or with meat too good.

•^ Vide note, page 45.

J Hounds that rest should not be suffered to become fat.
It would be accounting very badly for the fatness of a
hound to say, " He is fat because he has not worked lately;"
since he ought to have been kept lower on that account.

§ If hounds be shut up as soon as they come in from
hunting, they will not readily leave the benches after-
wards; for if they be much fatigued, they will prefer rest
to food.

AND AFTER HUNTIXG. 47

send a whipper-in on before, tliat the meat may
be got ready against they come, and they are fed
immediately ; and having filled their bellies,
they are naturally inclined to rest. If they
have had a severe day, they are fed again some
hours after.* As to the other method above
mentioned, it may be more convenient, perhaps,
to have the hounds all together : but I cannot
think it necessary, for the reason that is given ;
and I should apprehend a parcel of idle hounds
shut up amongst such as are tired and inclined
to rest, would disturb them more than all their
licking would make them amends for. When
you feed them twice, they had better be put all
together after the second feeding than the first.
Every day when hounds come in from hunt-
ing, they should be carefully looked over, and
invalids immediately taken care of. -f* Such as

* My hounds are generally fed twice on the days they
hunt. Some will feed better the second time than the first ;
besides, the turning them out of the lodging-house refreshes
them; the}-^ stretch their limbs, empty their bodies ; and as
during this time their kennel is cleaned out, and litter shaken
up, they settle themselves better on the benches afterwards.

t Hounds that come home lame should not be taken out
the next hunting day, since they may appear sound without
being so. At the beginning uf the season, the eyes ot
hounds are frequently injured : such hounds should not be
hunted, and, if their eyes continue weak, they should lose
a little blood.

48 FOOD.

have sore feet, should have them well washed
out with brine. If you will permit those hounds
that are unable to work to run about your
house, it will be of great service to them.

Every Thursday during the hunting-season,
my hounds have one pound of sulphur given
them in their meat ; and every Simday through-
out the year, they have plenty of greens boiled
up with it ; I find it better to fix the days, as
it is then less liable to be forgotten. I used
to give them the wash from the kitchen, but 1
found it made them thirsty, and it is now omit-
ted in the hunting-season. A horse fresh killed
is an excellent meal for hounds after a very hard
day ; but they should not hunt till the third day
after it. The bones broken are good food for
poor hounds, as there is great proof in them.
Sheep''s trotters are very sweet food, and will be
of service when hoise-flesh is not to be had.
Bullocks'* bellies may be also of some use, if you
can get nothing else. Oatmeal, 1 believe, makes
the best meat for hounds ; barley is certainly the
cheapest, and in many kennels they give barley
on that account ; but it is heating, does not
mix up so well, nor is there near so much proof
in it as in oatmeal. If mixed, an equal quantity
of each, it will then do very well, but barley

PHYSIC. 49

alone will not. Much also depends on the good-
ness of the meal itself, which, I believe, is not
often attended to. If you do not use your own,
you should buy a large quantity of it any time
before harvest, and keep it by you, — there is no
other certainty, I believe, of having it old ;
which is more material than perhaps you are
aware of. I have heard that a famous Cheshire
huntsman feeds his hounds with wheat, which
he has found out to be the best food. He gives
it them with the bran. It would, I believe,
cause no little disturbance in many neighbour-
hoods, if other sportsmen were to do the same.

I am not fond of bleeding hounds, unless I
see they want it ; though it has long been a
custom in my kennel to physic them twice a
year; after they leave off hunting, and before
they begin. It is given in hot weather, and at
an idle time. It cools their bodies, and with-
out doubt is of service to them. If a hound is
in want of physic, I prefer giving it in balls.*
It is more easy to give him in this manner the
quantity he may want, and you are moi'e certain
that he takes it. In many kennels, I believe,

* One pound of antimony, four ounces of sulphur, and
sj^rup of buckthorn q. s. to give it the consistency of a ball.
Each ball weighs about seven drachms.
D

50 REGIMEN PREPARATORY

they also bleed them twice a-year, and some
people think it prevents madness. The anoint-
ing of hounds, or dressing them, as huntsmen
call it, makes them fine in their coats : it may be
done twice a-year, or oftener, if you find it ne-
cessary. As I shall hereafter have occasion to
write on the diseases of hounds, and their cures,
I will send you at the same time a receipt for
this purpose. During the summer months, when
my hounds do not hunt, they have seldom any
flesh allowed them, and are kept low, contrary,
I believe, to the usual practice of most kennels,
where mangy hounds in summer are but too often
seen. Huntsmen sometimes content themselves
with checking this disorder, when with less trou-
ble perhaps they might prevent it. A regular
course of whey and vegetables during the hot
months must certainly be wholesome, and is,
without doubt, the cause that a mangy hound is
an unusual sight in my kennel. Every Monday
and Thursday my hounds go for whey till the
hunting-season begins; are kept out several
hours ; and are often made to swim through
rivers during the hot weather. After their last
physic, and before they begin hunting, they are
exercised on the turnpike-road to harden their
feet, which are washed with strong brine as soon

TO HUNTING. 51

as they come in. Little straw is necessary dur-
ing the summer ; but when they hunt they can-
not have too much, or have it changed too often.
In many kennels they do not boil for the
hounds in summer, but give them meal only ;
in mine it is always boiled ; but with this dif-
ference, that it is mixed up thin, instead of
thick. Many give spurge-laurel in summer,
boiled up in their meat : as I never use it, I
cannot recommend it. The physic I give is two
pounds of sulphur, one pound of antimony, and
a pint and a half of syrup of buckthorn, for
about forty couple of hounds.* In the winter
season, let your hounds be shut up warm at
night. If any hounds after hunting are mis-
sing, the straw-house door should be left open ;
and if they have had a hard day, it may be as
well to leave some meat there for them.

I have inquired of my feeder, who is. a very
good one, (and has had more experience in these
matters than any one you perhaps may get,)
how he mixes up his meat. He tells me that,
in his opinion, oatmeal and barley mixed, an
equal quantity of each, make the best meat for
hounds. The oatmeal he boils for half an hour,
and then puts out the fire, puts the barley into
* Vide page 49-
D 2

52 HINTS ON THE

the copper, and mixes both well together. I
asked him why he boiled one and not the other:
he told me boiling, which made oatmeal thick,
made barley thin ; and that, when you feed
with barley only, it should not be put into the
copper, but be scalded with the liquor, and
mixed up in a bucket. I find- there is in my
kennel a large tub on purpose, which contains
about half a hogshead.

You little think, perhaps, how difficult it is
to be a good kennel-huntsman, nor can you as
yet know the nicety that is required in feeding
hounds properly. You are not aware that some
hounds will hunt best when fed late ; others
when fed early : — that some should have but
little ; that others cannot have too much : how-
ever, if your huntsman observes the rules I have
here laid down, his hounds will not do much
amiss : but should you at any time wish to ren-
cherir upon the matter, and feed each particular
hound so as to make the most of him, you must
learn it of a gentleman in Leicestershire, to
whom the noble science of fox-hunting is more
beholden than to any other. I shall myself say
nothing further on the subject ; for as your
huntsman will not have the sense of the gentle-
man I allude to there, nor you perhaps his pa-

SUBJECT OF FEEDING. 53

tience, an easier method I know will suit you
best. I shall only advise you, while you endea-
vour to keep your hounds in good order, not to
let them get too fat : it will be impossible for
them to run if they are. A fat alderman would
cut a mighty ridiculous figure were he inclined
to run a race.

54) ON THE BREEDING

LETTER V.

We are now about to treat of the breeding of
hounds ; and it is the sagacious management of
this business on which all our future success de-
pends. Is it not extraordinary, that no other
country should equal us in this particular ? and
that the very hounds procured from hence should
degenerate in a foreign country ?

" In thee alone, fair land of liberty !
Is bred the perfect hound, in scent and speed
As yet unrivall'd, while in other climes
Their virtue fails, a weak degenerate race."

SOMERVILE.

Happy climate for sportsmen ! where nature
seems as it were to give the man exclusive pri-
vilege of enjoying this diversion. To preserve,
however, this advantage, great care should be
taken in the breed ; I shall therefore, according
to your desire, send you such rules as I observe
myself. — Consider the size, shape, colour, con-
stitution, and natural disposition of the dog you
breed from ; as well as the fineness of his nose.

OF HoaxDs. 55

his stoutness, and method of hunting. On no
account breed from one that is not stout, that is
not tender-nosed, or that is either a babbler* or
a skirter. Somervile enjoins still further :

" Observe with care liis shape, sort, colour, size :
Nor will sagacious huntsmen less regard
His inward habits ; the vain babbler shun,
Ever loquacious, ever in the wrong :
His foolish offspring shall offend thy ears
With false alarms, and loud impertinence :
Nor less the shifting cur avoid, that breaks
Illusive from the pack : to the next hedge
Devious he strays ; there ev'ry muse he tries :
If haply then he cross the streaming scent,
Away he flies vain-glorious ; and exults
As of the pack supreme, and in his speed
And strength unrivall'd. Lo ! cast far behind,
His vex'd associates pant, and lab'ring strain
To climb the steep ascent. Soon as they reach
Th' insulting boaster, his false courage fails ;
Behind he lags, doom'd to the fatal noose.
His master's hate, and scorn of all the field.
What can from such be hop'd, but a base brood
Of coward curs, a frantic, vagrant race ?"

It is the judicious cross that makes the complete
pack.-|* The faults and imperfections in one

• Babbling is one of the worst faults that a hound can be
guilty of; it is constantly increasing, and is also catching.
This fault, like many others, will sometimes run in the
blood.

-]- I have seen fox-hounds that were bred out of a New-
foundland bitch and a fox-hound dog. They are mon-
strously ugly, are said to give their tongues sparingly, and

56 ON THE BREEDING

breed may be rectified in another ; and if this is
properly attended to, I see no reason why the
breeding of hounds may not improve, till im-
provement can go no farther. If ever you find
a cross hit, always pursue it.* Never put an
old dog to an old bitch. Be careful that they
are healthy wliich you breed from, or you are
not likely to have a healthy off^spring. Should a
favourite dog skirt a little, put him to a thorough
line -hunting bitch, and such a cross may succeed :
my objection to the breeding from such a hound
is, that as skirting is what most fox-hounds
acquire from practice, you had better not make
it natural to them. A very famous sportsman
has told me, that he frequently breeds from
brothers and sisters : as I should be very un-
willing to urge any thing in opposition to such
authority, you had better try it ; and if it suc-
ceeds in hounds, it is more, I believe, than it
usually does in other animals. A famous cocker
assured a friend of mine, that the third genera-
te tire soon. The experiment has not succeeded : the cross
most likelj' to be of service to a fox-hound is the beagle. I
am well convinced, that a handsome, bony, tender-nosed,
stout beagle, would, occasionally, be no improper cross for
a high-bred pack of fox-hounds.

* After the first season, I breed fi-om all my young dog-
hounds who have beauty and goodness to recommend them
to see what whelps they get.

OF HOUNDS. 57

tion (which he called a nick) he had found to
succeed very well, but no nearer : as I have
neither tried one nor the other, I cannot speak
with any certainty about them.

Give particular orders to your feeder to watch
over the bitches with a cautious eye, and sepa-
rate such as are going to be proud, before it is
too late. The advances they make frequently
portend mischief as well as love ; and, if not
prevented in time, will not fail to set the whole
kennel together by the ears, and may occasion
the death of your best dogs : care only can pre-
vent it.*

" Mark well the wanton females of thy pack,
That curl their taper tails, and frisking court
Their piebald mates enamour'd : their red eyes
Flash fires impure ; nor rest nor food they take.
Goaded by furious love. In sep'rate cells
Confine them now, lest bloody civil wars
Annoy thy peaceful state."

SOMERVILE.

I have known huntsmen perfectly ignorant of
the breed of their hounds, from inattention in
this particular ; and I have also known many a
good dog fall a sacrifice to it.

The earlier in the year you breed, the better :

* When the bitches are off their heat, they should be
suffered to run about the house a day or two, before they
are taken out to hunt.

D 3

58 OF THE TREATMENT

January, February, and March, are the best
months. Late puppies seldom come to much ;
if you have any such, put them to the best
walks.* When the bitches begin to get big,
let them not hunt any more: it proves frequently
fatal to the whelps ; sometimes to the bitch her-
self; nor is it safe for them to remain much
longer in the kennel. If one bitch has many
puppies, more than she can well rear, you may
put some of them to another bitch ; or if you
destroy any of them, you may keep the best-
coloured. They sometimes will have an extra-
ordinary number ; I have known an instance of
one having fifteen ; and a friend of mine, whose
veracity I cannot doubt, has assured me that a
hound in his pack brought forth sixteen, all
alive. When you breed from a very favourite
sort, and can have another bitch warded at the
same time, it will be of great service, as you may
then save all the puppies. Give particular
orders that the bitches be well fed with flesh ;
and let the whelps remain till they are well able
to take care of themselves : thev will soon learn
to lap milk, which will relieve the mother. The
bitches, when their whelps are taken away from

* Of the early whelps I keep five or six ; of the late ones
only two or three.

OF WHELPS. 59

them, should be physicked ; I generally give
them three purging balls, one every morning.
If a bitch brings only one or two puppies, and
you have another bitch that will take them, by
putting the puppies to her, the former will be
soon fit to hunt again : she should, however, be
physicked first ; and if her dugs are anointed
with brandy and water, it will also be of service.
The distemper makes dreadful havoc with whelps
at their walks ; greatly owing, I believe, to the
little care that is taken of them there. I am in
doubt whether it might not be better to breed
them up yourself, and have a kennel on purpose.
You have a large orchard paled in, which would
suit them exactly ; and what else is wanted
might easily be obtained. There is, however, an
objection that perhaps may strike you : — if the
distemper once gets amongst them, they must all
have it : yet notwithstanding that^ as they will
be constantly well fed, and will lie warm, I am
confident it would be the saving of many lives.
If you should adopt this method, you must
remember to use them early to go in couples ;
and when they get of a proper age, they must
be walked out often ; for should they remain
confined, they would neither have the shape,
health, or understanding, they ought to have.

60 OF THE TREATMENT

When I kept harriers, I bred up some of the
puppies at a distant kennel ; but having no
servants there to exercise them properly, I found
them much inferior to such of their brethren as
had the luck to survive the many difficulties and
dangers they had undergone at their walks :
these were afterwards equal to any thing, and
afraid of nothing ; whilst those that had been
nursed with so much care were weakly and
timid, and had every disadvantage attending
private education.

I have often heard, as an excuse for hounds
not hunting a cold scent, that they were too high
bred. I confess, I know not what that means :
but this I know, that hounds are frequently too
ill bred to be of any service. It is judgment
in the breeder, and patience afterwards in the
huntsman, that make them hunt.*

Young hounds are commonly named when
first put out, and sometimes indeed ridiculously
enough ; nor is it easy, when you breed many,
to find suitable or harmonious names for all ;
particularly, as it is usual to name all the whelps
of one litter with the same letter, which (to be

* Hounds which I had thought stiff-nosed for many years,
I have seen hunt the coldest scent, when once the impati-
ence of youth had left them.

OF WHELPS.

61

systematically done) should also be the initial
letter of the dog that got them, or the bitch
that bred them. A baronet of my acquaint-
ance, a literal observer of the above rule, sent
three young hounds of one litter to a friend, all
their names beginning, as he said, with the let-
ter G. — Goivler, Govial, and Galloper.

It is indeed of little consequence what hunts-
men call their hounds ; yet if you dislike an un-
meaning name, Avould it not be as well to leave
the naming of them till they are brought home?
They soon learn their names, and a shorter list
would do. Damons and Delias would not then
be necessary ; nor need the sacred names of Ti-
tus and Trajan be thus degraded. It is true
there are many odd names which custom autho-
rizes ; yet I cannot think, because some drunken
fellow or other has christened his dog Tippler, or
Tapster, tiiat there is the least reason to follow
the example. Pipers and Fiddlers, for the sake
of their music, we will not object to ; but Tip-
plers and Tapsters your kennel will be much
better without.

However extraordinary you may think it, I
can assure you I have myself seen a white Gip-
sy, a grey Ruby, a dark Snowball, and a Blue-
man of any colour but blue. The huntsman of

62 OF THE NAMING

a friend of mine being asked the name of a
young hound, said, " it was Lymany — " Ly-
man!" said his master, " why, James, what does
Lyman mean ?" — " Lord, sir !'" replied James,
" what does any thing mean ?" A farmer who
bred up two couple of hounds for me, whose
names were Merryman and Merrylass, Ferry-
man and Furious, upon my inquiring after them,
gave this account : " Merryman and Merrylass
are both dead ; but Ferryman, sir, is a fine dog,
and so is Ferrylass.'''' Madam, a usual name
among hounds, is often, I believe, very disre-
spectfully treated. I had an instance of it the
other day in my own huntsman, who after hav-
ing rated Madam a great deal to no purpose,
(who, to confess the truth, was much given
to do otherwise than she should,) flew into a
violent passion, and hallooed out as loud as he
could, " Madam, you d — d hitch /"

As you desire a list of names, I will send you
one. 1 have endeavoured to class them accord-
ing to their different genders ; but you will per-
ceive some names may be used indiscriminately
for either. It is not usual, I believe, to call a
pointer Ringwood, or a greyhound Harmony ;
and such names as are expressive of speed,
strength, courage, or other natural qualities in

OF HOUN'DS. 63

a hound, I think most applicable to them. Da-
mons and Delias I have left out ; the bold
Thunder and the brisk Lightning, if you please,
may supply their places ; unless you prefer the
method of the gentleman I told you of, who in-
tends naming his hounds from the p — ge ; and,
I suppose, he at the same time will not be un-
mindful of the p — y c rs.

If you mark the whelps in the side (which is
called branding them) when they are first put
out, (or perhaps it may be better done after they
have been out some time,) it may prevent their
being stolen.

When young hounds are first taken in, they

should be kept separate from the pack ; and as

it will happen at a time of the year when there

is little or no hunting, you may easily give them

up one of the kennels, and grass-court adjoining.

Their play ends frequently in a battle ; it is

therefore less dangerous where they are all

equally matclied. What Somervile says on this

subject is exceedingly beautiful.

" But here, with watchful and observant eye,
Attend their frolics, which too often end
In bloody broils and death. High o'er thy head
Wave thy resounding whip, and with a voice
Fierce-menacing o'er-rule the stern debate,
And quench their kindling rage ; for oft in sport
Begun, combat ensues ; growling they snarl,

64 TREATMENT WHEN FIRST

^ Then on their haunches rear'd, rampant they seize
Each other's throats ; with teeth and claws, in gore
Besmear'd, they wound, tliey tear, till on the ground,
Panting, half dead, the conquer'd champion lies :
Then sudden all the base ignoble crowd
Loud-clam'ring seize the helpless worried wretch.
And, thirsting for his blood, drag diff''rent ways
His mangled carcass on th' ensanguin'd plain.
O breasts of pity void ! t'oppress the weak.
To point your vengeance at the friendless head,
And with one mutual cry insult the fallen !
Emblem too just of man's degenerate race."

If you find they take a dislike to any particu-
lar hound, the safest way will be to remove him,
or it is very probable they will kill him at last.
When a feeder hears the hounds quarrel in the
kennel, he halloos to them to stop them. He
then goes in amongst them, and flogs every
hound he can come near. How much more rea-
sonable as well as more efficacious would it be,
were he to see which were the combatants, be-
fore he speaks to them! Punishment would
then fall as it ought, on the guilty only. In all
packs there are some hounds more quarrelsome
than the rest ; and it is to them we owe all the
mischief that is done. If you find chastisement
cannot quiet them, it may be prudent to break
their holders ; for since they are not necessary
to them for the meat they have to eat, they are
not likely to serve them in any good purpose.

TAKEN INTO KENNEL. 65

Young hounds should be fed twice a-day, as
they seldom take kindly at first to the kennel-
meat, and the distemper is very apt to seize them
at this time. It is better not to round them till
they are thoroughly settled; nor should it be
put off till the hot weather, for then they would
bleed too much.* If any of the dogs are thin
over the back, or any more quarrelsome than the
rest, it will be of use to cut them : I also spay
such bitches as I think I shall not want to breed
from ; they are more useful, are stouter, and are
always in better order : besides, it is absolutely
necessary if you hunt late in the spring, or your
pack will be very short for want of it. It may
be right to tell you, that the latter operation
does not always succeed ; it will be necessary
therefore to employ a skilful person, and one on
whom you can depend ; for if it is ill done,
though they cannot have puppies, they will go
to heat notwithstanding, of which I have known

*.

• It may be better, perhaps, to round them at their
quarters, when about six months old ; should it be done
sooner, it would make their ears tuck up. The tailing of
them is usually done before they are put out ; it might be
better, perhaps, to leave it till they are taken in. Dogs
must not be rounded at the time they have the distemper
upon them ; the loss of blood would weaken them too
much.

66 NUMBER NECESSARY.

many instances ; and that I apprehend would
not answer your purpose at an}?^ rate.

You ask me what number of young hounds
you should breed to keep up your stock.? it is
a question, I believe, no man alive can answer.
It depends altogether on contingencies. The
deficiencies of one year must be made up the
next. I should apprehend from thirty to thir-
ty-five couple of old hounds, and from eight
to twelve couple of young ones, would, one
year with another, best suit an establishment
which you do not intend should much exceed
forty couple. This rule, I think, you should
at the same time observe — never to part with
an useful old hound, or enter an unhandsome
young one.

I would advise you, in breeding, to be as lit-
tle prejudiced as possible in favour of your own
sort ; but send your best bitches to the best
dogs, be they where they may. Those who breed
only a few hounds may by chance have a good
pack ; whilst those who breed a great many, (if
at the same time they understand the business,)
reduce it to a certainty. You say you wish to

see your pack as complete as Mr. M I's :

believe me, my good friend, unless you were to
breed as many hounds, it is totally impossible.

NAMES OF HOUNDS.

67

Those who breed the greatest number of hounds
have a right to expect the best pack ; at least it
must be their own fault if they have it not.

NAMES OF HOUNDS.

A. dogs.

A. bitches.

Blueman

Blameless

Able

Accurate

Bluster

Blithesome

Actor

Active

Boaster

Blowzy

Adamant

Actress

Boisterous

Bluebell

Adjutant

Affable

Bonnyface

Bluemaid

Agent

Agile

Bouncer

Bonny

Aider

Airy

Bowler

Bonnybell

Aim we 11

Amity

Bravo

Bonnylass

Amorous

Angry

Brawler

Boundless

Antic

Animate

Brazen

Brevity

Anxious

Artifice

Brilliant

Bride

Arbiter

Audible

Brusher

Brimstone

Archer

Brutal

Busy

Ardent

B. dogs.

Burster

Buxom

Ardour

Bachelor

Bustler

Arrogant

Banger

C. dogs.

Arsenic

Baffler

B. bitches.

Caitiff

Artful

Barbarous

Baneful

Capital

Artist

Barrister

Bashful

Captain

Atlas

Bellman

Bawble

Captor

Atom

Bender

Beauteous

Careful

Auditor

Benefit

Beauty

Carol

Augur

Blaster

Beldam

Carver

Awful

Bluecap

Bellmaid

Caster

68

NAMES OF HOUNDS.

Catcher

Courteous

Crafty

Delicate

Catchpole

Coxcomb

Crazy

Desperate

Caviller

Craftsman

Credible

Destiny

Cerberus

Crasher

Credulous

Dian

Challenger

Critic

Crony

Diligent

Champion

Critical

Cruel

Docile

Charon

Crowner

Curious

Document

Chaser

Cruiser

Dolly

Chanter

Crusty

D. dogs.

Doubtful

Chieftain

Cryer

Damper

Doubtless

Chimer

Curfew

Danger

Dreadful

Chirper

Currier

Dangerous

Dreadless

Choleric

Dapper

Dulcet

Claimant

C. bitches.

Dapster

Clamorous

Capable

Darter

E. dngs.

Clangor

Captious

Dasher

Eager

Clasher

Careless

Dash wood

Earnest

Climbank

Careful

Daunter

Effort

Clinker

Carnage

Dexterous

Elegant

Combat

Caution

Disputant

Eminent

Combatant

Cautious

Downright

Envious

Comforter

Charmer

Dragon

Envoy

Comrade

Chantress

Dreadnought

Errant

Comus

Charity

Driver

Excellent

Conflict

Cheerful

Duster

Conqueror

Cheruper

E. bitches.

Conquest

Circe

D. bitches.

Easy

Constant

Clarinet

Dainty

Echo

Contest

Clio

Dairymaid

Ecstacy

Coroner

Comely

Daisy

Endless

Corporal

Comfort

Daphne

Energy

Cottager

Comical

Darling

Enmity

Counsellor

Cora

Dashaway

Essay

Countryman

Courtesy.

Dauntless

NAMES OF HOUNDS.

69

F. dogs.

Favourite

Glider

H. dogs.

Factor

Fearless

Glorious

Hannibal

Factious

Festive

Goblin

Harbinger

Fatal

Fickle

Governor

Hardiman

Fearnought

Fidget

Grappler

Hardy

Ferryman

Fireaway

Grasper

Harlequin

F^ervent

Firetail

Gravity

Harasser

Finder

Flighty

Griper

Havoc

Firebrand

Flourish

Growler .

Hazard

Flagrant

Flurry

Grumbler

Headstrong

Flasher

Forcible

Guider

Hearty

Fleece'm

Fretful

Hector

Fleecer

Friendly

G. bitches.

Heedful

Flinger

Frisky

Galley

Hercules

Flippant

Frolic

Gambol

Hero

Flourisher

Frolicsome

Gameson

Highflyer

Flyer

Funnylass

Gayety

Hopeful

Foamer

Ferry lass

Gayly

Hotspur

Foiler

Furious

Gaylass

Humbler

Foreman

Fury

Ghastly

Hurtful

Foremost

Giddy

Foresight

G. dogs.

Gipsy

H. bitches-

Forester

Gainer

Gladness

Hasty

Forward

Gallant

Gladsome

Handsome

Fulminant

Galliard

Gossamer

Harlot

Furrier

Galloper

Governess

Harmony

Gamboy

Graceful

Hazardous

F. bitches.

Gamester

Graceless

Heedless

Faithful

Garrulous

Gracious

Helen

Fairmaid

General

Grateful

Heroine

Fairplay

Genius

Gravity

Hideous

Famous

Gimcrack

Guilesome

Honesty

Fanciful
Fashion

Giant
Glancer

Guilty

Hostile

70

NAMES OF HOUNDS.

I. dogs.

Lounger

Match 'em

Matchless

Jerker

Lucifer

Maxim

Melody

Jingler

Lunatic

Maximus

Merrylass

Impetus

Lunger

Meanwell

Mindful

Jockey

Lurker

Meddler

Minion

Jolly

Lusty

Menacer

Miriam

J oily -boy

Mendall

Mischief

Jostler

L. bitches.

Mender

Modish

Jovial

Lacerate

Mentor

Monody

Jubal

Laudable

Mercury

Music

Judgment

Lavish

Merhn

Jumper

Lawless

Merry boy

N. dogs.

Lenity

Merryman

Nervous

I. bitches.

Levity

Messmate

Nestor

Jealousy

Liberty

Methodist

Nettler

Industry

Lightning

Mighty

Newsman

Jollity

Lightsome

Militant

Nimrod

Joyful

Likely

Minikin

Noble

Joyous

Lissome

Miscreant

Nonsuch

Litigate

aiittimus

Novel

L. dogs.

Lively

]Monarch

Noxious

Labourer

Lofty

Monitor

Larum

Lovely

Motley

N. bitches.

Laslier

Luckylass

Mounter

Narrative

Launcher

Lunacy

Mover

N eatness

Leader

Mungo

Needful

Leveller

M. dogs.

Musical

Negative

Liberal

Manager

Mutinous

Nicety

Libertine

IManful

Mutterer

Nimble

Lictor

Mareschal

Myrmidon

Noisy

Lifter

Marksman

Notable

Lightfoot

Marplot

M. bitches.

Notice

Linguist

fllartial

Madcap

Notion

Listener

Marvellous

Magic

Novelty

NAMES OF HOUNDS.

71

Novice

Principal

Rallywood

Rudesby

Prodigal

Rambler

Ruffian

P. dogs.

Prowler

Ramper

Ruffler

Paean

Prompter

Rampant

Ruler

Pageant

Prophet

Rancour

Rummager

Paragon

Prosper

Random

Rumbler

Paramount

Prosperous

Ranger

Rumour

Partner

Pryer

Ransack

Runner

Partyman

Rantaway

Rural

Pealer

P. bitches.

Ranter

Rusher

Penetrant

Panic

Rapper

Rustic

Perfect

Passion

Rattler

Perilous

Pastime

Ravager

R. bitches.

Pertinent

Patience

Ravenous

Racket

Petulant

Phoenix

Reacher

Rally

Phoebus

Phrenetic

Reasoner

Rantipole

Piercer

Phrensy

Rector

Rapid

Pilgrim

Placid

Regent

Rapine

Pillager

Playful

Render

Rapture

Pilot

Pleasant

Resonant

Rarity

Pincher

Pliant

Restive

Rashness

Piper

Positive

Reveller

Rattle

Playful

Precious

Riiler

Reptile

Plodder

Prettylass

Rigid

Resolute

Plunder

Previous

Rigour

Restless

Politic

Priestess

Ringwood

Rhapsody

Potent

Probity

Riotei*

Riddance

Prater

Prudence

Risker

Riot

Prattler

Rockwood

Rival

Premier

R. dogs.

Roister

Roguish

President

Racer

Romper

Ruin

Presto

Radical

Rouser

Rummage

Prevalent

Rager

Router

Ruthless

Primate

Rakish

Rover

72

NAMES OF HOUNDS.

S. dogs.

Spinner

Skilful

Thw alter

Salient

Splendor

Songstress

Tickler

Sampler

Splenetic

Specious

Tomboy

Samson

Spoiler

Speedy

Topmost

Sanction

Spokesman

Spiteful

Topper

Sapient

Sportsman

Spitfire

Torment

Saucebox

Squabbler

Sportful

Torrent

Saunter

Squeaker

Sportive

Torturer

Scalper

Statesman

Sportly

Tosser

Scamper

Steady

Sprightly

Touchstone

Schemer

Stickler

Stately

Tracer

Scourer

Stringer

Stoutness

Tragic

Scramble

Stormer

Strenuous

Trampler

Screamer

Stranger

Strumpet

Transit

Screecher

Stripling

Surety

Transport

Scuffler

Striver

Sybil

Traveller

Searcher

Strivewell

Symphony

Trimbush

Settler

Stroker

Trimmer

Sharper

Stroller

T. dogs.

Triumph

Shifter

Struggler

Tackier

Trojan

Signal

Sturdy

Talisman

Trouncer

Singer

Subtile

Tamer

Truant

Singwell

Succour

Tamerlane

Trueboy

Skirmish

Suppler

Tangent

Trueman

Smoker

Surly

Tartar

Trudger

Social

Swaggerer

Tattler

Trusty

Solomon

Sylvan

Taunter

Tryal

Solon

Teaser

Tryer

Songster

S. bitches.

Terror

TryweU

Sonorous

Sanguine

Thrasher

Tuner

So un dwell

Sappho

Threatener

Turbulent

Spanker

Science

Thumper

Twanger

Special

Scrupulous

Thunderer

Twig 'em

Specimen

Shrewdness

Thwacker

Twister

NAMES aF HOUNDS.

73

Tyrant

T. bitches.
Tattle
Telltale
Tempest
Tentative
Termagant
Terminate
Terrible
Testy
Thankful
Thouglitful
Tidings
Toilsome
Tractable
Tragedy
Trespass
Trifle
Trivial
Trollop
Troublesome
Truelass
Truemaid
Tunable
Tuneful

V. dogs.
Vagabond
^^agrant

Valiant

Valid

Valorous

Valour

Vaulter

Vaunter

Venture

V'^enturer

Venturous

Vermin

Vexer

Victor

Vigilant

Vigorous

Vigour

Villager

Viper

Volant

Voucher

V. bitches.
Vanquish
Vehemence
Vehement
Vengeance
Vengeful
Venomous
Venturesome
Venus

Verify

Verity

Vicious

Victory

Victrix

Vigilance

Violent

Viperous

Virulent

Vitiate

Vivid

Vixen

Vocal

Volatile

Voluble

W. dogs.
Wanderer
Warbler
Warning
W arrior
W'arwhoop
W^ayward
WeUbred
Whipster
Why not
Wildair
Wildman
Wilful

Wisdom

W^oodman

Worker

Workman

Worthy

W^rangler

Wrestler

W. bitches.
Waggery
Waggish
Wagtail
W' an ton
Warfare
W^arlike
Waspish
Wasteful
Watchful
Welcome
Welldone
Whimsey
Whirligig
Wildfire
Willing
Wishful
Wonderful
Worry
Wrathful
Wreakful

74 OF THE TREATMENT

LETTER VI.

After the young hounds have been rounded,
and are well reconciled to the kennnel, know the
huntsman, and begin to know their names, they
should be put into couples, and walked out
amongst the sheep.

If any are particularly snappish and trouble-
some, you should leave the couples loose about
their necks in the kennel, till you find they are
more reconciled to them. If any are more stub-
born than the rest, you should couple them to
old hounds, rather than to young ones ; and
you should not couple two dogs together, when
you can avoid it. Young hounds are awkward
at first ; I should therefore advise you to send
out a few only at a time with your people on
foot ; they will soon afterwards become handy
enough to follow a horse ; and care should be
taken that the couples be not too loose, lest they
should slip their necks out of the collar, and
give trouble in the catching of them again.

OF YOUNG HOUNDS. 75

When they have been walked often in this
manner amongst the sheep, you may then un-
couple a few at a time, and begin to chastise
such as offer to run after them ; but you will
soon find that the cry of ware sheep, will stop
them sufficiently, without the whip ; and the
less this is used, the better. With proper care
and attention, you will soon make them ashamed
of it ; but if once suffered to taste the blood, you
may find it difficult to reclaim them afterwards.
Various are the methods used to break such dogs
from sheep; some will couple them to a ram,
but that is breaking them with a vengeance ;
you had better hang them. A late lord of my
acquaintance, who had heard of this method,
and whose whole pack had been often guilty of
killing sheep, determined to punish them, and
to that intent put the largest ram he could find
into his kennel. The men with their whips and
voices, and the ram with his horns, soon put the
whole kennel into confusion and dismay, and the
hounds and ram were then left together. Meet-
ing a friend soon after, " Come," said he, " come
with me to the kennel, and see what rare sport the
ram makes among the hounds : the old fellow lays
about him stoutly, I assure you — egad he trims
E 2

76 OF AIRING THEM.

them — thei-e is not a dog dares look him in the
face."" His friend, who is a compassionate man,
pitied the hounds exceedingly, and asked if he
was not afraid that some of them might be spoil-
ed.— " No; d — n them," said he, " they deserve
it, and let them suffer." On they went — all was
quiet — they opened the kennel door, but saw
neither ram nor hound. The ram by this time
was entirely eaten up, and the hounds, having
filled their bellies, were retired to rest.

It without doubt is best, when you air your
hounds, to take them out separately ; the old
ones one day, another day the young :* but as
I find your hounds are to have their whey at a
distant dairy, on those days both old and young
may be taken out together, observing only to
take the young hounds in couples, when the old
ones are along with them. Young hounds are
always ready for any kind of mischief, and idle-
ness might make even old ones too ready to join
them in it. Besides, should they break off from
the Imntsman, the whipper-in is generally too
ill-mounted at this season of the year easily to

* It would be better still to take out your hoimds every
day, the old and young separately, when it can be done
without inconvenience ; when it cannot, a large grass-court
will partly answer the same purpose.

OF ENTERING THEM. 77

head them, to bring them back. Run no such
risk. My hounds were near being spoiled by
the mere accident of a horse's falling. The
whipper-in was thrown from his horse. The
horse ran away, and the whole pack followed
him. A flock of sheep, which were at a little
distance, took fright, began to run, and the
hounds pursued them. The most vicious set
on the rest, and several sheep were soon pulled
down, and killed. I mention this to show
you what caution is necessary whilst hounds
are idle ; for though the fall of the horse was
not to be attributed to any fault of the man,
yet had the old hounds been taken out by
themselves, or had all the young ones been in
couples, it is probable so common an accident
would not have produced so extraordinary an
event.

It is now time to stoop them to a scent. You
had better enter them at their own game ; it will
save you much trouble afterwards. Many dogs,
I believe, like that scent best which they were
first blooded to ; but be that as it may, it is cer-
tainly most reasonable to use them to that which
it is intended they should hunt. It may not be
amiss, when they first begin to hunt, to put light
collars on them. Young hounds may easily get

78 AN OLD sportsman's METHOD.

out of their knowledge ; and shy ones, after
they have been much beaten, may not choose to
return home. Collars, in that case, may prevent
their being lost.

You say you should like to see your young
hounds run a trail-scent. I have no doubt that
you would be glad to see them run over an open
down, where you could so easily observe their
action and their speed. I do not think the doing
of it once or twice could hurt your hounds; and
yet, as a sportsman, I dare not recommend it
to you. All that I shall say of it is, that it is
less bad than entering them at hare. A cat is
as good a trail as any ; but on no account should
any trail be used after your hounds are stooped
to a scent.

I know an old sportsman, a clergyman, who
enters his young hounds first at a cat, which he
drags along the ground for a mile or two, at the
end of which he turns out a badger, first taking
care to break his teeth : he takes out about two
couple of old hounds along with the young ones,
to hold them on. He never enters his young
hounds but at vermin ; for he says, " Train up
a child in the way he should go, and when he is
old he will not depart from it.''''

Summer hunting, though useful to young

SUMMER HUNTING. 79

hounds, is prejudicial to old ones; I think, there-
fore, you will do well to reserve some of the best
of your draught-hounds to enter your young
hounds with, selecting such as are most likely to
set them a good example. I need not tell you
they should not be skirters ; but, on the contrary,
should be fair hunting hounds, such as love a
scent, and that hunt closest on the line of it : it
will be necessary that some of them should be
good finders, and all must be steady. Thus you
procure for your young hounds the best instruc-
tions, and at the same time prevent two evils,
which would necessarily ensue Avere they taught
by the whole pack ; one, that of corrupting, and
getting into scrapes, such as are not much wiser
than themselves ; and the other, that of occa-
sioning much flogging and rating, which always
shies and interrupts the hunting of an old hound.
An old hound is a sagacious animal, and is not
fond of trusting himself in the way of an en-
raged whipper-in, who, as experience has taught
him, can flog, and can flog unjustly. By attend-
ing to this advice, you will improve one part
of your pack, without any injury to the other;
whilst such as never separate their young
hounds from the old are not likely to have any
of them steady.

80 RIOTOUS BEST IN THE END.

You ask, at what time you shall begin to
enter your young hounds? That question is
easily answered ; for you certainly should begin
with them as soon as you can. The time must
vary in different countries. In corn countries it
may not be possible to hunt till after the corn is
cut ; in grass countries you may begin sooner ;
and in woodlands you may hunt as soon as you
please. If you have plenty of foxes, and can
afford to make a sacrifice of some of them for
the sake of making your young hounds steady,
take them first where you have least riot, put-
ting some of the steadiest of your old hounds
amongst them. If in such a place you are for-
tunate enough to find a litter of foxes, you may
assure yourself you will have but little trouble
with your young hounds afterwards.

Such young hounds as are most riotous at
first, generally speaking, I think, are best in the
end. A gentleman in my neighbourhood was so
thoroughly convinced of this, that he complained
bitterly of a young pointer to the person who
gave it him, because he had done no mischief.
However, meeting the same person some time
after, he told him the dog, he believed, would
prove a good one at last. — " How so ?" replied
his friend ; " it was but the other day that you

FREQUENT HALLOOING USEFUL. 81

said he was good for nothing/'* — " True : hut he
has killed tne nineteen turkeys since that.''''

If owing to a scarcity of foxes you should
stoop your hounds at hare, let them not have the
blood of her at least ; nor, for the sake of con-
sistency, give them much encouragement. Hare-
hunting has one advantage, — hounds are chiefly
in open ground, where you can easily command
them ; but, notwithstanding that, if foxes are
in tolerable plenty, keep them to their own
game, and do not forget the advice of my friend
the doctor.

Frequent hallooing is of use, I think, with
young hounds ; it keeps them forward, prevents
their being lost, and hinders them from hunting
after the rest. The oftener, therefore, a fox is
seen and hallooed the better ; it serves to let
them in, makes them eager, makes them exert
themselves, and teaches them to be handy. I
must tell you, at the same time I say this, that
I by no means approve of much hallooing to
old hounds ; and though I frequently am guilty
of it myself, it is owing to my spirits, which
lead me into an error that my judgment con-
demns. It is true, there is a time when hallooing
is of use, a time when it does hurt, and a time
e3

82 VOICE VERSUS WHIP.

when it is perfectly indifferent ; but it is long
practice, and great attention to hunting, that
must teach you the application.

Hounds, at their first entering, cannot be en-
couraged too much. When they are become
handy, love a scent, and begin to know what is
right, it will be soon enough to chastise them
for doing wrong ; in which case one severe beat-
ing will save a deal of trouble. You should re-
commend to your whipper-in, when he flogs a
hound, to make use of his voice as well as his
whip ; and let him remember, that the smack of
the whip is often of as much use as the lash to
one that has felt it. If any are very unsteady,
it will not be amiss to send them out by them-
selves, when the men go out to exercise their
horses. If you have hares in plenty, let some
be found sitting, and turned out before them,
and you will soon find the most riotous will not
run after them. If they are to be made steady
from deer, they should see them often, and they
will not regard them ; and if, after a probation
of this kind, you turn out a cub before them,
with some ol^ hounds to lead them on, you may
assure yourself they will not be unsteady long ;
for, as Somervile rightly observes,

PUNISHMENT WHEN NECESSARY. 83

" Easy the lessen of the youthful train,

When instinct prompts, and when example guides."

Flogging hounds in kennel, the frequent prac-
tice of most huntsmen, I hold in abhorrence:
it is unreasonable, unjust, and cruel; and,
carried to the excess we sometimes see it, is a
disgrace to humanity. Hounds that are old
offenders, that are very riotous, and at the same
time very cunning, may be difficult to catch :
such hounds may be excepted — they deserve
punishment whenever it happens, and you
should not fail to give it them when you can.
This you will allow is a particular case, and ne-
cessity may excuse it ; but let not the peace and
quiet of your kennel be often thus disturbed.
When your hounds offend, punish them : when
caught in the fact, then let them suffer, — and
if you are severe, at least be just.

When your young hounds stoop to a scent,
are become handy, know a rate, and stop easily,
you may then begin to put them into the pack,
a few only at a time ; nor do I think it advisable
to begin this till the pack have been out a few
times by themselves, and are got well in blood.
I should also advise you to take them the first
day where they are most sure to find ; as long

84 THE HORN.

rest makes all hounds riotous, and they may do
that en gaiete de coeur, which they would not
think of at another time.

If your covers are large, you would find the
straight horn of use, and I am sorry to hear you
do not approve of it. You ask me why I like
it ? — not as a musician, I can assure you. It
signifies little, in our way, what the noise is, as
long as it is understood.

THE SUBJECT RESUMED. 85

LETTER VII.

Unless I had kept a regular journal of all
that has been done in the kennel from the time
when my young hounds were first taken in to
the end of the last season, it would be impossi-
ble, I think, to answer all the questions which,
in your last letter, you ask concerning them. I
wish that a memory, which is far from being a
good one, may enable me to give the informa-
tion you desire. If I am to be more circum-
stantial than in my former letter, I must recol-
lect, as well as I can, the regular system of my
own kennel ; and if I am to write from memory,
you will, without doubt, excuse the lucidus
ordo which may be wanting : — it shall be my
endeavour, that the information these Letters
contain shall not mislead you.

You desire me to explain what I mean by
hounds being handy. It relates to their readi-
ness to do whatever is required of them ; and.
particularly, when cast, to turn easily which way
the huntsman pleases.*

* Mj hounds are frequently walked about the courts of

8b CARE NECESSARY IN THE

I was told the other day by a sportsman,
that he considers the management of hounds as a
regular system of education, from the time when
they are first taken into the kennel : I perfectly
agree with that gentleman ; and am well con-
vinced that if you expect sagacity in your hound
when he is old, you must be mindful what in-
struction he receives from you in his youth ; for
as he is of all animals the most docile, he is also
most liable to bad habits. A diversity of cha-
racter, constitution, and disposition, are to be ob-
served among them ; which, to be made the most
of, must be carefully attended to, and treated
differently. I do not pretend to have succeeded
in it myself; yet you will perceive, perhaps,
that I have paid some attention to it.

I begin to hunt my young hounds in August.
The employment of my huntsman the preced-
ing months is to keep his old hounds healthy
and quiet, by giving them proper exercise, and
to get his young hounds forward.* They are
called over often in the kennel : it uses them to

the kennel, the whipper-in following them, and rating them
after the huntsman : this, and the sending them out (aiter
they have been fed) with the people on foot, contribute
greatly to make them handy.

* Nothing will answer this purpose so well as taking them
out often. Let your huntsman lounge about with them :

INSTRUCTION OF HOUNDS. 87

their names, to the huntsman and to the whip-
per-in. They are walked out often among
sheep, hares, and deer ; it uses them to a rate.
Sometimes he turns down a cat before them,
which they hunt up to and kill ; and, when the
time of hunting approaches, he turns out bad-
gers or young foxes, taking out some of the
steadiest of his old hounds to lead them on :
this teaches them to hunt. He draws small
covers and furze-brakes with them, to use them
to a halloo, and to teach them obedience. If
they find improper game, and hunt it, they are
stopped and brought back ; and as long as they
will stop at a rate, they are not chastised. Obe-
dience is all that is required of them, till they
have been sufficiently taught the game they are
to hunt. An obstinate deviation from it after-
wards is never pardoned. It is an observation
of the marchese Beccaria, that " La certezza di
un castigo, benche moderato fara sempre una
maggiore impressione, che non il timore di un
altro piu terribile, unito colla speranza, della'
impunita."

nothing will make them so handy. Let him get off his
horse frequently, and encourage them to come to him : no-
thing will familiarize them so much : too great restraint
will oftentimes incline hounds to be riotous.

88 METHOD OF BLOODING

When my young hounds are taken out to air,
my huntsman takes them into the country in
which they are to begin to hunt. It is attended
with this advantage ; they acquire a knowledge
of the country, and when left behind at any time,
cannot fail to find their way home more easily.

When they begin to hunt, they are first taken
into a large cover of my own, which has many
ridings cut in it, and where young foxes are
turned out every year on purpose for them.
Here it is they are taught the scent they are to
hunt, are encouraged to pursue it, and are stop-
ped from every other. Here they are blooded
to fox. I must also tell you, that as foxes are
plentiful in this cover, the principal earth is not
stopped, and the foxes are checked back, or
some of them let in, as may best suit the pur-
pose of blooding. After they have been hunted
a few days in this manner, they are then sent to
distant covers, and more old hounds are added
to them : there they continue hunting till they
are taken into the pack, which is seldom later
than the beginning of September ; * for by that
time they will have learned what is required of

• Sport, in fox-hunting, cannot be said to begin before
October ; but, in the two preceding months, a pack is either
made or marred.

THEM TO FOX. 89

them, and they seldom give much trouble after-
wards. Ill September I begin to hunt in
earnest ^ and after the old hounds have killed a
few foxes, the young hounds are put into the
pack, two or three couple at a time, till all have
hunted. They are then divided : and as I
seldom have occasion to take in more than nine
or ten couple, one half are taken out one day,
the other half the next, till all are steady.

Two other methods of entering young hounds
I have practised occasionally, as the number of
hounds have required ; for instance, when that
number is very considerable, I make a large
draft of my steadiest hounds, which are kept
with the young hounds in a separate kennel, and
are hunted with them all the fore part of the
season. This, when the old hounds begin to
hunt, makes two distinct packs, and is always
attended with great trouble and inconvenience.
Nothing hurts a pack so much as to enter many
young hounds, since it must weaken it consider-
ably by robbing it of those which are the most
steady ; and yet young hounds can do nothing
without their assistance. Such, therefore, as
constantly enter their young hounds in this
manner, will, sometimes at least, have two indif-
ferent packs, instead of one good one.

90 TOO MANY SHOULD

In the other method, the young hounds are
well awed from sheep, but never stooped to a
scent till they are taken out with the pack ; they
are then taken out a few only at a time ; and if
your pack is perfectly steady, and well manned,
may not give you much trouble. The method
I first mentioned, which is the one I most com-
monly practise, will be necessary when you have
many young hounds to enter ; when you have
only a few, the last will be most convenient.
The other, which requires two distinct packs, is
on too extensive a plan to suit your establish-
ment, requiring more horses and hounds than
you intend to keep.*

Though I have mentioned, in a former letter,

from eight to twelve couple of young hounds as

a sufficient number to keep up your pack to its

present establishment, yet it is always best to

keep a few couple more than you want in reserve,

* To render fox-hunting perfect, no young hounds should
be taken into the pack the first season ; a requisite too ex-
pensive for most sportsmen. The pack should consist of
about forty couple of hounds, that have hunted one, two,
three, four, or five seasons. The young pack should con-
sist of about twenty couple of young hounds, and about an
equal number of old ones. They should have a separate
establishment ; nor should the two kennels be near enough
to interfere with each other. The season over, the best
of the young hounds should be taken into the pack, and
the draft of old ones exchanged for them. To enable you

NOT BE ENTERED. 91

in case of accidents ; since from the time you
make your draft to the time of hunting is a long
period, and their existence at that age and sea-
son very precarious : besides, when they are safe
from the disorder, they are nob»always safe from
each other ; and a summer, I think, seldom
passes without some losses of that kind. At the
same time I must tell you that I should decline
the entering of more than are necessary to keep
up the pack, since a greater number would only
create useless trouble and vexation.

You wish to know what number of old
hounds you should hunt with the young ones.
That must depend on the strength of your pack,
and the number which you choose to spare ; if
good and steady, ten or twelve couple will be
sufficient.

The young hounds, and such old ones as are

intended to hunt along with them,* should be

every season to take in twenty couple of young hounds,
many must be bred ; and, of course, the greater your
choice, the handsomer your pack will become. It will al-
ways be easy to keep up the number of old hounds ; for,
when your own draft is not sufficient, drafts from other
packs may easily be obtained, and at a small expense.
When young hounds are hunted together the first season,
and have not a sufficient number of old hounds along with
them, it does them more harm than good.

* Some also take out their unsteady hounds when they
enter the young ones : 1 doubt the propriety of it.

92 DIFFERENT METHODS OF

kept in a kennel by themselves till the young
hounds are hunted with the pack. I need not,
I am sure, enumerate the many reasons that
make this regulation necessary.

I never trust my young hounds in the forest
till they have been well blooded to fox, and sel-
dom put more than a couple into the pack at a
time.* The others are walked out amongst the
deer, when the men exercise their horses, and
are severely chastised if they take any notice
of them. They also draw covers with them ;
choosing out such where they can best see their
hounds, and most easily command them, and
where there is the least chance to find a fox.
On these occasions I had rather they should
have to rate their hounds than to encourage
them. It requires less judgment; and if impro-
perly done, is less dangerous in its consequences.
One halloo of encouragement to a wrong scent
more than undoes all that you have been doing.

When young hounds begin to love a scent, it
may be of use to turn out a badger before them :

* I sometimes send all my young hounds together into
the forest, with four or five couple of old hounds only ;
such as I know they cannot spoil. As often as an}' of them
break off to deer, they are taken up and flogged. When
they lose one fox they try for another, and are kept out
till they are all made tolerably steady.

ENTERING DESCllIBED. 93

you will then be able to discover what improve-
ment they have made. I mention a badger, on
a supposition that young foxes cannot so well
be spared ; besides, the badger being a slower
animal, he may easily be follo'Sved, and driven
the way you choose he should run.

The day you intend to turn out a fox or
badger, you will do well to send them amongst
hares or deer. A little rating and flogging, be-
fore they are encouraged to vermin, is of the
greatest use, as it teaches them both what they
should and what they should not do. I have
known a badger run several miles, if judici-
ously managed ; for which purpose he should
be turned out in a very open country, and fol-
lowed by a person who has more sense than to
ride on the line of him. If he does not meet
with any cover or hedge in his way, he will keep
on for several miles; if he does, you will not be
able to get him any farther. You should give
him a great deal of law, and you will do well to
break his teeth.*

* The critic says, " there is neither justice nor equity in
breaking his teeth." — (Vide Monthly Review.) I confess
there is not : and I never know that it is done, but I feel
all the force of the observation. It is a custom, as Shaks-
peare says on another occasion,

" More honour'd in the breach than the observance."

94 METHOD OF CHASTISING

If you run any cubs to ground in an indiffer-
ent country, and do not want blood, bring them
home, and they will be of use to your young
hounds. Turn out bag-foxes to your young
hounds, but never to your old ones. I object
to them on many accounts ; but of bag-foxes I^
shall have occasion to speak hereafter.

The day after your hounds have had blood is
also a proper time to send them where there is
riot, and to chastise them, if they deserve it : it
is always best to correct them when they can-
not help knowing what they are corrected for.
When you send out your hounds for this pur-
pose, the later they go out, I think, the better,
as the worse the scent is, the less inclinable will
they be to run it, and of course will give less
trouble in stopping them. It is a common prac-
tice with huntsmen to floo; their hounds most
unmercifully in the kennel : I have already told
you I like it not; but if many of your hounds
are obstinately riotous, you may with less im-
propriety put a live hare into the kennel* to
them ; flogging them as often as they approach

* This passage has also been thought desei'viiig of cen-
sure, though its motive is humane. By these means the
disobedient are taught obedience, and a more general pun-
ishment prevented, which the effect of bad example might
otherwise make necessary.

IN THE KENNEL. 95

her ; they will then have some notion, at least,
for what they are beaten : but let me entreat
you, before this charivari* begins, to draft off
your steady hounds. An animal to whom we
owe so much good diversion should not be ill
used unnecessarily. When a hare is put into
the kennel, the huntsman and both the whip-
pers-in should be present, and the whippers-in
should flog every hound, calling him by his ■
name, and rating him as often as he is near the
hare ; and upon this occasion they cannot cut
them too hard, or rate them too much. When
they think they have chastised them enough, the
hare should then be taken away, the huntsman
should halloo off his hounds, and the whippers-
in should rate them to him. If any one loves
hare more than the rest, you may tie a dead one
round his neck, flogging him and rating him at
the same time. This possibly may make him
ashamed of it. I never bought a lot of hounds
in my life that were not obliged to undergo this

* A confusion arising from a variety of noises. It is a
custom in France and in Switzerland, if a woman marry
sooner tiian is usual after tlie death of her husband, or a
woman get the better of her husband when attempting to
chastise her, and return the beating Avith interest — the
neighbours give them a charivari ; a kind of concert, com-
posed of tongs, fire-shovels, kettles, brass pans, &c. &c.

96 LARGE COVERS PREFERABLE

discipline. Either hares are less plentiful in
other countries, or other sportsmen are less nice
in making their hounds steady from them.

I would advise you to hunt your large covers
with your young hounds : it will tire them
out;* a necessary step towards making them
steady ; — will open the cover against the time
you begin in earnest ; and, by disturbing the
large covers early in the year, foxes will be
shy of them in the season, and show you better
chases : besides, as they are not likely to break
from thence, you can do no hurt to the corn,
and may begin before it is cut.

If your hounds are very riotous, and you are
obliged to stop them very often from hare, it
will be advisable, I think, to try on (however
late it may be) till you find a fox, as the giving
them encouragement should, at such a time,
prevail over every other consideration.

Though all young hounds, I believe, are

* Provided that you have old hounds enough out to carry-
on the scent : if you have not a body of old hounds to keep
up a cry on the right scent, the young ones, as soon as the
ground becomes foiled, will be scattered about the cover,
hunting old scents, and will not get on fast enough to tire
themselves. Young hounds should never be taken into
large covers where there is much riot, unless whippers-in
can easily get at them.

MANAGEMENT OF THE PACK. 97

given to riot, yet the better they are bred, the
less trouble will they be likely to give you.
Pointers, well bred, stand naturally ; and high-
bred fox-hounds love their own game best.
Such, however, as are very riotous, should have
little rest: you should hunt them one day in
large covers, where foxes are in plenty ; the
next day they should be walked out amongst
hares and deer, and stop}:!ed from riot ; the day
following be hunted again, as before. Old
hounds, that I have had from other packs, (par-
ticularly such as have been entered at hare,) I
have sometimes found incorrigible; but I never
yet knew a young hound so riotous, but, by
this management, he soon became steady.

When hounds are rated, and do not answer
the rate, they should be coupled up immedi-
ately, and be made to know the whipper-in : in
all probability tliis method will save any farther
trouble. These fellows sometimes flog hounds
unmercifully, and some of them seem to take
pleasure in their cruelty : I am sure, however, I
need not desire you to prevent the excess of it.

I have heard, that no fox-hounds will break
off to deer, after once a fox is found. I cannot
say the experience I have had of this diversion
will anywise justify the remark: let me advise

F

98 ENTERIlsrG THEM AT

you, therefore, to seek a surer dependence. Be-
fore you hunt your young hounds where hares
are in plenty, let them be awed, and stopped
from hare: before you hunt amongst deer, let
them not only see deer, but let them draw
covers where deer are; for you must not be
surprised if, after they are so far steady as not
to run them in view, they should challenge on
the scent of them. Unless you take this method
with your young hounds, before you put them
into the pack, you will run a great risk of cor-
rupting such as are steady, and will lose the
pleasure of hunting with steady hounds. I
have already told you that after my joung
hounds are taken into the pack, I still take out
but very few at a time, when I hunt among
deer. I also change them when I take out
others; for the steadiness they may have ac-
quired cotdd be but little depended on, were
they to meet with any encouragement to be
riotous.

I confess I think first impressions of more
consequence than they are in general thought
to be : I not only enter my young hounds to
vermin on that account, but I even use them,
as early as I can, to the strongest covers and
thickest brakes, and I seldom find thev are ever

VERMIN llECOMMENDED. 99

shy of them afterwards. A friend of mine has
assured me, that he once entered a spaniel to
snipes, and the dog ever after was partial to
them, preferring them to every other bird.

If you have marten cats within yovu* reach, as
all hounds are fond of their scent, you will do
well to enter your young hounds in covers
which they frequent. The marten cat, being a
small animal, by running the thickest brakes it
can find, teaches hounds to run cover, and is
therefore of the greatest use. I do not much
approve of hunting them with the old hounds :
they show but little sport; are continually climb-
ing trees; and as the cover they run seldom
fails to scratch and tear hounds considerably, I
think you might be sorry to see your whole
pack disfigured by it. The agility of this little
animal is really wonderful ; and though it falls
frequently from a tree, in the midst of a whole
pack of hounds, all intent on catching it, there
are but few instances, I believe, of a marten's
being caught by them in that situation.

In summer, hounds might hunt in an evening.
I know a pack, that after having killed one fox
in the morning with the young hounds, killed
another in the evening with the old ones. Scent
generally lies well at the close of the day j yet
F 2

100

OBEDIENCE IN A HOUND.

there is a great objection to hunting at that
time: animals are more easily disturbed, and
you have a greater variety of scents than at an
earlier hour.

Having given you all the information I can
possibly recollect with regard to my own ma-
nagement of young hounds, I shall now take
notice of that part of your last letter, where I
am sorry to find that our opinions differ. Obe-
dience, you say, is every thing necessary in a
hound, and it is of little consequence by what
means it is obtained. I cannot concur altoge-
ther in" that opinion ; for I think it very neces-
sary that the hound should at the same time
understand you. Obedience, under proper ma-
nagement, will be a necessary consequence of it.
Obedience, surely, is not all that is required of
them : they should be taught to distinguish of
themselves right from wrong, or I know not
how they are to be managed when, as it fre-
quently happens, we cannot see what they are
at, and must take their words for it. A hound
that hears a voice which has often rated him,
and that hears the whip he has often felt, T
know, will stop. I also know he will commit
the same fault again, if he has been accustomed
to be guilty of it.

ENTERING AT HARE CENSURED. 101

Obedience, you very rightly observe, is a ne-
cessary quality in a hound, for he is useless
without it. It is therefore an excellent princi-
ple for a huntsman to set out upon ; yet, good
as it is, I think it may be carried too far. I
would not have him insist on too much, or tor-
ment his hounds mal-d-propos, by exacting of
them by force what is not absolutely necessary
to your diversion. You say, he intends to enter
your hounds at hare : is it to teach them obe-
dience?— Does he mean to encourage vice in
them, to correct it afterwards ? I have heard,
indeed, that the way to make hounds steady
from hare is to enter them at hare;* that is, to
encourage them to hunt her. It requires more
faith than I pretend to, to believe so strange a
paradox.

It concerns me to be obliged to differ from
you in opinion ; but since it cannot now be
helped, we will pursue the subject, and examine
it throughout. Permit me then to ask you,
what it is you propose from the entering of your

* In proper hands either method may do. The method
here proposed seems best suited to fox-hounds in general,
as well as to those who have the direction of them. The
talents of some men are superior to all rules ; nor is their
success any positive proof of the goodness of their methods
See page 81.

102 METHOD OF KENDERIXG

hounds at hare? Two advantages, I shall pre-
sume, you expect from it : the teaching of your
hounds to hunt, and teaching them to be obe-
dient. However necessary you may think these
requisites in a hound, I cannot but flatter
myself they are to be acquired by less excep-
tionable means. The method I have already
mentioned to make hounds obedient, as it is
practised in my own kennel, — that of calling
them over often in the kennel, to use them to
their names,* and walking them out often
amongst sheep, hares, and deer, from which
they are stopped, to use them to a rate, in my
opinion, would answer your purpose better.
The teaching your hounds to hunt is by no
means so necessary as you seem to imagine.
Nature will teach it them, nor need you give
yourself so much concern about it. Art only
will be necessary to prevent them from hunting
what they ought not to hunt; — and do you
really think your method a proper one to ac-
complish it "?

The first and most essential thing towards

making hounds obedient, I suppose, is to make

them understand you ; nor do I apprehend you

will find any difficulty on their parts, but such

* See note, page 44.

HOUNDS OBEDIENT. 103

as may be occasioned on yours.* The language
we use to them to convey our meaning should
never vary ; still less should we alter the very
meaning of the terms we use. Would it not be
absurd to encourage, when we mean to rate ?
and if we did, could we expect to be obeyed.'*
You will not deny this, and yet you are guilty
of no less an inconsistency, when you encourage
your hounds to run a scent to-day, which you
know, at the same time, you must be obliged to
break them from to-morrow. Is it not running
counter to justice and to reason "^

I confess there is some use in hunting young-
hounds where you can easily command them ;
but even this you may pay too dearly for. En-
ter your hounds in small covers, or in such large
ones as have ridings cut in them : whippers-in
can then get at them, can always see what they
are at, and I have no doubt that you may have
a pack of fox-hounds steady to fox by this
means, without adopting so preposterous a
method as that of first making hare-hunters
of them. You will find that hounds, thus in-

* Were huntsmen to scream continually to their hounds,
using the same halloo whether they were drawing, casting,
or running, the hounds could not understand them, and
probably would show on every occasion as little attention
to them as they would deserve.

104 ruSTOM OF KNTEIIIICG AT

structed what game they are to hunt, and what
they are not, will stop at a word, because they
will understand you ; and, after they have beea
treated in this manner, a smack only of the whip
will spare you the inhumanity of cutting your
hounds in pieces (not very justly) for faults
■which you yourself have encouraged them to
commit.

I think, in your last letter, you seem very
anxious to get your young hounds well blooded
to fox, at the same time that you talk of enter-
ing them at hare. How am I to reconcile such
contradictions ? If the blood of fox is of so
much use, surely vou cannot think the blood of
hare a matter of indifference, unless you should
be of opinion that a fox is better eating. Na-
ture, I suppose, never intended they should
hunt sheep ; yet we very well know, when once
they have killed sheep, that they have no dislike
to mutton afterwards.

You have conceived an idea, perhaps, that a
fox-hound is designed by nature to hunt a fox :
yet, surely, if that was your opinion, you would
never think of entering him at any other game.
I cannot, however, think nature designed the
dog, which we call a fox-hound, to hunt fox
only, since we know he will also hunt other ani-

FOX AND HARE REPItOBATED. 105

mals. That a well-bred fox-hound may give a
preference to vermin, cceteris paribus, I will not
dispute : I think it very possible he may ; but
this I am certain of — that every fox-hound will
leave a bad scent of fox for a good one of either
hare or deer, unless he has been made steady
from them ; and in this I shall not fear to be
contradicted. But as I do not wish to enter
into abstruse reasoning with you, or think it
anywise material to our present purpose whether
the dogs we call fox-hounds were originally de-
signed by nature to hunt fox or not, we will
drop the subject. I must at the same time beg
leave to observe, that dogs are not the only
animals in which an extraordinary diversity of
species has happened since the days of Adam.
Yet a great naturalist tells us, that man is
nearer, by eight degrees, to Adam, than is the
dog to the first dog of his race ; since the age of
man is four-score years, and that of a dog but
ten. It therefore follows, that if both should
equally degenerate, the alteration would be eight
times more remarkable in the dog than man.

The two most necessary questions which re-
sult from the foregoing premises, are — whether
hounds entered at hare are perfectly steady af-
terwards to fox ; and whether steadiness is not
f3

106 HUMANITY APPLAUDED.

attainable by more reasonable means. Having
never hunted with gentlemen who follow this
practice, I must leave the first question for
others to determine ; but having always had my
hounds steady, I can myself answer the second.
The objections I have now made to the treat-
ment of young hounds by some huntsmen,
though addressed, my friend, to you, are general
objections, and should not personally offend you.
I know no man more just, or more humane, than
you are. The disapprobation you so strongly
marked in your last letter, of the severity used
in some kennels, the noble animal we both of us
admire is much beholden to you for. Your in-
tention of being present yourself the first time a
hound is flogged, to see how your new whipper-
in behaves himself, is a proof of benevolence,
which the Italian author of the most humane
book* could not fail to commend you for.
Huntsmen and whippers-in are seldom so
unlucky as to have your feelings ; yet custom,
which authorizes them to flog hounds unmerci-
fully, does not do away the barbarity of it. A
gentleman seeing a girl skinning eels alive, asked
her " if it was not very cruel?" — " O, not at all,
sir," replied the girl ; " they be used to it.'''
* Dei delitli e delle pene.

DISEASES AND THEIR REMEDIES. 107

LETTER VIII.

You desire to know if there is any remedy for
the distemper among dogs. I shall therefore
mention all the disorders which my hounds have
experienced, and point out the remedies which
have been of service to them. The distemper
you inquire about is, I believe, the most fatal
(the plague only excepted) that any animal is
subject to. It has not been long known in this
country, but it is almost inconceivable what
numbers it has destroyed in so short a period ;
several hundreds I can myself place to this mor-
tifying account. It seems happily to be now
on the decline ; at least, it is less frequent, and
more mild ; and I think it is probable that in
time it may be entirely removed. The effects of
it are too generally known to need any descrip-
tion of them here : I wish the remedies were
known as well !

A brother sportsman communicated to me a
remedy, which, he said, his hounds had found
great benefit from, viz. An ounce of Peruvian

108 THE DISTEMPER.

hark, in a glass of Port wine, taken twice a
day. It is not infallible ; but in some stages of
this disorder is certainly of use. The hound
most infected that ever I knew to recover, was
a large stag-hound: he lay five days without
being able to get off the bench ; nor did he
receive any nourishment during the whole time
but the medicine, with which he drank three
bottles of Port wine. You may think, perhaps,
the feeder drank his sliare; it is probable he
might, if it had not been sent ready mixed up
with the bark. I once tried the poudre unique,
thinking it a proper medicine for a disorder
which is said to be putrid ; but I cannot say any
thing in its favour, with regard to dogs at least.
Norris's drops I have also given, and with success.
I gave a large spoonful of them in an equal
quantity of Port wine, three times a-day : as the
dog grew better, I lessened the quantity. When
dogs run much at the nose, nothing will con-
tribute more to the cure of them than keeping
that part clean: when that cannot conveniently
be done, emetics will be necessary ; the best I
know is a large spoonful of common salt, dis-
solved in three spoonfuls of warm water.* The

* The quantity of salt must be proportioned to the size of
the (log, and to the ditficulty there may be to make him vomit.

THE DISTEMPER. 109

first symptom of this disorder, generally, is a
cough. As soon as it is perceived amongst my
young hounds, great attention is paid to them.
They have plenty of clean straw, and are fed
oftener and better than at other times : as long
as they continue to eat the keimel meat, they are
kept together ; as soon as any of them refuse to
feed, they are removed into another kennel : the
door of the kennel is left open in the day, and
they are only shut up at night ; and, I think,
being out in the air, is of great service to them.
To such as are very bad, I give Norris's drops ;
to others, emetics ; whilst some only require to
be better fed than ordinary, and need no other
remedy.* They should be fed from the kitchen
when they refuse the kennel meat. Sometimes
they will lose the use of their hinder parts :
bleeding them, by cutting off the last joint of the
tail, may, perhaps, be of service to them. I
cannot speak of it with any certainty, yet I
have reason to think that I once saved a favou-
rite dog by this operation. In short, by one
method or another, I think they may sometimes
be recovered.

* Hounds that have the distemper upon them have but
little appetite. By feeding two oi- three together, they eat
more greedily .

110 TUMOURS.

The likeliest preservative for those that are
well is the keeping of them warm at night, and
high fed. This disorder being probably infec-
tious, it is better to provide an hospital for such
as are seized with it, which should be in the
back part of the kennel. There is no doubt but
some kennels are healthier than others, and con-
sequently less liable to it. I apprehend mine
to be one of those ; for in a dozen years I do
not believe I have lost half that number of old
hounds, notwithstanding the great number of
whelps I lose at their walks. Neighbouring
kennels have not been equally fortunate : I have
observed in some of them a disorder unknown
in mine; I mean a swelling in the side, which
sometimes breaks, but soon after forms again,
and generally proves fatal at last. I think I
heard a friend of mine say, whose kennel is sub-
ject to this complaint, that he never knew but
one instance of a dog who recovered from it. I
have, however, since known another, in a dog
I had from him, which I cured by frequently
rubbing with a digestive ointment : the tumour
broke, and formed again several times, till at
last it went entirely away. The disorder we
have now been treating of has this, I think, in
common with the putrid sore throat, that it

THE MANGE. Ill

usually attacks the weakest. Women are more

apt to catch the sore throat than men ; children

than women ; and young hounds more readily

catch this disorder than old. When it seizes

whelps at their walks, or young hounds, when

first taken from them, it is then most dangerous.

I also think that madness, their inflammatory

fever, is less frequent than it was before this

disorder was known.

There are few disorders which dogs are so

subject to as the mange. Air and exercise,

wholesome food, and cleanliness, are the best

preservatives against it. Your feeder should be

particularly attentive to it, and when he perceives

any spot upon them, let him rub it with the

following mixture :

A pint of train oil,

Half a pint of oil of turpentine,

A quarter of a pound of ginger, in powder,

Half an ounce of gunpowder, finely powdered,

Mixed up cold.

If the disorder should be bad enough to I'esist
that, three mild purging balls, one every other
day, should be given, and the dog laid up for a
little while afterwards. For the red mange, you
may use the following :

Four ounces of quicksilver,

Two ounces of Venice turpentine.

One pound of hog's lard.

112 THE MANGE.

The quicksilver and turpentine are to be rubbed
together till the globules all disappear. When
you apply it, you must rub an ounce, once a-day,
upon the part affected, for three days succes-
sively. This is to be used when the hair comes
off, or any redness appears.

How wonderful is the fatigue which a fox-
hound undergoes ! Could you count the miles
he runs, the number would appear almost in-
credible. This he undergoes cheerfully, and,
perhaps, three times a-week, through a long sea-
son. His health, therefore, well deserves your
care ; nor should you suffer the least taint to
injure it. Huntsmen are frequently too negli-
gent in this point. I know one in particular,
a famous one too, w hose kennel was never free
from the mange, and the smell of brimstone
was oftentimes stronger, I believe, in the noses of
his hounds than the scent of the fox. If you
choose to try a curious prescription for the cure
of the mange, in the Phil. Trans. No. 25, p.
451, you will find the following:

" Mr. Coxe procured an old mongrel cur, all
over mangy, of a middle size, and having some
hours before fed him plentifully with cheese-
parings and milk, he prepared his jugular vein;
then he made a strong ligature on his neck.

WOUNDS AND CUTS. 113

that tlie venal blood might be emitted with the
greater impetus; after this, he took a young
land spaniel, about the same bigness, and pre-
pared his jugular vein likewise, that the descen-
dant part might receive the mangy dog's blood,
and the ascendant discharge his own into a dish :
he transfused about fourteen or sixteen ounces
of the blood of the infected into the veins of the
sound dog ; by this experiment there appeared
no alteration in the sound one, but the mangy
dog was, in about ten days or a fortnight's time,
perfectly cured ; and possibly this is the quick-
est and surest remedy for that disease, either in
man or beast."

Hounds sometimes are bitten by vipers. Sweet
oil has been long esteemed as a certain antidote:
some should be applied to the part, and some
taken inwardly: though a friend of mine in-
forms me that the common cheese rennet, exter-
nally applied, is a more efficacious remedy than
oil, for the bite of a viper. They are 'liable
to wounds and cuts ; Friar's balsam is very
good, if applied immediately ; yet as it is
apt to shut up a bad wound too soon, the
following tincture, in such cases, may perhaps
be preferable ; at least, after the first dressing
or two : —

114 SWELLINGS. LAMENESS.

Of Barbadoes aloes, two ounces,
Of myrrh, pounded, three ounces.
Mixed up with a quart of brandy.

The bottle should be well corked, and put into
a bark bed, or dunghill, for about ten days or
a fortnight. The tongue of the dog, in most
cases, is his best surgeon ; where he can apply
that, he seldom needs any other remedy. A
green, or seton, in the neck, is of great relief
in most disorders of the eyes ; and I have fre-
quently known dogs, almost blind, recovered
by it. It is also of service when dogs are
shaken in the shoulders, and has made many
sound* In the latter case there should be two,
one applied on each side, and as near the
shoulder as possible. The following ointment
may be used to disperse swellings :

Of fresh mutton suet, triedy two pounds.

Of gum elemi, one pound.

Of common turpentine, ten ounces.

The -gum is to be melted with the suet, and,
when taken from the fire, the turpentine is to

• Turning a hound out of the kennel will sometimes cure
a lameness in the shoulders. An attentive huntsman will
perceive, from the manner of a hound's galloping, wiien
this lameness takes place ; and the hound should be turned
out immediately. Care should be taken, that a hound
turned out do not become fat.

STRAINS. SORE FEET. 115

be mixed with it, straining the mixture whilst
it is hot. Dogs frequently are stubbed in the
foot. The tincture before mentioned, and this,
or any digestive ointment, will soon recover
them.* The following excellent remedy for a
strain, with which I have cured myself, and
many others, I have also found of benefit to
dogs, when strained in the leg or foot.

Dissolve two ounces of camphire in half a pint
of spirits of wine, and put to it a large bullock's
gall. The part affected must be rubbed before
the fire three or four times a-day.

Sore feet are cured with brine, or salt and
vinegar, a handful of salt to a pint of vinegar.
A plaster of black pitch is the best cure for a
thorn in either man, horse, or dog ; and I have
known it succeed after every thing else had
failed. If the part is much inflamed, a common
poultice bound over the plaster will assist in the
cure. Hounds frequently are lame in the knee,
sometimes from bruises, sometimes from the
stab of a thorn : digestive ointment rubbed in
upon the part will generally be of service.-}*

* An obstinate lameness is sometimes increased by hu-
mours : physic, in that case, may be necessary to remove it.

t If the knee continue foul, blisters, and long rest after-
wards, are the most likely means to recover it.

116 WORMS. — A FINE COAT.

If hounds are much troubled with worms, the
best cure I know is the following :

Of pewter pulverized, 1 drachm 7 grs.
Of iEthiop's mineral, 16 grs.

This is to be given three times, once every
other day, and the dog should be kept warm,
and from cold water. Whey, or pot liquor,
may be given him two or three hours after, and '
should be continued, instead of meat, during
the time he is taking the medicine. The best
way of giving it is to mix it up with butter, and
then to make it into balls with a little flour.

When a dog is rough.in his coat, and scratches
much, two or three purging balls, and a little
rest afterwards, seldom fail to get him into
order again. To make dogs fine in their coats,
you should use the following dressing :

One pound of native sulphur,
One quart of train oil,
One pint of oil of turpentine,
Haifa pound of soap.

My hounds are dressed with it two or three
times only in a year.: in some kennels, I am told,
they dress them once in two months. The
more frequently it is done, the cleaner, I sup-
,pose, your hounds will look. Should you choose
to dress your puppies, before they are put out

ON MADNESS. 117

to their walks, the following receipt, wliich I
received from a friend of mine in Staffordshire
(the person already mentioned in this letter, an
excellent sportsman, to whom I have many ob-
ligations) will answer the purpose best, and on
their change of diet, from milk to meat, may be
sometimes necessary :

Three quarters of an ounce of quicksilver,
Haifa pint of spirits of turpentine,
Four ounces of hog's lard,
One pound of soft soap,

Three ounces of common turpentine, in which the
quicksilver must be killed.

Instinct directs dogs, when the stomach is out
of order, to be their own physician; and it is to
them we owe our knowledge how to relieve it.
It may appear foreign to our present purpose,
yet as it is much (if true) to the honour of ani-
mals in general, I must beg leave to add, what
a French author tells us — that also by the hip-
popotamus we are instructed how to bleed, and
by the cratie how to give a clyster.

Madness, thou dreadful malady, what shall I
say to thee ! — or what preservative shall I find
against thy envenomed fang ! Somervile, who
declines writing of lesser ills, is not silent on
the subject of this.

118 TREATMENT AND

" Of lesser ills the Muse declines to sing,
Nor stoops so low ; of these each groom can tell
The proper remedy."

I wish this worthy gentleman, to whom we have
ab'eady been so much obliged, had been less
sparing of his instructions ; since it is possible
grooms may not have all the knowledge he sup-
poses them to have, and their masters may stand
in need of it. No man, I believe, will complain
of being too well informed ; nor is any know-
ledge unnecessary which is likely to be put in
practice. The executive part is fully sufficient
to trust in a groom's hands. The advice Somer-
vile gives on the subject of madness is worth
your notice :

" When Sirius reigns, and the sun's parching beams

Bake the dry gaping surface, visit thou

Each ev'n and morn, with quick observant eye,

Thy panting pack. If in dark sullen mood

The glouting hound refuse his wonted meal,

Retiring to some close, obscure retreat,

Gloomy, disconsolate ; with speed remove

The poor infectious wretch, and in strong chains

Bind him suspected. Thus that dire disease

"Which art can't cure, wise caution may prevent."

Plenty of water, whey, greens, physic, air, and
exercise, such as I have before mentioned, have
hitherto preserved my kennel from its baneful
influence ; and I make no doubt you will also

REMEDIES FOR JIADXESS. 119

find their good effects. If, notwithstanding, you
should at any time have reason to suspect the
approach of this evil, let your hounds be well
observed at the time when they feed : there can
be no danger whilst they will eat. Should a
whole pack be in the same predicament, they
must be chained up separately : and I should
be very cautious what experiment I tried to
cure them ; for I have been told by those who
have had madness in their kennels, and Avho
have drenched their hounds to cure it, that it
was the occasion of its breaking out a long time
afterwards, and that it continued to do so as
long as they gave them any thing to put it off.
If a few dogs only have been bitten, you had
better hang them. If you suspect any, you had
better separate them from the rest ; and a short
time, if you use no remedy, will determine
whether they are really bitten or not. Should
you, however, be desirous of trying a remedy,
the following prescription, I am told, is a very
good one :

Of Turbith's mineral, eight grains,
Ditto, sixteen grains,
Ditto, thirty-two grain?.

This is to be given for three mornings succes-
sively ; beginning the first day with eight grains,

120 SIR G. cob's medicine.

and increasing it according to the above di-
rection. The dog should be empty when he
takes it, and should have been bled the day
before. The dose should be given early in the
morning, and the dog may have some thin
broth, or pot liquor, about two or three o"'clock,
but nothing else during the time he takes the
medicine : he should also be kept from water.
The best way to give it is in butter, and made
up into balls, with a little flour. Care must be
taken that he does not throw it up again. Af-
ter the last day of the medicine, he may be fed
as usual. Various are the drenches and medi-
cines which are given for this disorder, and all
said to be infallible : this last, however, I pre-
fer. The whole pack belonging to a gentleman
in my neighbourhood was bitten.; and he assures
me, he never knew an instance of a dog who
went mad that had taken this medicine. The
caution I have recommended to you, I flatter
myself will preserve you from this dreadful
malady, for which I know not how to recom-
mend a remedy. Several years ago I had a
gamekeeper much bitten in the fleshy part of
his thigh : a horse, that was bitten at the same
time, died raving mad : the man was cured by
Sir George Cob's medicine. I have heard the

THE ORMSKIRK MEDICINE. 121

Ormskirk medicine is also very good. I have
given it to several persons in ray neighbourhood,
and, I believe, with success ; at least, I have
not, as yet, heard an}' thing to the contrary.
Though I mention these as the two most favou-
rite remedies, I recommend neither. Somer-
vile's advice, which I have already given, is
what I recommend to you : if properly attended
to, it will prevent the want of any remedy.

P. S. A Treatise on Canine Madness, written
by Dr. James, is well worth your reading. You
will find that he prescribes the same remedy for
the cure of madness in dogs as I have mentioned
here, but in different quantities. I have, how-
ever, taken the liberty of recommending the
quantities above mentioned, as they have been
known to succeed in my neighbourhood, and as
the efficacy of them has been very frequently
proved.

122 OF THE HUNTSMAN.

LETTER IX.

The variety of questions which you are pleased
to ask concerning the huntsman will be better
answered, I think, when we are on the subject
of hunting. In the mean time, I will endeavour
to describe what a good huntsman should be.
He should be young, strong and active, bold
and enterprising ; fond of the diversion, and in-
defatigable in the pursuit of it : he should be
sensible and good tempered ; he ought also to
be sober : he should be exact, civil, and cleanly .
he should be a good horseman, and a good
groom : his voice should be strong and clear,
and he should have an eye so quick, as to
perceive which of his hounds carries the scent
when all are running; and should have so ex-
cellent an ear, as always to distinguish the fore-
most hounds when he does not see them. He
should be quiet, patient, and without conceit.
Such are the excellencies which constitute a
good huntsman : he should not, however, be
too fond of displaying them till necessity calls

THE WHIPPKR-IN. 123

them forth. He should let his hounds alone
whilst they can hunt, and he should have
genius to assist them when they cannot.

With regard to the whipper-in, as you keep
two of them (and no pack of fox-hounds is com-
plete without), the first may be considered as a
second huntsman, and should have nearly the
same good qualities. It is necessary besides,
that he should be attentive and obedient to
the huntsman ; and as his horse will probably
have most to do, the lighter he is the better ;
but if he is a good horseman, it will suffici-
ently overbalance such an objection. He must
not be conceited. I had one formerly, who,
instead of stopping hounds as he ought, would
try to kill a fox by himself. This fault is
unpardonable : he should always maintain to
the huntsman's halloo, and stop such hounds
as divide from it. When stopped, he should
get forward with them after the huntsman.

He must always be contented to act an under
part, except when circumstances may require
that he should act otherwise ;* and the moment

• When the huntsman cannot be up with the hounds,
the whipper-in should ; in which case, it is the business
of the huntsman to bring on the tail hoiuids along with
him.

G 2

]2i OBSERVATIONS OS

they cease, he must not fail to resume his former
station. You have heard me say, that where
there is much riot, I prefer an excellent whip-
per-in to an excellent huntsman. The opinion,
I believe, is new ; 1 must, therefore, endeavour
to explain it. My meaning is this : that I think
I should have better sport, and. kill more foxes,
with a moderate huntsman and an excellent
whipper-in, than with the best of huntsmen
without such an assistant. You will say, per-
haps, that a good huntsman will make a good
whipper-in ; not such a one as I mean : his ta-
lent must be born with him. My reasons are,
that good hounds (and I would not keep bad
ones) stand oftener in need of the one than the
other ; and genius, which in a whipper-in, if
attended by obedience, his first requisite, can do
no hurt, in a huntsman is a dangerous, though
desirable, quality ; and if not accompanied with
a large share of prudence, and I may say humi-
lity, will often spoil your sport, and hurt your
hounds. A gentleman told me he lieard the fa-
mous Will Dean, when his hounds were running
hard in a line with Daventry, from whence they
were at that time many miles distant, swear ex-
ceedingly at the whipper-in, saying, " What bu-
siness have you here ?" Tlie man was amazed

THEIR RELATIVE DUTIES. 125

at the question. " ^Vhy, dori't you know,'''' said
he, " and he d — d to you, that the great earth
at Daventry is open ?" The man got forward,
and reached the earth just time enough to see
the fox go in. If, therefore, whippers-in are at
liberty to act as they shall think right, they are
much less confined than the huntsman himself,
who must follow his hounds ; and consequently
they have greater scope to exert their genius, if
they have any.

I had a dispute with an old sportsman of my
acquaintance, who contended that the whipper-
in should always attend the huntsman to obey
his orders, (a stable-boy, in that case, would
make as good a whipper-in as the best) : but
this is so far from being the case, that he should
be always on the opposite side of the cover from
him, or I am much mistaken in my opinion : if
within hearing of his halloo, he is near enough ;
for that is the hunting signal he is to obey.
The station of the second whipper-in may be
near the huntsman, for which reason any boy
that can halloo, and make a whip smack, may
answer the purpose.

Your first whipper-in being able to hunt the
hounds occasionally, will answer another good
purpose; it will keep your huntsman in order.

126 FIELD-MONEY.

They are very apt to be impertinent when they
think 3'ou cannot do without them.

At going from the kennel, the place of the
first whipper-in is before the hounds ; that of
the second whipper-in should be vSome distance
behind them ; if not, I fear they will not be
suffered even to empty themselves, let their
wants be ever so great ; for as soon as a boy is
made a whipper-in, he fancies he is to whip the
hounds whenever he can get at them, whether
they deserve it or not.

I have always thought a huntsman a happy
man : his office is pleasing, and at the same
time flattering : we pay him for that which
diverts him, and he is enriched by his greatest
pleasure ;* nor is a general, after a victory,
more proud than is a huntsman who returns
with his fox"'s head.

I have heard that a certain duke, who
allowed no vails to his servants, asked his
huntsman what he generally made of his
field-money, and gave him what he asked in-
stead of it. This went on very well for
some time, till at last the huntsman desired
an audience. "Your grace," said he, "is
very generous, and gives me more than ever
* The field-money which is collected at the death of a fox.

ON SCENT. 127

I got from field-money in my life ; yet I
come to beg a favour of your grace — that
you would let me take field-money again ; for
I have not half the pleasure now in killing a
fox that I had before."

As you ask my opinion of scent, I think I
had better give it you before we begin on the
subject of hunting. I must, at the same time,
take the liberty of telling you, that you have
puzzled me exceedingly ; for scent is, I believe,
what we sportsmen know least about ; and, to
use the words of a great classic writer, " Hoc
sum contentus, quod etiam si quo quidque fiat
ignorem, quid Jiat intelligo.'"' — Cic. de Div.

Somervile, wlio, as I have before observed, is
the only one I know of who has thrown any light
on the subject of hunting, says, I think, but lit-
tle about scent. I send you his words ; I shall
afterwards add a few of my own.

"• Should some raoi'e curious sportsman here inquire

Whence tliis sagacity, this wondrous power

Of tracing step by step or man or brute ?

What guide invisible points out their way

O'er the dank marsh, bleak hill, and sandy plain ?

The courteous Muse shall the dark cause reveal.

The blood that from the heart incessant rolls

In many a crimson tide, then here and there

In smaller rills disparted, as it flows

Propell'd, the serous particles evade

128 SCENT DEPENDS OM

Through th' open pores, and with the ambient air
Entangling mix. As fuming vapours rise,
And hang upon the gently purling brook,
There by th' incumbent atmosphere compress'd.
The panting chase grows warmer as he flies,
And through the net-work of the skin perspires.
Leaves a long, steaming, trail behind ; which by
The cooler air condens'd, remains, unless
By some rude storm dispers'd, or rareiied
By the meridian sun's intenser heat.
To every shrub the warm effluvia cling,
Hang on the grass, impregnate earth and skies.
With nostrils opening wide, o'er hill, o'er dale
The vig'rous hounds pursue, with ev'ry breath
Inhale the grateful steam, quick pleasures sting
Their tingling nerves, while they their thanks repay.
And in triumphant melody confess
The titillating joy. Thus, on the air
Depend the hunter's hopes."

I cannot agree with Mr. Somervile, in think-
ing scent depends on the air only. It depends
also on the soil. Without doubt, the best scent
is that which is occasioned by the effluvia, as he
calls it, or particles of scent, which are constantly
perspiring from the game as it runs, and are
strongest and most favourable to the hound
when kept, by the gravity of the air, to the
height of his breast ; for then it neither is
above his reach, nor is it necessary he should
stoop for it. At such times, scent is said to
lie breast-high. Experience tells us, that dif-

THE AIR AND THE SOIL. 129

ference of soil occasions difference of scent ;
and on the richness of soil and the moderate
moisture of it does scent also depend, I think,
as well as on the air. At the time leaves begin
to fall, and before they are rotted, we know
that the scent lies ill in cover. This alone
would be a sufficient proof that scent does
not depend on the air only. A difference of
scent is also occasioned by difference of mo-
tion : the faster the game goes, the less scent
it leaves. When game has been ridden after,
and hurried on by imprudent sportsmen, or
has been coursed by sheep-dogs, the scent is
less favourable to hounds ; one reason of which
may be, that the particles of scent are then more
dissipated.

I believe it is very difficult to ascertain what
scent exactly is: I have known it alter very
often in the same day. I believe, however, it
depends chiefly on two things, — " the condition
the ground is in, and the temperature of the
air ,■" both of which, I apprehend, should be
moist, without being wet. When both are in
this condition, the scent is then perfect ; and
vice versa, when the ground is hard, and the
air dry, there seldom will be any scent. It
scarce ever lies with a north or an east wind :
G 3

130 OF GOOD AND

a southerly wind without rain, and a westerly
wind that is not too rough, are the most favour-
able. Storms in the air are great enemies to
scent, and seldom fail to take it entirely away.
A fine sunshiny day is not often a good hunting
day ; but what the French call jour des dames,
warm without sun, is generally a perfect one :
there are not many such in a whole season. In
some fogs, I have known the scent lie high ; in
others, not at all ; depending, I believe, on the
quarter the wind is then in. I have known it
lie very high in a mist, when not too wet ; but
if the wet hangs much on the boughs and bushes,
it falls on the scent, and deadens it. When the
dogs roll, the scent, I have frequently observed,
seldom lies, for what reason I know not ; but,
with permission, if they smell strong when they
first come out of the kennel, the proverb is in
their favour ; and that smell is a prognostic
of good luck. When the cobwebs hang to the
bushes, there is seldom much scent. During a
white frost the scent lies high ; as it also does
when the frost is quite gone: there is a time,
just as it is going off", when it never lies : it
is a critical minute for hounds, in which their
game is frequently lost. In a great dew the
scent is the same. In heathy countries, where

BAD SCENTED DAYS. 131

the game brushes as it goes along, scent seldom
fails. Where the ground carries, the scent is bad,
for a very evident reason, which hare-hunters )
who pursue their game over greasy fallows and
through dirty roads, have great cause to com-
plain of. A wet night frequently produces
good chases, as then the game never like to
run the cover or the roads. It has been often
remarked, that scent lies best in the richest
soils ; and countries which are favourable to
horses are seldom so to hounds. I have also
observed, that in some particular places scent
never lies.

Never take out your hounds on a very windy
or bad day.

" These inauspicious days, on other cares
Employ thy precious hours ; th' improving friend
With open arms embrace, and from his lips
Glean science, season'd with good-natur'd wit ;
But if til' inclement skies, and angry Jove,
Forbid the pleasing intercourse, thy books
Invite thy ready hand ; each sacred page
Rich with the wise remarks of heroes old."

The sentiments of Mr. Somervile always do
him honour, but on no occasion more than on
this.

In reading over my letter, I find I have
used the word smell, in a sense that, per-

132 A NICE DISTINCTION.

haps, you will criticise. A gentleman, who,
I suppose, was not the sweetest in the world,
sitting in the front boxes at the playhouse, on
a crowded night, his neighbour very familiarly
told him he smelt strong. "No, sir," replied
he, with infinite good humour ; "it is you that
smell — I stink.''''

OF HARE-HUNTING. 133

LETTER X.

I THOUGHT I had been writing all this time
to a fox-hunter ; and hitherto my letters have
had no other object. I now receive a letter
from you, full of questions about hare-hunting;
to all of which you expect an answer. I must
tell you, at the same time, that though I kept
harriers many years, it was not my intention, if
you had not asked it, to have written on the
subject. By inclination I was never a hare-
hunter ; I followed this diversion more for air
and exercise than fcJr amusement ; and if I could
have persuaded myself to ride on the turnpike-
road to the three-mile stone, and back ao-ain, I
should have thought I had no need of a pack of
harriers. Excuse me, brother hare-hunters ! I
mean not to offend ; I speak only of the country
where I live. The hare-hunting there is so bad,
that, did you know it, your wonder would be
how I could have persevered in it so long, not
that I should forsake it now. I respect hunting,
in whatever shape it appears : it is a manly

134 THE KIND OF HOUND.

and a wholesome exercise, and seems by nature
designed to be the amusement of a Briton.

You ask, how many hounds a pack of harriers
should consist of? and what kind of hound is
best suited to that diversion ? You should
never, I think, exceed twenty couple in the
field ; it might be difficult to get a greater
number to run well together, and a pack of
harriers cannot be complete if they do not:*
besides, the fewer hounds you have, the less
you foil the ground, which you otherwise would
find a great hinderance to your hunting. Your
other question is not easily answered : the hounds,
I think, most likely to show you sport, are be-
tween the large slow-hunting harrier and the
little fox beagle : one is too dull, too heavy,
and too slow; the other, tcJb lively, too light,
and too fleet. The first, it is true, have most
excellent noses, and I make no doubt will kill
their game at last, if the day be long enough ;
but you know the days are short in winter, and
it is bad hunting in the dark. The others, on
the contrary, fling and dash, and are all alive ;

* A hound that runs too fa?t for the rest ought not to be
kept. Some huntsmen load them with heavy collars ; some
tie a long strap round (heir necks ; a better way would be,
to part with them. Whether they go too sIoav, or too fast,
tliey ought equally to be drafted.

THE HUNTSMAN. 135

but every cold blast affects them ; and if your
country is deep and wet, it is not impossible but
some of them may be drowned. My hounds
were a cross of both these kinds, in which it
was my endeavour to get as much bone and
strength in as small a compass as possible. It
was a difficult undertaking. I bred many years,
and an infinity of hounds, before I could get
what I wanted : I, at last, had the pleasure to
see them very handsome ; small, yet very bony :
they ran remarkably well together; ran fast
enough ; had all the alacrity you could desire ;
and would hunt the coldest scent. When they
were thus perfect, I did as many others do — I
parted with them.

It may be necessary to unsay, now I am
turned hare-hunter again, many things I have
been saying as a fox-hunter ; as I hardly know
any two things of the same genus (if I may be
allowed the expression) that differ so entirely.
What I said in a former letter, about the hunts-
man and whipper-in, are among the number:
as to the huntsman, I think, he should not be
young: I should most certainly prefer one, as
the French call it, d'un certain age, as he is to
be quiet and patient ; for patience, he should be
a very Grizzle ; and the more quiet he is, the

136

THE WHIPPER IN.

better. He should have infinite perseverance ;
for a hare should never be given up whilst it is
possible to hunt her ; she is sure to stop, and
therefore may always be recovered. Were it
usual to attend to the breed of our huntsmen,
aa well as to that of our hounds, I know no
family that would furnish a better cross than
that of the silent gentleman the Spectator men-
tions : a ferhale of his line, crossed with a know-
ing huntsman, would probably produce a perfect
hare-hunter.

The whipper-in also has little to do with the
one I before described : yet he may be like the
second whipper-in to a pack of fox-hounds ; the
stable-boy who is to follow the huntsman ; but
I would have him still more confined, for he
should not dare even to stop a hound, or smack
a whip, without the huntsman's order. Much
noise and rattle is directly contrary to the first
principles of hare-hunting, which is to be per-
fectly quiet, and to let your hounds alone. I
have seen few hounds so good as town packs,
that have no professed huntsman to follow them.
If they have no one to help them, they have at
the same time no one to spoil them ; which, I
believe, for this kind of hunting, is still more
material. I should, however, mention a fault

METHOD OF HUXTIXG. 137

I have observed, and which such hounds must
of necessity sometimes be guilty of, that is, run'
ning hack the heel. Hounds are naturally fond
of scent ; if they cannot carry it forward, they
will turn, and hunt it back again : hounds that
are left to tiiemselves make a fault of this, and
it is, I think, the only one they commonly have.
Though it is certainly best to let your hounds
alone, and thereby to give as much scope to
their natural instinct as you can, yet in this
particular instance you should check it mildly ;
for as it is almost an invariable rule in all hunt-
ing to make the head good, you should encourage
them to try forward first • which may be done
without taking them off their noses, or without
the least prejudice to their hunting. If trying
forward should not succeed, they may then be
suffered to try back again, which you will find
them all ready enough to do ; for they are sen-
sible how far they brought the scent, and where
they left it. The love of scent is natural to
them, and they have infinitely more sagacity in
it than we ought to pretend to. I have no doubt
but they often think us very obstinate, and very
foolish.

Harriers, to be good, like all other hounds,
must be kept to their own game. If you run

138 SPEED OF THE HARRIER.

fox with them, you spoil them. Hounds can-
not be perfect unless used to one scent, and one
style of hunting. Harriers run fox in so differ-
ent a style from hare, that it is of great disser-
vice to them when they return to hare again.
It makes them wild, and teaches them to skirt.
The high scent which a fox leaves, the straight-
ness of his running, the eagerness of the pursuit,
and the noise that generally accompanies it, all
contribute to spoil a harrier.

I hope you agree with me, that it is a fault
in a pack of harriers to go too fast ; for a hare
is a little timorous animal, that we cannot help
feeling some compassion for, at the very time
when we are pursuing her destruction : we
should give scope to all her little tricks, nor
kill her foully, and overmatched.* Instinct in-
structs her to make a good defence, when not
unfairly treated ; and I will venture to say,

* The critic terms this, "a mode of destruction some-
what beyond brutal," (vide Monthly Review). I shall
not pretend to justify that conventional cruelty, which
seems so universally to prevail ; neither will I ask the gen-
tleman, who is so severe on me, why he feeds the lamb,
and afterwards cuts his throat ; I mean only to consider
cruelty under the narrow limits which concern hunting.
If it may be defined to be a pleasure which results from
giving pain ; then, certainly, a sportsman is much less cruel
than he is thought.

OF HARE-FINDERS. 139

that, as far as her own safety is concerned, she
has more cunning than the fox, and makes many
shifts to save her hfe, far beyond all his artifice.
Without doubt, you have often heard of hares
who, from the miraculous escapes they have
made, have been thought witches ; but, I be-
lieve, you never heard of a fox that had cun-
ning enough to be thought a wizard.

They who like to rise early, have amusement
in seeing the hare trailed to her form; it is of
great service to hounds; it also shows their
goodness to the huntsman more than any other
hunting, as it discovers to him those who have
the most tender noses. But, I confess, I sel-
dom thought it worth while to leave my bed a
moment sooner on that account. I always
thought hare-hunting; should be taken as a ride
after breakfast, to get us an appetite to our
dinner. If you make a serious business of it, I
think you spoil it. Hare-finders, in this case,
are necessary : it is agreeable to know where to
go immediately for your diversion, and not beat
about for hours perhaps before you find. It is
more material, I think, with regard to the se-
cond hare than the first : for if you are warmed
with your gallop, the waiting long in the cold
afterwards is, I believe, as unwholesome as it is

140 OF HARE-FIXDERS.

disagreeable. Whoever does not mind this, had
better let his hounds find their own game ; they
will certainly hunt it with more spirit after-
wards, and he will have a pleasure himself in
expectation, which no certainty can ever give.
Hare-finders make hounds idle; they also make
them wild. Mine knew the men as well as I
did myself; could see them almost as far; and
would run full cry to meet them. Hare-finders
are of one great use : they hinder your hounds
from chopping hares, which they otherwise
could not fail to do. I had in my pack one
hound in particular that was famous for it ; he
would challenge on a trail very late at noon,
and had as good a knack at chopping a hare
afterwards ; he was one that liked to go the
shortest way to work, nor did he choose to take
more trouble than was necessary. Is it not
wonderful that the trail of a hare should lie
after so many hours, when the scent of her dies
away so soon .''

Hares are said (I know not with what truth)
to foresee a change of weather, and to seat
themselves accordingly. This is however cer-
tain, that they are seldom found in places much
exposed to the wind. In inclosures, I think,
they more frequently are found near to a hedge

OF HAIIE-FINDERS. 141

than in the middle of a fifld. They who make
a profession of hare-finding (and a very advan-
tageous one it is in some countries) are directed
by the wind where to look for their game.
With good eyes and nice observation, they are
enabled to find them in any weather. You may
make forms, and hares will sit in them. I have
heard it is a common practice with shepherds on
the Wiltshire downs ; and by making them on
the side of hills, they can tell at a distance off
whether there are hares in them or not. With-
out doubt, people frequently do not find hares
from not knowing them in their forms. A
gentleman, coursing with his friends, was shown
a hare that was found sitting. — " Is that a
hare ?" he cried : " then, by Jove, I found two
this morning as we rode along.''''

Though the talent of hare-finding is certainly
of use, and the money collected for it, when
given to shepherds, is money well bestowed by
a sportsman, as it tends to the preservation of
his game; yet, I think, when it is indiscrimi-
nately given, hare-finders often are too well
paid. I have known them frequently get more
than a guinea for a single hare. I myself have
paid five shillings in a morning for hares found
sitting. To make our companions pay dearly

142 MANNER OF HUNTING.

for their diversion, and oftentimes so much more
than it is worth ; to take from the pockets of
men, who oftentimes can ill afford it, as much as
would pay for a good dinner afterwards, is, in
tny opinion, a very ungenerous custom ; and
this consideration induced me to collect but
once, with my own hounds, for the hare-finders.
The money was afterwards divided amongst
them, and if they had less than half a crown
each, I myself supplied the deficiency. An old
miser, who had paid his shilling, complained
bitterly of it afterwards, and said, "Ae had been
made to pay a shilling for two-penny-worth
of sporty

When the game is found, you cannot be too
quiet : the hare is an animal so very timorous,
that she is frequently headed back, and your
dogs are liable to over-run the scent at every
instant : it is best, therefore, to keep a consider-
able way behind them, that they may have room
to turn as soon as they perceive they have lost
the scent ; and if treated in this manner, they
will seldom over-run it much. Your hounds,
through the whole chase, should be left almost
entirely to themselves, nor should tliey be
hallooed too much : when the hare doubles,
thev should hunt through those doubles ; nor

A PARTICULAR MODE. 143

is a hare hunted fairly when hunted otherwise.
They should follow her every step she takes, as
well over greasy fallows as through large flocks
of sheep; nor should they ever be cast but
when nothing can be done without it. I know
a gentleman, a pleasant sportsman, but a very
irregular hare-hunter, who does not exactly fol-
low the method here laid down. As his method
is very extraordinary, I will relate it to you.
His hounds are large and fleet; they have at
times hunted every thing, — red deer, fallow
deer, fox, and hare; and must in their nature
have been most excellent, since, notwithstanding
the variety of their game, they are still good.
When a hare is found sitting, he seldom fails to
give his hounds a view; and as they all halloo,
and make what noise they can, she is half fright-
ened to death immediately. This done, he then
sends his whipper-in to ride after her, with par-
ticular directions not to let her get out of his
sight; and he has found out that this is the
only proper use of a whipper-in. If they come
to a piece of fallow, or a flock of sheep, the
hounds are not sufl^ered to hunt any longer, but
are capped and hallooed as near to the hare as
possible: by this time the poor devil is near
her end, which the next view generally finishes ;

141 HOW TO DUESS A HARE.

the strongest hare, in this manner, seldom
standing twenty minutes : but my friend says,
a hare is good eating, and he therefore thinks
he cannot kill too many of them. By what
Martial says, I suppose he was of the same
opinion :

" Inter quadrupedes gloria prima lepus."

A-propos to the eating of them. — I must tell
you, that in the Encyclopedie, a book of uni>
versal knowledge, where, of course, I expected
to find something on hunting which might be
of service to you, as a sportsman, to know, I
found the following advice about the dressing
of a hare, which may be of use to your cook ;
and the regard I have for your health will not
suffer me to conceal it from you. — " On mange
le levraut roti dans quelques provinces du
Toyaume, en Gascogne et en Languedoc par
exemple, avec une sauce coinposee de vinaigre
et de Sucre, qui est mauvaise, mal-saine en soi
essentiellement, mais qui est surtout abomina-
ble pour tous ceux qui rCy sont pas accou-
tumes.'''' You, without doubt, therefore, will
think yourself obliged to the authors of the
Encyclopedie for their kind and friendly in-
formation.

A CURIOUS OPINION. 145

Having heard of a small pack of beagles to
be disposed of in Derbyshire, I sent my coach-
man, the person whom I could at that time best
spare, to fetch them. It was a long journe}^,
and not having been used to hounds, he had
some trouble in getting them along ; also, as
ill luck would have it, they had not been out
of the kennel for many weeks before, and were
so riotous, that they ran after every thing they
saw ; sheep, cur-dogs, and birds of all sorts, as
well as hares and deer, I found had been his
amusement all the way along : however, he lost
but one of the hounds by the way; and v.hen I
asked him what he thought of them, he said —
*' thev could not fail of being good hounds, for
they would hunt any thing.''''

In your answer to my last letter, you ask, of
what service it can be to a huntsman to be a
good groom, and whether I think he will hunt
hounds the better for it.-^ I wonder you did
not rather ask why he should be cleanly? I
should be more at a loss how to answer you.
My huntsman has always the care of his own
horses; I never yet knew one who did not thiuk
himself capable of it : it is for that reason I wish
him to be a good groom.

H

146 DISCRETION INDISPENSABLE.

You say, you cannot see how a huntsman of
genius can spoil your sport, or hurt your
hounds. I will tell you how. By too much
foul play he frequently will catch a fox before
he is half tired ; and, by lifting his hounds too
much, he will teach them to shuffle. An im-
proper use of the one may spoil your sport :
too frequent use of the other must hurt your
hounds.

HARE-HUNTING RESUMED. 147

LETTER XI.

I HAVE already observed that a trail in the
morning is of great service to hounds, and that
to be perfect they should always find their own
game ; for the method of hare-finding, though
more convenient, will occasion some vices in
them, which it will be impossible to correct.

Mr. Somervile's authority strengthens my ob-
servation, that when a hare is found, all should
be quiet; nor should you ride near your hounds,
till they are well settled to the scent.

" Let all be hush'd.
No clamour loud, no frantic joy be heard ;
Lest the wild hound run gadding o'er the plain
Untractable, nor hear thy chiding voice."

The natural eagerness of the hounds will, at
such a time as this, frequently carry even the
best of them wide of the scent, which too much
encouragement, or pressing too close upon them,
may continue beyond all possibility of recovery :
this should be always guarded against. After a
little while, you have less to fear. You may
h2

148 THE SHIFTS AND DOUBLES

then approach them nearer, and encourage them
more ; leaving, however, at all times sufficient
room for them to turn, should they over-run the
scent. On high roads and dry paths, be always
doubtful of the scent, nor give them much en-
couragement ; but when a hit is made on either
side, you may halloo as much as you please, nor
can you then encoui^age your hounds too much.
A hare generally describes a circle as she runs ;
larger or less, according to her strength and the
openness of the country. In inclosures, and
where there is much cover, the circle is for the
most part so small, that it is a constant puzzle
to the hounds. They have a Gordian knot, in
that case, ever to unloose ; and though it may
afford matter of speculation to the philosopher,
it is always contrary to the wishes of the sports-
man. Such was the country I hunted in for
many years.

" Huntsman ! her gait observe : if in wide rings
She wheel her mazy way, in the same round
Persisting still, she'll foil the beaten track ;
But if she fly, and with the fav'ring wind
Urge her bold course, less intricate thy task :
Push on thy pack."

SOMERVILE.

Besides running the foil, they frequently make
doubles, which is going forward to tread the same

OF THE HARE DESCRIBED. 149

Steps back again, on purpose to confuse their
pursuers ; and the same manner in which they
make the first double they generally continue,
whether long or short. This information, there-
fore, if properly attended to by the huntsman,
may also be of use to him in his casts.

When they make their double on a high road,
or dry path, and then leave it with a spring, it
is often the occasion of a long fault : the spring
which a hare makes on these occasions is hardly
to be credited, any more than is her ingenuity
in making it ; both are wonderful !

" Let cavillers deny
That brutes have reason ; sure 'tis something more :
'Tis Heav'n directs, and stratagems inspires
Beyond the short extent of human thought."

SOJIERVILE.

She frequently, after running a path a consider-
able way, will make a double, and tiien stop till
the hounds have past her ; she will then steal
away as secretly as she can, and return the
same way she came. This is the greatest of all
trials for hounds. It is so hot a foil, that in the
best packs there are not many hounds that can
hunt it; you must follow those hounds that can,
and try to hit her off where she breaks her foil,
which in all probability she will soon do, as she
now flatters herself she is secure. When the

150 TALKING IN THE

scent lies bad in cover, she will sometimes hunt

the hounds.

" The covert's utmost bound
Slily she skirts ; behind them cautious creeps,
And in that very track so lately stain'd
By all the steaming crowd, seems to pursue
The foe she Hies."

SOMEEVILE.

When the hounds are at a check, make your
huntsman stand still, nor suffer him to move his
liorse one way or the other : hounds lean natu-
rally towards the scent, and if he does not say
a word to them, will soon recover it. If you
speak to a hound at such a time, calling him by
his name, which is too much the practice, he
seldom fails to look up in your face, as much as
to say, what the deuce do you want? When
he stoops to the scent again, is it not probable
he means to say, you fooU you, let me alone !

When your hounds are at fault, let not a
word be said : let such as follow them ignorantly
and unworthily stand all aloof, — Procul, O pro-
cul este profani ! for whilst such are chattering,
not a hound will hunt. ^^A-propos, sir," a poli-
tician will say ; " what news from America ? —
A-propos, Do you think both the admirals will
be tried ?''"' — Or, " A-propos, Did you hear what
has happened to my grandmother.'*" Such

FIELD REPROBATED. 151

questions are, at such a time, extremely trou.
blesome, and very mal-d-propos. Amongst the
antients it was reckoned an ill omen to speak in
hunting. I wish it were thought so now. Hoc
age should be one of the first maxims in hunting,
as in life : and I can assure you, when I am in
the field, I never wish to hear any other tongue
than that of a hound. A neighbour of mine
was so truly a hare-hunter in this particular,
that he would not suffer any body to speak a
word when his hounds were at fault. A ffentle-
man happened to cough ; he rode up to him
immediately, and said, " / wish, sir, with all
my heart, your cough was better.''''

In a good day, good hounds seldom give up
the scent at head ; if they do, there is generally
an obvious reason for it : this observation a
huntsman should always make : it will direct his
cast. If he is a good one, he will be attentive
as he goes, not only to his hounds, nicely ob-
serving which have the lead, and the degree
of scent they carry, but also to the various cir-
cumstances that are continually happening from
change of weather, and difference of ground.
He will also be mindful of the distance which
the hare keeps before the hounds, and of her
former doubles ; and he will remark what point

152 CONDUCT WHEN AT FAULT.

she makes to. All these observations will be
of use, should a long fault make his assistance
necessary ; and if the hare has headed back, he
will carefully observe whether she met any thing
in her course to turn her, or turned of her own
accord. When he casts his hounds, let him
begin by making a small circle ; if that will not
do, then let him try a larger : he afterwards may
be at liberty to persevere in any cast he may
judge most likely. As a hare generally revisits
her old haunts, and returns to the place where
she was found, if the scent is quite gone, and the
hounds can no longer hunt, that is as likely a
cast as any to recover her. Let him remember
this in all his casts, that the hounds are not to
follow his horse's heels ; nor are they to carry
their heads high, and noses in the air. At these
times they must try for the scent, or they will
never find it ; and he is either to make his cast
slow or quick, as he perceives his hounds try,
and as the scent is either good or bad.

Give particular directions to your huntsman to
prevent his hounds, as much as he can, from
chopping hares. Huntsmen like to get blood at
any rate ; and when hounds are used to it, it
would surprise you to see how attentive the} are
to tind opportunities. A hare must be very

HARES RUN BEST IN A FOG. 153

wild, or very nimble, to escape them. I remem-
ber, in a furzy country, that my hounds chop-
ped three hares in one morning ; for it is the
nature of those animals either to leap up before
the hounds come near them, and steal away, as
it is called ; or else to lie close, till they put
their very noses upon them. Hedges, also, are
very dangerous : if the huntsman beats the
hedge himself, which is the visual practice, the
hounds are always upon the watch, and a hare
must have good luck to escape them all. The
best way to prevent it, is to have the hedge well
beaten at some distance before the hounds.

Hares seldom run so well as when they do not
know where they are. They run well in a fog,
and generally take a good country. If they set
off down the wind, they seldom return ; you
then cannot push on your hounds too much.
When the game is sinking, you will perceive
your old hounds get forward ; they then will
run at head.

'' Hapj)y the man who with unrivall'd speed

Can pass his fellows, and with pleasure view

The struggling pack ; how in the rapid course

Alternate they preside, and jostling push

To guide the dubious scent ; liow giddy youth

Oft babbling errs, by wiser age reprov'd ;

How, niggard of his strength, the wise old hound

h3

154 HARAIOXY OF THE TACK.

Hangs in the rear, till some important point
Rouse all his diligence, or till the chase
Sinking he finds : then to the head he springs,
With thirst of glory fir'd, and wins the prize."

SOMEKVILE,

Keep no babblers ; for though the rest of the
pack soon find them out, and do not mind them,
yet it is unpleasant to hear their noise ; nor are
such fit companions for the rest.

Though the Spectator makes us laugh at the
oddity of his friend. Sir Roger, for returning a
hound, which he said was an excellent bass, be-
cause he wanted a coiinter-tenor ; yet I am of
opinion, that if we attended more to the variety
of the notes frequently to be met with in the
tongues of hounds, it might greatly add to the
harmony of the pack. I do not know that a
complete concert could be obtained, but it
■would be easy to prevent discordant sounds.

Keep no hound that runs false : the loss of
one hare is more than such a doo- is worth.

I think it is but reasonable to give your
hounds a hare sometimes ; I always gave mine
the last they killed, if I thought they deserved
her.

It is ioo much the custom, first to ride over a
dog, and tlieu cry ''ware horse ! Take care not
to ride over your hounds : I have known many

A HINT TO SPORTSMEN. 155

a good dog spoiled by it. In open ground speak
to them first ; you may afterwards ride over
them, if you please ; but in roads and paths
they frequently cannot get out of your way : it
surely then is your business either to stop your
horse, or break the way for them ; and the not
doing it, give me leave to say, is absurd and
cruel ; nor can that man be called a good sports-
man who thus wantonly destroys his own sport.
Indeed, good sportsmen seldom ride on the line
of the tail hounds.

You ask how my warren hares are caught .'*
It shall be the subject of my next letter.

156 OF A HARE-WARREN.

LETTER XII.

You wish to know how my warren-hares are

caught ? They are caught m traps, not unlike

the common rat-traps. I leave mine always at

the muses, but they are set only when hares are

wanted : the hares, by thus constantly going

through them, have no mistrust, and are easily

caught. These traps should be made of old

wood, and even then it will be some time before

they will venture through them. Other muses

must be also left open, lest a distaste should

make them forsake the place. To my warren I

have about twenty of these traps ; though as the

stock of hares is great, I seldom have occasion

to set more than five or six, and scarcely ever

fail of catching as many hares. The warren is

paled in, but I found it necessary to make the

muses of brick ; that is, where the traps are

placed. Should you at any time wish to make

a hare-warren, it will be necessary for you to see

one first, and examine the traps, boxes, and

stoppers, to all which there are particularities

HARES HOW CAUGHT. 157

^not easy to be described. Should you find the
hares, towards the end of the season, shy of the
traps, from having been often caught, it will be
necessary to drive them in with spaniels. Should
this be the case, you will find them very thick
round the warren ; for the warren-hares will be
unwilling to leave it, and, when disturbed by
dogs, will immediately go in.

If you turn them out before greyhounds, you
cannot give them too much law ; if before hounds,
you cannot give them too little ; for reasons
which I will give you presently. Though hares,
as I told you before, never run so well before
hounds as when they do not know where they
are, yet before greyhounds it is the reverse ;
and your trap-hares, to run well, should always
be turned out within their knowledge : they are
naturally timid, and are easily disheartened when
they have no point to make to for safety.

If you turn out any before your hounds,
(which, if it is not your wish, I shall by no
means recommend,) do not give them much time,
but lay on your hounds as soon as they are out
of view : if you do not, they will very likely
stop, which is often fatal. Views are at all
times to be avoided, but particularly with trap-
hares ; for, as these know not where they are,

158 METHOD OF HUNTING THEM.

the hounds have too great an advantage over^
them. It is best to turn them down the wind ;
they hear the hounds better, and seldom turn
again. Hounds for this business should not be
too fleet. These hares run straight, and make
no doubles ; they leave a strong scent, and have
other objections in common with animals turned
out before hounds : they may give you a gallop,
but they will show but little hunting. The
hounds are to be hunted like a pack of fox-hounds,
as a trap-hare runs very much in the same man-
ner, and will even top the hedges. What I
should prefer to catching the hares in traps would
be a warren in the midst of an open country,
which might be stopped close on hunting-days.
This would supply the whole country with hares,
which, after one turn round the warren, would
most probably run straight an end. The num-
ber of hares a warren would supply is hardly to
be conceived ; I seldom turned out less in one
year than thirty brace of trap-hares, besides a
great many more killed in the environs, of which
no account was taken. My warren is a wood of
near thirty acres ; one of half the size would
answer the purpose to the full as well. Mine
is cut out into many walks; a smaller warren
should have only one, and that round the out-

SEASON WHEN TERMINATED. 159

side of it. No dog should ever be suffered to
go into it ; and traps should be constantly set
for stoats and polecats. It is said, parsley makes
hares strong : they certainly are very fond of
eating it ; it therefore cannot be amiss to sow
some within the warren, as it will be a means of
keeping your hares more at home.

I had once some conversation with a gentle-
man about the running of my trap-hares, who
said he had been told that the catching a hare,
and tying a "piece of ribbon to her ear^ was a
sure way to make her run straight. I make
no doubt of it, — and so would a canister tied to
her tail.

I am sorry you should think I began my first
letter on the subject of hare-hunting in a manner
that might offend any of my brother sportsmen.
It was not hare-hunting I meant to depreciate,
but the country I hunted hare in. It is very
good diversion in a good country : you are al-
ways certain of sport ; and if you really love to
see your hounds hunt, the hare, when properly
hunted, will show you more of it than any other
animal.

You ask me, what is the right time to leave
off hare-hunting ? You should be guided in
that by the season : you should never hunt after

160 STAG-HUNTING AT TURIN.

March ; and, if the season is forward, you should
leave off sooner.

Having now so considerably exceeded the
plan I first proposed, you may wonder if I omit
to say any thing of stag-hunting. Believe me,
if I do, it will not be for want of respect, but
because I have seen very little of it. It is true,
1 hunted two winters at Turin; but their hunt-
ing, you know, is no more like ours, than is the
hot meal you there stand up to eat, to the
English breakfast you sit down to here. Were
I to describe their manner of hunting, their in-
finity of dogs, their number of huntsmen, their
relays of horses, their great saddles, great bits,
and jack-boots, it would be no more to our pre-
sent purpose than the description of a wild-boar
chase in Germany, or the hunting of jackals in
Bengal. Cest une chasse magnijiqite, et voila
tout. However, to give you an idea of their
huntsmen, I must tell you that one day the stag
(which is very unusual) broke cover, and left
the forest ; a circumstance which gave as much
pleasure to me as displeasure to all the rest — it
put every thing into confusion. I followed one
of the huntsmen, thinking he knew the country
best ; but it was not long before we were sepa-
rated : the first ditch we came to stopped him.

AN ODD ACCIDENT. 161

I, eager to go on, hallooed out to him, '^'^ Allans,
piqueur, sautez done.'''' — '•^ Non pardi,'''' replied
he, very coolly, " cest un double fosse : je ne
saute pas des double fosses.'''' There was also
an odd accident the same day, which, as it hap-
pened to a great man, even to the king himself,
you may think interesting; besides it was the
occasion of a bon mot worth your hearing. The
king, eager in the pursuit, rode into a bog, and
was dismounted : he was not hurt — he was soon
on his legs, and we were all standing round him.
One of his old generals, who was at some dis-
tance behind, no sooner saw the king off his
horse, but he rode up full gallop to know the
cause : " Qii'est ce que c''est ? qu'est ce que
c'est ? " cries the old general, and in he tumbles
into the same bog. Count KevenhuUer, with
great humour, replied, pointing to the place,
" Voila ce que c''est ! voila ce que c''est ! "

With regard to the stag-hunting in this coun-
try, as I have already told you, I know but
little of it : you will without doubt think that a
good reason for my saying nothing about it.

162 DESCKIPTION OF A

LETTER XIII.

In some of the preceding letters we have, I
think, settled the business of the kennel in all
its parts, and determined what should be the
number, and what are the necessary qualifica-
tions of the attendants, on the hounds ; we also
agree in opinion, that a pack should consist of
about twenty-five couple. I shall now proceed
to give some account of the use of them. You
desire I would be as particular as if you were to
hunt the hounds yourself: to obey you, there-
fore, I think I had better send you a description
of an imaginary chase, in which I shall be at
liberty to describe such events as probably may
happen, and to which your present inquiries
seem most to lead ; a further and more circum-
stantial explanation of them will necessarily be-
come the subject of my future letters. I am at
the same time well aware of the difficulties at-
tending): such an undertaking. A fox-chase is
not easy to be described ; yet as even a faint
description of it may serve, to a certain degree,
as an answer to the various questions you are

FOX-CHASE ATTEMPTED. 163

pleased to make concerning that diversion, I
shall prosecute my attempt iu such a manner as
I think may suit your purpose best. As I fear
it may read ill, it shall not be long. A gentle-
man, to whose understanding nature had most
evidently been sparing of her gifts, as often as
he took up a book and met with a passage
which he could not comprehend, was used to
write in the margin opposite matiere embrouillee,
and gave himself no further concern about it.
As different causes have been known to produce
the same effects, should you treat me in like
manner, I shall think it the severest censure that
can be passed upon me. Our friend Somervile,
I apprehend, was no great fox-hunter ; yet all
he says on the subject of hunting is so sensible
and just, that I shall turn to his account of fox-
hunting, and quote it where I can. The hour
in the morning most favourable to the diversion
is certainly an early one, nor do 1 think I can
fix it better than to say the hounds should be
at the cover at sun-rising. Let us suppose we
are arrived at the cover side.

" Delightful scene I
Where all around is gay, men, horses, dogs ;
And in eacli smiling countenance appears
Fresh blooming health, and universal joy."

SOilERVlLE.

164< SILENCE WHEN DKAWIXG.

Now let your huntsman throw in his hounds
as quietly as he can, and let the two whippers-
in keep wide of him on either hand, so that a
single hound may not escape them ; let them
be attentive to his halloo, and be ready to en-
courage or rate, as that directs ; he will, of
course, draw up the wind, for reasons which I
shall give in another place. Now if you can
keep your brother sportsmen in order, and put
any discretion into them, you are in luck ;
they more frequently do harm than good : if
it be possible, persuade those who wish to halloo
the fox oflP to stand quiet under the cover side,
and on no account to halloo him too soon ; if
they do, he most certainly will turn back again :
could you entice them all into the cover, your
sport, in all probability, would not be the worse
for it.

How well the hounds spread the cover ! —
the huntsman, you see, is quite deserted, and
his horse, which so lately had a crowd at his
heels, has not now one attendant left. How
steadily they draw ! — you hear not a single
hound, yet none are idle. Is not this better
than to be subject to continual disappoint-
ment, from the eternal babbling of unsteady
hounds.''

THE FOX FOUND. 165

" See ! how they range
Dispersed, how biisilj this way and that
They cross, examining with curious nose
Each likely haunt. Hark ! on the drag I hear
Their doubtful notes, preluding to a cry
More nobly full, and swell'd with every mouth."

SOMERVILE.

How musical their tongues ! — Now as they get

nearer to him, how the chorus fills ! Hark ! he

is found. Now, where are all your sorrows,

and your cares, ye gloomy souls? Or where

your pains and aches, ye complaining ones ?

One halloo has dispelled them all. What a

crash they make ! and echo seemingly takes

pleasure to repeat the sound. The astonished

traveller forsakes his road, lured by its melody :

the listening ploughman now stops his plough ;

and every distant shepherd neglects his flock,

and runs to see him break. What joy ! what

eagerness in every face !

'' iiow happy art thou, man, when thou'rt no more
Thyself ! when all the pangs that grind thy soul,
In rapture and in sweet oblivion lost,
Yield a short interval, and ease from pain !"

SOMERVILE.

Mark how he runs the cover's utmost limits, yet
dares not venture forth : the hounds are still too
near. That check is lucky: — now, if our friends
head him not, he will soon be off — hark ! they
halloo : by G — d, he's gone.

166 EMULATION OF THE HOUNDS.

" Hark ! what loud shouts
Be-echo through the groves ! he breaks away :
Shrill horns proclaim his flight. Each straggling hound
Strains o'er the lawn to reach the distant pack.
'Tis triumph all, and joy."

Now, huntsman, get on with the head hounds ;

the whipper-in will bring on the others after

you : keep an attentive eye on the leading

hounds, that should the scent fail them, you

may know at least how far they brought it.

Mind Galloper, how he leads them ! It is

difficult to distinguish which is first, they run

in such a style ; yet he is the foremost hound.

The goodness of his nose is not less excellent

than his speed. How he carries the scent !

and when he loses it, see how eagerly he flings

to recover it again. There — now he's at head

again. — See how they top the hedge ! Now,

how they mount the hill ! Observe what a

head they carry ; and show me, if you can,

one shuffler or skirter amongst them all : are

they not like a parcel of brave fellows, who,

when they undertake a thing, determine to

share its fatigue and its dangers equally a-

mongst them ?

" Far o'er the rocky hills we range,
And dangerous our course ; but in the brave
True courage never fails. In vain the stream
In foaming eddies whirls, in vain the ditch

EMULATION OF THE HOUNDS. 167

Wide gaping threatens death. The craggy steep.
Where the poor dizzy shepherd crawls with care,
And clings to every twig, gives us no pain ;
But down we sweep, as stoops the falcon bold
To pounce his prey. Then up th' oj)ponent hill,
By the swift motion slung, we mount aloft :
So ships in winter seas now sliding sink
Adown the steepy wave, then toss'd on high.
Ride on the billows, and defy the storm."

SOMERVILE.

It was then the fox I saw as we came down the
hill : those crows directed me which way to look,
and the sheep ran from him as he passed along.
The hounds are now on the very spot ; yet the
sheep stop them not, for they dash beyond them.
Now see with what eagerness they cross the plain !
Galloper no longer keeps his place. Brusher
takes it : see how he flings for the scent, and
how impetuously he runs ! How eagerly he
took the lead, and how he strives to keep it !
yet Victor comes up apace. He reaches him !
See what an excellent race it is between them !
It is doubtful which will reach the cover first.
How equally they run ! how eagerly they strain !
— now Victor, Victor ! Ah ! Brusher you are
beat : Victor first tops the hedge. See there !
see how they all take it in their strokes ! The
hedge cracks with their weight, so many jump
at once.

168 THE FOX HEADED BACK.

Now hastes the whipper-in to the other side

the cover : he is right, unless he heads the fox.

"Heav'ns! what melodious strains ! liow beat our hearts
]iig with tumultuous joy ! the loaded gales
Breathe harmony ; and as the tempest drives
From wood to wood, through ev'rv dark recess
The forest thunders, and the mountains shake."

SOMERVILE.

Listen ! — the hounds have turned. They are
now in two parts. The fox has been headed
back, and we have changed at last.

Now, my lad, mind the huntsman's halloo,
and stop to those hounds which he encourages.
He is right ! — that, doubtless, is the hunted
fox. Now they are off again.

" What lengths we pass ! where will the wand'ring chase
Lead us bewilder'd ! Smooth as swallows skim
The new-shorn mead, and far more swift, we fly.
See my brave pack ! how to the head they press,
Jostling in close array, then more diffuse
Obliquely wheel, while fi'om their op'ning mouths
The vollied thunder breaks.

Look back and view

The strange contusion of the vale below,

Where sore vexation reigns

Old age laments

His vigour spent : the tall, plumj), brawny youth

Curses his cumbrous buik ; and envies now

The short pygmean race, he whilom kenn'd

With proud insulting leer. A chosen few

Alone the sport enjoy, nor droop beneath

Their pleasing toils." Somervjle.

A CHECK. 169

Ha I a check. Now for a moment''s patience.
We press too close upon the hounds ! Hunts-
man, stand still : as yet they want you not.
How admirably they spread I how wide they
cast ! Is there a single hound that does not
try ? if such a one there be, he ne''er shall hunt
again. There, Trueman is on the scent : he
feathers, yet still is doubtful : 'tis right ! how
readily they join him ! See those wide-casting
hounds, how they fly forward to recover the
ground they have lost ! Mind Lightnings how
she dashes ; and Mungo^ how he works ! Old
Frantic, too, now pushes forward : she knows,
as well as we, the fox is sinking.

" Ha ! yet he flies, nor yields
To black despair. But one loose niore, and all
His wiles are vain. Hark ! through yon village now
The rattling clamour rings. The barns, the cots,
And leafless elms return the joyous sounds.
Through ev'ry homestall and through ev'ry yard,
His midnight walks, panting, forlorn, he flies :

th' unerring hounds

With peals of echoing vengeance close pursue."

SOMKRVILE.

Huntsman ! at fault at last .'' How far did
you bring the scent ? Have the hounds made
their own cast ? Now make yours. You
see that sheep-dog has been coursing the fox :

170 AT FAULT.

get forward with your hounds, and make a
wide cast.

Hark ! that halloo is indeed a lucky one.
If we can hold him on, we may yet recover
him ; for a fox so much distressed must stop
at last. We now shall see if they will hunt
as well as run ; for there is but little scent,
and the impending cloud still makes that little
less. How they enjoy the scent ! See how
busy they all are, and how each in his turn
prevails !

Huntsman, be quiet ! Whilst the scent was
good, you pressed on your hounds : it was
well done. Your hounds were afterwards at
fault ; you made your cast with judgment,
and lost no time. You now must let them
hunt : with such a cold scent as this you can
do no good. — 'I'hey must do it all themselves.
— Lift them noAv, and not a hound will stoop
again. — Ha ! a high road, at such a time as
this, when the tenderest-nosed hound can hard-
ly own the scent ! — Another fault ! That
man at work, then, has headed back the fox.
— Huntsman! cast not your hounds now; —
you see they have over-run the scent : have
a little patience, and let them, for once, try
back.

LAST SHIFTS. I7I

We now must give them time. See where
they bend towards yonder furze-brake ! I
wish he may have stopped there ! Mind that
old hound, how he dashes over the furze ; I
think he winds him ! Now for a fresh en-
tapis ! — Hark! they halloo! — Ay, there he
goes !

It is near over with him : had the hounds
caught view he must have died. He will hardly
reach the cover. See how they gain upon him
at every stroke ! It is an admirable race ! yet
the cover saves him.

Now be quiet, and he cannot escape us: we
have the wind of the hounds, and cannot be
better placed. How short he runs I — he is
now in the very strongest part of the cover.
What a crash ! every hound is in, and every
hound is running for him. That was a quick
turn ! Again another ! — he''s put to his last
shifts. Now Mischief is at his heels, and death
is not far off. Ha ! they all stop at once : all
silent, and yet no earth is open. Listen ! — now
they are at him again ! Did you hear that
hound catch view ? They had over-run the
scent, and the fox had lain down behind them.
Now, Reynard, look to yourself ! How quick
I 2

172 DEATH OF THE FOX.

they all give their tongues ! Little Dread-
nought, how he works him ! the terriers, too,
they now are squeaking at him. How close
Vengeance pursues ! how terribly she presses !
It is just up with him ! Gods! what a crash
they make ! the whole wood resounds ! That
turn was very short ! There !— r-now — ay, now
they have him ! Who-hoop !

RETROSPECTIVE REMARKS. 173

LETTER XIV.

Fox-hunting, however lively and animating
it may be in the field, is but a dull, dry subject
to write upon ; and I can now assure you, from
experience, that it is much less difficult to fol-
low a fox-chase than to describe one. You will
easily imagine, that to give enough of variety to
a single action, to make it interesting, and to
describe in a few minutes the events of, perhaps,
as many hours, though it pretends to no merit,
has at least some difficulty and trouble; and
you will as easily conclude that I am glad they
are over.

You desire me to explain that part of my last
letter, which says, if we can hold him on, we
may now recover him. It means, if we have
scent to follow on the line of him, it is probable
he will stop, and we may hunt up to him again.
You also object to my saying catch a fox : you
call it a bad expression, and say it is not sportly :
I believe that I have not often used it; and
when I have, it has been to distinguish betwixt

174 MODERN FOX-HUNTING.

the hunting a fox down, as you do a hare, and
the killing of him with hard running. You tell
me, I should always kill a fox. I might answer,
that I must catch him first.

You say, I have not enlivened my chase with
many halloos : it is true I have not ; and, what
is worse, I fear I am never likely to meet your
approbation in that particular ; for should we
hunt together, then I make no doubt you will
think I halloo too much ; a fault which every
one is guilty of who really loves this animating
sport, and is eager in the pursuit of it. Believe
me, I never could halloo in my life, unless after
hounds ; and the writing a halloo appears to me
almost as difficult as to peii a whisper.

Your friend A , you say, is very severe

on us fox-hunters. No one is more welcome.
However, he ought to have known that the pro-
fession of fox-hunting is much altered since the
time of Sir John Vanbrugh ; and the intempe-
rance, clownishness, and ignorance oi the old
fox -hunter are quite worn out : a much truer
definition of one might now be made than that
which he has left. Fox-hunting is now become
the amusement of gentlemen ; nor need any
gentleman be ashamed of it.

I shall now begin to answer your various

EARLY HOURS. 175

questions, as they present themselves. Though
I was glad of this expedient to methodize, in
some degree, the variety we have to treat of,
yet I was well aware of the impossibility of suf-
ficiently explaining myself in the midst of a
fox-chase, whose rapidity, you know very well,
brooks no delay. Now is the time, therefore,
to make good that deficiency : what afterwards
remains on the subject of hunting will serve as
a supplement to the rest ; in which I shall still
have it in my power to introduce whatever may
be now forgotten, or give a further explanation
of such parts as may seem to you to require it.
For since my sole view in writing these let-
ters is to make the instruction they contain of
some use to you, if you should want it, if
not, to others, — the being as clear and as expli-
cit as I can will be far beyond all other consi-
derations. Repetitions, we know, are shocking
things ; yet, in writing so many letters on the
same subject, I fear it will be difficult to avoid
them.

First, then, as to the early hour recommended
in my former letter : — I agree with you, it
requires explanation ; but you will please to con-
sider, that you desired me to fix the hour most
favourable to the sport, and, without doubt,

176 A FAIR SPORTSMAN.

it is an early one.* You say, I do not go out
so early myself. It is true that I do not: do
physicians always follow their own prescrip-
tions.? Is it not sufficient that their prescrip-
tions be good .? However, if my hounds are
out of blood, I go out early, for then it becomes
necessary to give them every advantage. At an
early hour you are seldom long before you find.
The morning is the time of the day which gene-
rally affords the best scent, and the animal him-
self, wliich in such a case you are more than
ever desirous of killing, is then least able to
run away from you. The want of rest, and
perhaps a full belly, give hounds a great advan-
tage over him. I expect, my friend, that you
will reply to this, " a fox-hunter, then, is not a
fair sportsman^ He certainly is not ; and,
what is more, would be very sorry to be mis^
taken for one. He is otherwise from principle.
In his opinion, a fair sportsman and a foolish
sportsman are synonymous ; he therefore takes
every advantage of the fox he can. You will
ask, perhaps, if he does not sometimes spoil his
own sport by this.? It is true he sometimes
does, but then he makes his hounds ; the whole

* An early hour is only necessary where you are not
likely to find without a drug.

ANECDOTE. 177

art of fox-hunting being to keep the hounds
well in blood. Sport is but a secondary consi-
deration with a true fox-hunter. The first is,
the killing of the fox : hence arises the eager-
ness of pursuit, and the chief pleasure of the
chase. I confess, I esteem blood so necessary
to a pack of fox-hounds, that, with regard to
myself, I always return home better pleased
with an indifferent chase, with death at the end
of it, than with the best chase possible, if it
ends with the loss of the fox. Good chases,
generally speaking, are long chases ; and, if not
attended with success, never fail to do more
harm to hounds than good. Our pleasures, I
believe, for the most part, are greater during
the expectation than the enjoyment. In this
case, reality itself warrants the idea, and your
present success is almost a sure forerunner of
future sport.

I remember to have heard an odd anecdote
of the late Duke of R , who was very po-
pular in his neighbourhood. A butcher, at
Lyndhurst, a lover of the sport, as often as he
heard the hounds return from hunting, came
out to meet them, and never failed to ask the
Duke what sport he had ? " Very good, I
thank you, honest friend." — " Has your Grace
I 3

178 ON DRAWING.

killed a fox ?" — "iVb ; we have had a good run,
but we have not killed,"" — " Pshaw /" cried the
butcher, with an arch look, pointing at him at
the same time with his finger : and this was so
constantly repeated, that the Duke, when he
had not killed a fox, was used to say, he was
afraid to meet the butcher.

You ask, why the huntsman is to draw so
quietly, and why up the wind ? With regard to
his drawing quietly, that may depend on the
kind of cover which he is drawing, and also on
the season of the year. If your covers are small,
or such from wliich a fox cannot break unseen,
then noise can do no hurt ; if you draw at a
late hour, and when there is no drag, then the
more the cover is disturbed the better ; the
more likely you are to find. Late in the season
foxes generally are wild, particularly in covers
that are often hunted. If you do not draw
quietly, he will sometimes get off a long way
before you : when you have any suspicion of
this, send on a whipper-in to the opposite side
of the cover, before you throw in your hounds.
With regard to the drawing up the wind, that
is much more material. You never fail to give
the wind to a pointer and setter ; why not to a
hound "^ Besides, the fox, if you draw up the

PEETENDED SPORTSMEN. 179

wind, does not hear you coming ; and your
hounds by this means are never out of your
hearing : besides, if he turns down the wind,
as most probably he will, it lets them all in.
Suppose yourself acting directly contrary to
this, and then see what is likely to be the con-
sequence.

You think I am too severe on my brother
sportsmen. If I am more so than they deserve,
I am sorry for it. 1 know many gentlemen
who are excellent sportsmen, yet I am sorry to
say the greater number of those who ride after
hounds are not, and it is those only that I
allude to. Few gentlemen will take any pains ;
few of them will stop a hound, though he should
run riot close beside them ; or will place them-
selves for a moment, though it be to halloo a
fox. It is true, they will not fail to halloo if he
comes in their way ; and the}' will do the same
to as many foxes as they see. Some will encou-
rage hounds which they do not know : it is a
great fault. Was every gentleman who follows
hounds to fancy himself a huntsman, what noise,
what confusion would ensue ! I consider many
of them as gentlemen riding out, and I am never
so well pleased as when I see them ride home
again. You may perhaps have thought that I

180 LABOUE IN VAIN

wished them all to be huntsmen. Most cer-
tainly not ; but the more assistance a huntsman
has, the better in all probability the hounds will
be. Good sense, and a little observation, will
soon prevent such people from doing amiss ;
and I hold it as an almost invariable rule in
hunting, that those who do not know how to do
good are always liable to do harm.* There is
scarce an instant, during the whole chase, when
a sportsman ought not to be in one particular
place ; and I will venture to say, that if he is
not there^ he might as well be in his bed.

I must give you an extraordinary instance of
a gentleman's knowledge of hunting. He had
hired a house in a fine hunting country, with a
good kennel belonging to it, in the neighbour-
hood of two packs of fox-hounds, of which mine
was one; and that he might offend neither,

• This is a better reason, perhaps, why gentlemen ought
to understand this diversion, than for the good they may
do in it ; since a pack of hounds that are well manned will
seldom need any other assistance. A gentleman, perceiving
his- hounds to be much confused by the frequent halloos of
a stranger, rode up to him, and thanked him with great
civility for the trouble he was taking ; but at the same
time acquainted him, that the two men he saw in green
coats were paid so much a year on purpose to halloo ; it
would be needless for him, therefore, to give himself any
further trouble.

SINGULAR CHARACTER. 181

intended, as he said, to hunt with both. He
offered me the use of his kennel, which, for some
reasons, I chose to decline : it was afterwards
also offered to the other gentleman, who accept-
ed of it. The first day the hounds hunted his
country, he did not appear. The second day,
the hounds were no sooner at the cover side than
my friend saw an odd figure, strangely accou-
tred, riding up, with a spaniel following him.
*' Sir," said he, " it gave me great concern not
to be able to attend you, when you was here
before : I hope you was not offended at it ; for,
to show you how well I am inclined to assist
your hunt, you see, / have brought my little

dogr

There are two things which I particularly
recommend to you : the one is to make your
hounds steady ; the other, to make them all
draw. Many huntsmen are fond of having them
at their horses' heels; but, believe me, they
never can get so well, or so soon together, as
when they spread the cover : besides, I have
often known when there have been only a few
finders, that they have found their fox, gone
down the wind, and been heard of no more
that day.

Never take out an old unsteady hound : young

182 OBSERVATIONS OX THE HOUNDS.

ones properly awed from riot, and that will stop
at a rate, may be put into the pack, a few at a
time ; but an old hound that is vicious should
not escape hanging : let him be ever so good in
other respects, I will not excuse him ; for a
pack must be wretched indeed that can stand
in need of such assistance.

There is infinite pleasure in hearing a fox
well found. When you get up to his kennel
with a good drag, the chorus increasing as you
go, it inspires a joy more easy to feel than to
describe. With regard to my own feelings, I
had sooner hear one fox found in this lively
manner, than ride the best hare-chase that was
ever run.

Much depends on the first finding of your

fox. Dimidium facti, qui bene ccepit, habet,

which we learned at Westminster, is verified

here ; for I look upon a fox well found to be

half killed. I think people generally are in too

great a hurry on this occasion. There is an

enthusiasm attending this diversion, which, in

this instance in particular, ought always to be

restrained.* The hounds are alvays mad

* There are but few instances where sportsmen are
not too noisy and too fond of encouraging their hounds,
which seldom do their business so well as when little is said
to them.

A YOUNG SPORTSMAN. 183

enough when they find their fox ; if the men
also are mad, they make mad work of it indeed.
A gentleman of my acquaintance, who hunts
his own hounds, and is not less eager than the
rest of us, yet very well knows the bad con-
sequences of being so, to prevent this fault in
himself, always begins by taking a pinch of
snufF; he then sings part of an old song, ''■Some
say care killed the cat,'''' &c. By this time his
hounds get together, and settle to the scent.
He then halloos, and rides as if the d — 1 drove.
If the fox breaks cover, you will sometimes
see a young sportsman set out after him, to ride
him. He never fails to ask such a one, ^^ Do
you think you can catch him, sii' f — " JVo." —
" Why then be so good as to let my hounds try
if they can.''''

184 DIRECTIONS TO THE

LETTER XV.

I LEFT off' just as I had found the fox ; I
now, therefore, with your leave, will suppose
that the hounds are running him. * You desire
I would be more particular with regard to the
men. It was always ray intention to be so.
To begin, then — the huntsman should certainly
set off with his foremost hounds, and I should
wish him to keep as close to them afterwards as
he conveniently can ; nor can any harm arise
from it, unless he has not common sense. No
hounds then can slip down the wind, and get
out of his hearing : he will also see how far they
carry the scent ; a necessary knowledge, for
without it he never can make a cast with any
certainty.

You will find it not less necessary for your
huntsman to be active in pressing his hounds
forward * while the scent is good, than to be

* Pressing hounds on is perhaps a dangei'ous expression ;
as more harm may be done by j)ressing them beyond the
scent when it is good, than when it is bad. However, it

HUNTSMAN AND WHIPPER-IN. 185

prudent in not hurrying them beyond it when it
is bad. Yours, you say, is a good horseman ;
it is of the utmost consequence to your sport,
nor is it possible for a huntsman to be of much
use who is not ; for the first thing, and the very
sine qua non of a fox-hunter, is to ride up to
his head hounds. It is his business to be ready
at all times to lend them that assistance they so
frequently stand in need of, and which, when
they are first at a fault, is then most critical.
A fox-hound at that time will exert himself
most: he afterwards cools, and becomes more
indifferent about his game. Those huntsmen
who do not get forward enough to take advan-
tage of his eagerness and impetuosity, and direct
it properly, seldom know enough of hunting to
be of much use to them afterwards.

You will perhaps find it more difficult to keep
your whipper-in back than to get your hunts"
man forward;* at least, I always have found it

means no more than to get forward the tail hounds, and to
encourage the others to push on as fast as they can while
the scent serves thera.

* Though a huntsman cannot be too fond of hunting, a
whipper-in easily may. His business will seldom allow
him to be forward enough with the hounds to see much of
the sport. His only thought, therefore, should be to keep
the hounds together, and to contribute as much as he can
to the killing of the fox.

186 BAD HABITS.

SO. It is however necessary ; nor will a good
whipper-in leave a cover whilst a single hound
remains in it : for this reason there should be
two ; one of which should be always forward
with the huntsman. You cannot conceive the
many ills that may happen to hounds that are
left behind. I do not know that I can enume-
rate one half of them ; but this you may be
certain of, that the keeping them together is the
surest means to keep them steady. When left
to themselves, they seldom refuse, I believe, any
blood they can get ; they acquire many bad
habits ; they become conceited, a terrible fault
in any animal ; and they learn to tie upon the
scent, — an unpardonable fault in a fox-hound.
Besides this, they frequently get a trick of
hunting by themselves, and they seldom are
worth much afterwards. The lying out in the
cold, perhaps the whole night, can do no good
to their constitutions; nor will the being wor-
ried by sheep-dogs or mastiffs be of service to
their bodies. All this, however, and much
more, they are liable to. I believe I menti-
oned in my fourth letter, that the straw-house
door should be left open when any hounds are
missing.

Every country is soon known, and nine foxes

STYLE OF THE PACK. 187

out of ten, with the wind in the same quarter,
will follow the same track. It is easy, there-
fore, for the whipper-in to cut short, and catch
the hounds again ; at least it is so in the coun-
try where I hunt. With a high scent, you
cannot push on hounds too much. Screams
keep the fox forward, at the same time that
they keep the hounds together, or let in the tail
hounds ; * they also enliven the sport, and, if
discreetly used, are always of service ; but, in
cover, they should be given with the greatest
caution.

Most fox-hunters wish to see their hounds
run in a good style. I confess I am myself one
of those. I hate to see a string of them, nor
can I bear to see them creep where they can
leap. It is the dash of the fox-hound which
distinguishes him, as truly as the motto of
William of Wickham distinguishes us. A pack
of harriers, if they have time, will kill a fox ;
but I defy them to kill him in the style in which
a fox ought to be killed : they must hunt him

* Halloos seldom do any hurt, when you are running up
the wind; for then none but the tail hounds can hear you.
When you are running down the wind, you should halloo
no more than may be necessary to bring the tail hounds
forward ; for a hound that knows his business seldom wants
encouragement when he is upon a scent, *

188 SPEED OF HOUNDS.

down. If you are to tire him out, you must
expect to be tired yourself also. I never wish
a chase to be less than one hour, or to exceed
two. It is sufficiently long, if properly fol-
lowed : it will seldom be longer, unless there is
a fault somewhere, either in the day, in the
huntsman, or in the hounds. What Lord Chat-
ham once said of a battle is particulary applica-
ble to a fox-chase: it should be shorty sharp,
and decisive.

There is, I believe, but little difference in the
speed of hounds of the same size: the great
difference is in the head they carry ; and in or-
der that they may run well together, you should
not keep too many old hounds : after five or six
seasons they generally do more harm than good.
If they tie upon the scent, and come hunting
after, hang them up immediately, let their age
be what it may : there is no getting such con-
ceited devils on ; they will never come to a
halloo, which every hound that is off the scent,
or behind the rest, should not fail to do, and are
always more likely to draw you back than help
you forward.*

* From this passage, the critic endeavours to prove the
sportsman's ingratitude ; and yet connion sense, I believe,
induces most men to rid themselves of that, which, if kept,

THE HUNTED FOX. 189

You think me too severe on skirters. I must
confess that I have but one objection to them,
and it is this : I have constantly seen them do
more harm than good.

Changing from the hunted fox to a fresh one,
is one of the worst accidents that can happen to
a pack of fox-hounds; and it requires all the
observation and all the ingenuity that man is
capable of, to guard against it. Could a fox-
hound distinguish a hunted fox, as the deer-
hound does the deer that is blown, fox-hunting
would then be perfect. There are certain rules
that ought to be observed by huntsmen. A
huntsman should always listen to his hounds,
whilst they are running in cover : he should be
particularly attentive to the head hounds, and
he should be constantly on his guard against a
skirter; for if there are two scents, he must be
wrong. Generally speaking, the best scent is
least likely to be that of the hunted fox ; and

would be prejudicial to them. The critic seems to allude
to a well-known fable of^sop, but is not very happy in
the application. He has also misquoted the passage — the
author does not say tire, but tie upon the scent. Good
hounds, when they become aged, are liable to the first;
bad ones only are guilty of the last. In either case, death
is not meant as a punishment, nor is it considered as a
misfortune. — Vide Monthly Review,

190 RULES TO BE OBSERVED

as a fox seldom suffers hounds to run up to him
as long as he is able to prevent it, so nine times
out of ten, when foxes are hallooed early in the
day, they are all fresh foxes. The hounds most
likely to be right are the hard-running line-
hunting hounds, or such as the huntsman knows
had the lead before there arose ally doubt of
changing. With regard to the fox, if he breaks
over an open country, it is no sign that he is
hard run ; for they seldom at any time will do
that, unless they are a great way before the
hounds : also, if he runs up the wind — they sel-
dom ever do that when they have been long
hunted, and grow weak ; and when they run
their foil, that also may direct him. All this,
as you must needs perceive, requires a good
ear, and nice observation ; and, indeed, in that
consists the chief excellence of a huntsman.

When the hounds divide and are in two parts,
the whipper-in, in stopping, must attend to the
huntsman, and wait for his halloo, before he at-
tempts to stop either: for want of proper ma-
nagement in this particular, I have known the
hounds stopped at both places, and both foxes
lost by it. If they have many scents, and it is
quite uncertain which is the hunted fox, let him
stop those that are farthest down the wind, as

WHEN THE FOX IS CHANGED. 191

they can hear the others, and will reach them
soonest : in such a case, there will be little use
in stopping those that are up the wind.

When hounds are at a check, let every one be
silent : but as I have already said so much on
that head in my eleventh letter on hare-hunting,
I beg leave to refer you to it. Whippers-in are
frequently at this time coming on with the tail
hounds. They should never halloo to them
when the hounds are at fault: the least thing
does hurt at such a time, but a halloo more
than any other. The huntsman, at a check, had
better let his hounds alone, or content himself
with holding them forward, without taking them
off their noses. Hounds that are not used to be
cast a tout bout de champ, will of themselves
acquire a better cast than it is in the power of any
huntsman to give them ; will spread more, and
try better for the scent ; and, if they are in health
and spirits, they will want no encouragement.

If t!iey are at fault, and have made their own
cast, (which the huntsman should always first
encourage them to do,) it is then his business to
assist them further ; but except, in some parti-
cular instances, I never approve of their being-
cast, as long as they are inclined to hunt. The
first cast I bid my huntsman make is generally

192 ON CASTING.

a regular one ; not choosing to rely entirely on
his judgment: if that does not succeed, he is
then at liberty to follow his own opinion, and
proceed as observation and genius may direct.
When such a cast is made, I like to see some
mark of good sense and meaning in it ; whether
down the wind, or towards some likely cover, or
strong earth : however, as it is at best uncertain,
and as the huntsman and the fox may be of
different opinions, I always wish to see a regular
cast before I see a knowing one ; which, as a
last resource, should not be called forth till it
is wanted. The letting hounds alone is but a
negative goodness in a huntsman ; whereas it is
true, that this last shows real genius; and, to
be perfect, must be born with him. There is a
fault, however, which a knowing huntsman is
too apt to commit : he will find a fresh fox, and
then claim the merit of having recovered the
hunted one. It always is dangerous to jthrow
hounds into a cover to retrieve a lost scent ; and,
unless they hit him in, is not to be depended on.
Driven to the last extremity, should a knowing
cast not succeed, your huntsman is in nowise
blameable : mine, I remember, lost me a good
chase, by persevering too long in a favourite
cast but he gave me so many good reasons why

CONDUCT WHEN AT FAULT. 193

the fox ought to have gone that way, that I
returned perfectly well satisfied, telling him at
the sanne time, that if the fox was a fool^ he
could 7iot help it.

Gentlemen, when hounds are at fault, are too
apt themselves to contribute to their remaining
so. They should always stop their horses some
distance behind the hounds, and, if it is possible
to be silent, this is the time to be so : they
should be careful not to ride before the hounds,
or ride over the scent ; nor should they ever
meet a hound in the face, unless with a design
to stop him. Should you at any time be before
the hounds, turn your horse's head the way
they are going, get out of their way, and let
them pass you.

In dry weather, foxes, particularly in heathy
countries, will rim the roads. If gentlemen,
at such times, will ride close upon the hounds,
they may drive them miles without any scent.*
High-mettled fox-hounds are seldom inclined to
stop whilst horses are close at the heels of them.

An acquaintance of mine, a good sportsman,
but a very warm one, when he sees the company

* No one should ever ride in a direction which, if persis-
ted in, would carry him amongst the hounds, unless he be
at a great distance behind them.
K

194 ANECDOTE.

pressing too close upon his hounds, begins with
crying out, as loud as he can, Hold hard ! If
any one persists, after that, he begins mode-
rately at first, and says, / beg, sir, you will
stop your horse : — Pray, sir, stop : — God bless
you, sir, stop ! — God d — n your blood, sir,
stop your horse !

I am now, as you may perceive, in a very vio-
lent passion ; so I will e'en stop the continuation
of this subject till I am cool again.

CEITICAL MOMENTS. 195

LETTER XVI.

I ENDED my last letter, I believe, in a violent
passion. The hounds, I think, were at fault
also. I shall now continue the further explana-
tion of my thirteenth letter from that time.

The first moment that hounds are at a fault is

a critical one for the sport : people then should

be very attentive. Those who look forwards,

perhaps, may see the fox ; or the running of

sheep, or the pursuit of crows, may give them

some tidings of him. Those who listen, may

sometimes take a hint which way he is gone

from%the chattering of a magpie, or perhaps be

at a certainty from a distant halloo : nothing

that can give any intelligence, at such a time as

this, is to be neglected. Gentlemen are too apt

to ride all together : were they to spread more,

they might sometimes be of service ; particularly

such as, from a knowledge of the sport, keep

down the wind : it would then be difficult for

either hounds or fox to escape their observation.*

* Those sportsmen only who wish to be of service to the
hounds, and know how, should ride wide of them.

k2

196 OF HALLOOS.

You should, however, be cautious how you go
to a halloo. The halloo itself must, in a great
measure, direct you ; and though it affords no
certain rule, yet you may frequently guess by it
whether it is to be depended on or not. At the
sowing time, when boys are bird-keeping, if you
are not very much on your guard, their halloo
will sometimes deceive you. It is best, when
you are in doubt, to send on a whipper-in to
know : the worst then that can befal you is the
loss of a little time ; whereas, if you gallop away
with the hounds to the halloo, and are obliged
to return, it is a chance if they try for the scent
afterwards : on the other hand, if you are certain
of the halloo, and intend going to it, then the
sooner you get to it the better. I have been
more angry with my huntsman for being slow at
such a time as this, than for any other fault
whatsoever. Huntsmen who are slow at getting
to a halloo, are void of common sense.

They frequently commit another fault, by
being in too great a hurry when they get there.
It is hardly credible how much our eagerness is
apt, at such a time, to mislead our judgment :
for instance, when we get to the halloo, the first
questions are natural enough : — Did you see the
fox ? — Which way did he go ? The man points

OF HALLOOS. 197

with his finger, perhaps, and then away you all
ride as fast as you can; and in such a hurry,
that not one will stay to hear the answer which
you all were so desirous of knowing : the general
consequence of which is, you mistake the place,
and are obliged to return to the man for better
information. Depend upon it, the less hurry
you are in on this occasion, the less time you
lose ; and wherever the fox was seen for a cer-
tainty, whether near or distant, that will not
only be the surest, but also the best place to
take the scent ; and, besides the certainty of
going right, you will also, 1 believe, get on
faster than you would by any other means.

That halloos are not always to be depended
on, will be sufficiently evinced by the following
instances :

My hounds being at a long fault, a fellow hal-
looed to them from the top of a rick, at some
distance olt". The huntsman, as you will believe,
stuck spurs to his horse, hallooed till he was
almost hoarse, and got to the man as quickly as
he could : the man still kept hallooing ; and as
the hounds got near hun, '• Here^'' said he —
'"'•here — here the fox is gone r'' — "Is he far
before us?"' cried the huntsman: "how long
ago was it that you saw him T'' — " No, master, I

19B REMARKABLE INSTANCES. •

have not seen him ; but / smelt him here this
morninc^, when I came to serve my sheep."

Another instance was this : — we were trying
with some deer-hounds for an out-lying stag,
when we saw a fellow running towards us in
his shirt : we immediately concluded that we
should hear some news of the st^g, and set out
joyfully to meet him. Our first question was, if
he had seen the stag .'' " No, sir, I have not seen
him; hut my wife dreamt as how she saw him.
father nights

Once a man hallooed us back a mile, only to
tell us we were right before.) and we lost the
fox by it.

A gentleman, seeing his hounds at fault, rode
up to a man at plough, and with great eagerness
asked him if he had seen the fox. " The fox,
sir.?*" — " Yes, d — n you, the fox ! did you never
see a fox .''" — " Pray, sir, if I may be so bould,
what sort of a looking creature may he be ? has
he short ears^ and a long tail f — " Yes?'' —
" Why then I can assure you, sir, I have seen
no such thing. ''"'

We are agreed that hounds ought not to be
cast, as long as they are able to hvint ; and
though the idea that a hunted fox never stops is
a very necessary one to a fox-hunter, that he

THE LOST SCENT. 199

may be active, and may lose no time ; yet tired
foxes will stop if you can hold them on ; and I
have known them stop even in wheel-ruts on the
open down, and leap up in the midst of the
hounds. A tired fox ought not to be given up,
for he is killed sometimes very unexpectedly.
If hounds have ever pressed him, he is worth
your trouble : perseverance may recover him,
and, if recovered, he most probably will be
killed ; nor should you despair whilst any
scent remains. The business of a huntsman is
only difficult when the scent dies quite away ;
and it is then he may show Ais judgment, when
the hounds are no longer able to show theirs.
The recovering a lost scent, and getting nearer
to the fox by a long cast, requires genius, and is
therefore what few huntsmen are famous for.
When hounds are no longer capable of feeling
the scent, it all rests with the huntsman : either
the game is entirely given up, or is only to be
recovered by him, and is the effect of real
genius, spirit, and observation.

When hounds are at cold-hunting with a bad
scent, it is then a good time to send a whipper-
in forward : if he can see the fox, a little mob-
bing, at such a time as this, may reasonably be
allowed.

200 RUNNING IN COVER.

When hounds are put to a check on a high
road, by the fox being headed back, if in that
particular case you suffer them to try back, it
gives them the best chance of hitting oft' the
scent again, as they may try on botli sides at
once.

When hounds are running in cover, you can-
not be too quiet. If the fox be running short,
and the hounds are catching him, not a word
should then be said : it is a difficult time for
hounds to hunt him, as he is continually turn-
ing, and will sometimes lie down, and let them
pass him.

I have remarked that the greatest danger of
losing a fox is at the first finding of him, and
when he is sinking; at both of which times he
frequently will run short, and the eagerness of
the hounds is too apt to carry them beyond the
scent. When a fox is first found, I wish every
one would keep behind the hounds till they are
well settled to the scent ; and when the hounds
are killing him, I wish them to be as silent as
they can.

When he is caught, I like to see hounds eat

him eagerly. In some countries, I am told,

they have a method of treeing him : * it is of

• The intention of it is, to make the hounds more eager,

WHEN TO EAT A FOX. 201

use to make the hounds eager; it lets them all
in ; they recover their wind, and eat him more
readily. I should advise you, at the same time,
not to keep him too long ; as I do not imagine
the hounds have any appetite to eat him longer
than whilst they are angry with him.

The same author whom I quoted in my tenth
letter, and who tells us how we should not eat a
hare, is also kind enough to tell us when we
should eat a fox ; I wish he had also added the
best manner of dressing him : he says — " La
chair du Renard est moms mauvaise que c'elle
du loup ; les chiens et meme les homines en
mangent en aiitomne^ surtout lorsquHl s''est
nourri et engraisse de raisins.'''' — You would
have been better pleased, I make no doubt, if
the learned gentleman had told you how to
hunt him, rather than tvhen to eat him.

I shall end this letter with an anecdote of a
late huntsman of mine, who was a great Slip-
slop, and always called successively, success-
fully. One day, when he had been out with
the young hounds, I sent for him in, and asked
him what sport he had had, and how the

and to let in the tail hounds. The fox is thrown across
the branch of a tree, and the hounds are suffered to bay at
i)im for some minutes before he is thrown amongst ther.i.

k3

202 ANECDOTE.

hounds behaved ? — " Very good sport, sir, and
no hounds could behave any better." — " Did
you run him long?"" — "They ran him, an
please your honour, upwards of three hours
successfully.'' — " So, then, you did kill him.?""
" Oh no. sir, we lost him at last.''''

FOX-HUNTING RESUMED. 203

LETTER XVII.

Fox-hunting, an acquaintance of mine says,
is only followed because you can ride hard, and
do less harm in that than in any other hunting.
There may be some truth in the observation ;
but to such as love the riding part only of
hunting, would not a trail scent be much more
suitable? Gentlemen who hunt for the sake of
a ride, who are indifferent about the hounds,
and know little of the business, if they do no
harm it is to the full as much as we have
reason to expect from them ; whilst those of a
contrary description do good, and have much
greater pleasure. Such as are acquainted with
the hounds, and can at times assist them, find
the sport more interesting, and frequently have
the satisfaction to think that they themselves
contribute to the success of the day.* This is
a pleasure you often enjoy ; a pleasure without

• It is not by a foolish attempt to hunt the hounds that
gentlemen can be of service. It is not by riding close upon
them, but by keeping wide of them ; when by so doing they
may hear a halloo, or view the fox.

204 SUPERIOllITY OF HUNTING.

any regret attending it. I know not what
effect it might have on you; but I know that
my spirits are always good after good sport iti
hunting ; nor is the rest of the day ever dis-
agreeable to me afterwards. What are other
sports compared with this, which is full of
enthusiasm ! Fishing is, in my opinion, a dull
diversion ; shooting, though it admits of a com-
panion, does not allow of many : both, therefore,
may be considered as selfish and solitary amuse-
ments compared with hunting ; to which as
many as please are welcome. The one might
teach patience to a philosopher ; and the other,
though it occasions great fatigue to the body,
seldom affords much occupation to the mind.
Whereas fox-hunting is a kind of warfare ; its
uncertainties, its fatigues, its difficulties, and
its dangers, rendering it interesting above all
other diversions. That you may more readily
pardon this digression, I return to answer your
letter now before me.

1 am glad to hear that your men have good
voices ; mine, unluckily, have not. I have a
friend, who hunts his own hounds, who has the
strangest voice, and the oddest halloo, I ever
heard. He has, however, this advantage : no
dog can possibly mistake his halloo for another.

VIEW HALLOOS. 205

Singularity constitutes an essential part of a
huntsman's halloo : it is for that reason alone
I prefer the horn, to which, I observe, hounds
fly more readily than to the huntsman's voice.
Good voices certainly are pleasing ; yet it might
be as well, perhaps, if those who have them
were less fond of showing them. When a fox
is hallooed, those who understand this business,
and get forward, may halloo him again;* yet
let them be told, if the hounds go the Contrary
way, or do not seem to come on upon the line
of him, to halloo no more. With regard to its
being the hunted fox, the fox which every man
halloos is the hunted fox in his own opinion,
though he seldom has a better reason for it than
because he saw him. Such halloos as serve to
keep the hounds together, and to get on the tail
hounds, are always of use : halloos of encourage-

* Should a fox be hallooed in cover, while the hounds
are at fault ; if thev he long in coming, by getting forward,
you may halloo the fox again, perhaps, before the hounds
are laid on ; by which means you will get nearer to him.
In cases like this, a good sportsman may be of great use to
hounds. There are days when hounas will do their business
best if let quite alone ; and thei'e are days when they can
do nothing without assistance. Let them be assisted at no
other time. On a bad scenting day, or when hounds may
be over-matched, you cannot assist them too much.

206 VIEW HALLOOS NOT TO BE

ment to tlie leading hounds, if injudiciously
given, may spoil your sport. I am sorry to say,
view halloos frequently do more harm than good.
They are pleasing to sportsmen, but prejudicial
to hounds. If a strong cover be full of foxes,
and they are often hallooed, hounds seldom
take much pains in hunting them; hence arise
that coldness and indifference which sometimes
may be perceived in fox-hounds whilst pursuing
their game.

You ask me, if I would take off my hounds
to a halloo? If they are running with a good
scent, I most certainly would not : if otherwise,
and I could depend upon the halloo, in some
cases, I think, I would : for instance, when the
fox is a great way before them, or persists in
running his foil ; for such foxes are difficult to
kill, unless you endeavour to get nearer to them
by some means or other. When you hunt after
them, it frequently happens that the longer you
run, the further you are behind.

When hounds are out of blood, and a fox
runs his foil, you need not scruple to stop the
tail hounds, and throw them in at head ; or, if
the cover has any ridings cut in it, and the fox
be often seen, your huntsman, by keeping some

TOO FREaUENTLY USED. 207

hounds at his horse's heels, at the first halloo
that he hears, may throw them in close at him.*
This will put him out of his pace, and perhaps
put him off his foil. It will be necessary, when
you do this, that the whipper-in should stop
the pack from hunting after, and get forward
with them to the huntsman. I have already
given it as my opinion, that hounds may be
hallooed too much. If they are often used to
a halloo, they will expect it, and may trust per-
haps to tiieir ears and eyes more than to their
noses. If they are often taken from the scent,
it teaches them to shuffle, and probably will
make them slack in cover : it should be done,
therefore, with great caution ; not too often ;
and always should be well timed. Famous
huntsmen, I think, by making too frequent a
use of this, sometimes hurt their hounds. I
have heard of a sportsman who never suffers his
hounds to be lifted : he lets them pick along the
coldest scent, through flocks of sheep. This is

* Nothing is meant more than this — "■ that the huntsman
should get the tail hounds off the line of the scent, (where
they do more harm than good,) and encourage them for-
ward: if he should hear a halloo whilst these hounds are
off the scent, he should lay them on to it ; if he should not,
the tail hounds, by this means, may still stand a chance of
getting to the head hounds by the ear, which they never
could do, if they continued to run by the nose."

208 PACK TO BE KEPT TOGETHER.

a particular style of fox-hunting, which, per-
haps, may suit the country in which that gen-
tleman hunts. I confess to you, I do not think
it would succeed in a bad scenting country, or
indeed in any country where foxes are wild:
whilst hounds can get on with the scent, it
cannot be riglit to take them off from it ; but
when they are stopped fur want of it, it cannot
then be wrong to give them every advantage
you can.

It is wrong to suffer hounds to hunt after
others that are gone on with the scent ; for
how are they to get up to them with a worse
scent ? Besides, it makes them tie on the scent,
teaclies them to run dog, and destroys that
laudable ambition of getting forward, which is
the chief excellence of a fox-hound. A good
huntsman will seldom suffer his head hounds to
run away from him : if it should so happen, and
they are still within his hearing, he sinks the
wind with the rest of the pack, and gets to them
as fast as he can. Though I suffer not a pack
of fox-hounds to hunt after such as may be a
long way before the rest, for reasons which I
have just given ; yet, when a single hound is
gone on with the scent, I send a whipper-in to
stop him. Were the hounds to be taken off the

OF SKIETERS. 209

scent to get to him, and he should no longer
have any scent when they find him, the fox
would be lost by it. This is a reason why, in
large covers, and particularly such as have many
roads in them, skirting hounds should be left at
home on windy days.

Skirters, I think, you may find hurtful, both
in men and dogs. Such as skirt to save their
horses often head the fox. Good sportsmen
never quit hounds but to be of service to them.
With men of this description, skirting becomes
a necessary part of fox-hunting, and is of the
greatest use. Skirters ! beware of a furze-brake.
If you head back the fox, the hounds, most
probably, will kill him in the brake. Such as
ride after the hounds, at the same time that they
do no good, are least likely to do harm : let such
only as understand the business, and mean to be
of service to the hounds, ride wide of them. I
cannot however allow, that the riding close up
to hounds is always a sign of a good sportsman ;
if it were, a monkey, on a good horse, would be
the best sportsman in the field. Here must I
censure (but with respect) that eager spirit
which frequently interrupts, and sometimes is
fatal to sport in fox-hunting; for, though I
cannot subscribe to the doctrine of my friend

210 EAGERNESS PREJUDICIAL.

* * * *, " that a pack of fox -hounds would do
better without a huntsman than with one ; and
that, if left to themselves, they would never lose
a fox ;"" yet, if allowing them their usual attend-
ants, he had objected only to the sportsmen who
follow them, I must have joined issue with
him. Whoever has followed hounds, has seen
them frequently hurried beyond the scent; and
whoever is conversant in hunting must know,
that the steam of many horses, carried by the
wind, and mixed with a cold scent, is preju-
dicial to it.

It sometimes happens thai* a good horseman
is not so well in with the hounds as an indifferent
one, because he seldom will condescend to get
off his horse. I believe the best way to follow
hounds across a country is to keep on the line
of them, and to dismount at once when you
come to a leap which you do not choose to take ;
for in looking about for easier places, much time
is lost. In following hounds, it may be useful
to you to know, that when in cover they run up
the wind, you cannot in reason be too far be-
hind them, as long as you have a perfect hear-
ing of them, and can command them; and, on
the contrary, when they are running down the
wind, you cannot keep too close to them.

HOW TO DISPEllSE FOXES 211

You complain that foxes are in too great
plenty : believe me, it is a good fault. I should
as soon have expected to have heard your

neighboiu- R complain of having too much

money : however, it is not without a remedy ;
hunt the same covers constantly, and you will
soon disperse them. If your pack be strong
enough, divide it ; hunt every day, and you
will catch many tired foxes. I remember to
have killed a brace in one morning, in the
strongest season ; the first in ten minutes, the
second in half an hour. If your own pack be
not strong enough to hunt more than every
other day, get a pack of harriers to hunt hare
in the cover the intermediate day. Foxes thus
disturbed will shift their quarters ; they know
their enemies, and smell in the night where they
have been in the day, and will not stay where
they are likely to be disturbed by them. Fol-
low them for one week in this manner, and I do
not think you will have any reason afterwards
to complain that they are in too great plenty.

When covers are much disturbed, foxes will
sometimes break as soon as they hear a hound.
Where the country round is very open, the fox
least likely to break is the one which you are
hunting : he will be very unwilling to quit the

212 A frenchman's opinion

cover, if it be a large one, unless he can get a
great distance before the hounds. If you are
desirous to get a run over such a country, the
likeliest means will be to post a quiet and skil-
ful person to halloo one off, and lay on to hiin.
The further he is before you, the less likely ne
will be to return. The best method, however,
to hunt a cover like this, is to stick constantly
to it, not suffering the hounds to break, as
long as one fox remains : do this two or three
hunting days following ; foxes will then fly, and
you will have good chases.

Nothing is more hurtful to hounds than the
frequent changing of their country : should they
change from a good scenting country to a bad
one, unless they have luck on their sides, they
may be some time without killing a fox ; where-
as hounds always have a great advantage in a
country which they are used to. They not only
know better where to find their game, but they
will also pursue it with more alacrity afterwards.

This letter began by a digression in favour
of. hunting; it will end with the opinion of a
Frenchman, not so favourable to it. This gen-
tleman was in my neighbourhood on a visit to
the late Lord C , who, being a great sports-
man, thought he could not oblige his friend

OF A FOX-CHASE. 213

more than by offering him to partake of an
amusement which he himself was so fond of; he
therefore mounted him on one of his best horses,
and showed him a fox-chase. The Frenchman,
after having been well shaken, dirted, tired, run
away with, and thrown down, was asked, on his
return, " Comment il avoit trouve la chasse? ""
— " Morbleu ! milord,'''' said he, shrugging up
his shoulders, " voire chasse est une chasse
diabolique.^''

214 COMPARATIVE MERITS OF THE

LETTER XVIII.

Before I proceed on my suliject, give me
leave to set you right in one particular, where
I perceive I have been misunderstood by you.
You say, you little expected to see the abilities
of a huntsman degraded beneath those of a
whipper-in. This is a serious charge against
me, as a sportsman ; and though I cannot allow
that I have put the cart before the horse in the
manner you are pleased to mention, yet you
have made it necessary for me to explain myself
further about it.

I must therefore remind you, that I speak of
my own country only ; a country full of riot,
where the covers are large, and where there is a
chase full of deer, and full of game. In such
a country as this, you that know so well how
necessary it is for a pack of fox-hounds to be
steady, and to be kept together, ought not to
wonder that I should prefer an excellent whip-
per-in to an excellent huntsman. No one knows
better than you do how essential a good adju-

WHIPPER-IN AND HUNTSMAN. 215

tant is to a regiment : believe me, a good whip-
in is not less so to a pack of fox-hounds. But
I must beg you to observe, that I only mean
that / could do better with mediocrity in the
one than in the other. If I have written any
thing in a former letter that implies more, I beg
to retract it in this. Yet I must confess to you,
that a famous huntsman I am not very ambi-
tious to have, unless it necessarily followed that
he must have famous hounds \ a conclusion
I cannot admit, as long as these so famous
gentlemen will be continually attempting to do
themselves, what it would be much better if
they would permit their hounds to do : besides?
they seldom are good servants, are always con-
ceited, and sometimes impertinent. I am very
well satisfied if my huntsman knows his country,
knows his hounds, and rides well up to them,
and has some knowledge of the nature of the
animal which he is in pursuit of: and so far am
I from wishing him to be famous, that I hope
he will still continue to think that his hounds
know best how to hunt a fox.

You say you agree with me, that a huntsman
should stick close to his hounds. If then his
place is fixed, and that of the first whipper-in
(where you have two) is not, I cannot but think

216 ■ DUTY OF A WHIPPEll-IN.

genius may be at least as useful in one as in the
other: for instance, while the huntsman is rid-
ing to his head hounds, the whipper-in, if he
has genius, may show it in various ways ; he
may clap forward to any great earth that may,
by chance, be open ; he may sink the wind to
halloo, or mob a fox, when the scent fails ; he
may keep him off his foil ; he may stop the tail
hounds, and get them forward ; and has it fre-
quently in his power to assist the hounds, with-
out doing them any hurt, provided he has sense
to distinguish where he is wanted most. Be-
sides, the most essential part of fox-hunting, the
making and keeping the pack steady, depends
entirely upon him ; as a huntsman should sel-
dom rate, and never flog a hound. In short, I
consider the first whipper-in as a second hunts-
man ; and, to be perfect, he should be as capa-
ble of hunting the hounds as the huntsman
himself.

You cannot too much recommend to your
whipper-in to get to the head of his hounds
before he attempts to stop them. The rating
behind is to little purpose, and if they are in
cover, may prevent him from knowing who the
culprits are. When your hounds are ruiming a
fox, he then should content himself with stop-

OF DISCIPLINE. 217

ping such as are riotous, and should get them
forward. They may be condemned upon the
spot, but the punishment should be deferred till
the next day, when they may be taken out on
purpose to commit the fault, and suffer the
punishment. I agree with you, that young
hounds cannot be awed too much ; yet suffer
not your punishment of them to exceed their
offence. I could wish to draw a line betwixt
justice and barbarity.*

A whipper-in, while breaking-in young
hounds, sometimes will rate them before they
commit the fault : this prevents them for that
time; but they will be just as ready to begin
the next opportunity. Had he not better let
them quite alone, till he sees what they would
be at ? The discipline then may be propor-
tioned to the degree of the offence. Whether
a riotous young hound runs little or much is of
small consequence, if he be not encouraged : it

* I am sorry that it should be necessary to explain what
I mean by barbarity: I mean that punishment which is
either unnecessarily inflicted, which is inflicted with
severity, or from which no possible good can arise. Punish-
ment, when properly applied, is not cruelty, is not revenge
— it is justice, it is even mercy. The intention of punish-
ment is to prevent crimes, and consequently to prevent the
necessity of punishing.

218 EXCESSIVE PUNISHMENT

is the blood only that signifies, which in every
kind of riot should carefully be prevented.*

My general orders to my whipper-in are, if,
when he rates a hound the hound does not mind
him, to take him up immediately, and give him
a severe flogging. Whippers-in are too apt
to continue rating, even when they find that
rating does not avail. There is but one way to
stop such hounds, which is, to get to the heads
of them. I also tell him never on any account
to strike a hound, unless the hound is at the
same time sensible what it is for : never to strike
a hound that does not deserve it, and to strike
those hard that do.

It is seldom necessary to flog hounds to make
them obedient, since obedience is the first lesson
they are taught. Yet, if any are more riotous
than the rest, they may receive a few cuts in
the morning, before they leave the kennel.

When hounds are unsteady, every possible
means should be taken to make them otherwise.

* It is not meant that hounds should be suffered to con-
tinue on a wrong scent longer than may be necessary to
know that the scent is a wrong one. This passage refers to
page 87, where the author's meaning is more fully ex-
plained. It is introduced here more strongly to mark the
danger of encouraging hounds on a wrong scent, and in-
dulging them afterwards in the blood of it.

SHOULD BE PREVENTED. 219

A hare, or a deer, put into the kennel amongst
them, may then be necessary. Huntsmen are
too fond of kennel discipline. You already
know my opinion of it. I never allow it but in
cases of great necessity : I then am always pre-
' sent myself, to prevent the excess of it. To
prevent an improper and barbarous use of such
discipline, I have already told you, is one of the
chief objects of these letters. If what Mon-
taigne says be true, " that there is a certain
general claim of kindness and benevolence which
every creature has a right to from us," surely
we ought not to suffer unnecessary severity to
be used with an animal to whom we are obliged
for so much diversion : and what opinion ought
we to have of the huntsman who inflicts it on an
animal to whom he owes his daily bread .'' *

Such of my hounds as are very riotous are
taken out by themselves on the days when they
do not hunt, and properly punished ; and this

* " Perhaps it is not tlie least extraordinary circumstance
in these flogging- lectures, that they should be given with
Montaigne, or any other moral author whatever, in recol-
lection at the same instant ! " — (Vide Monthly Review.)
Perhaps it is not the least extraordinary circumstance in
these criticisms, that this passage should have been quoted
as a proof of the author's inhumanity. The critic ends his
strictures with the following exclamation. " Of a truth, a

l2

220 PROPER MODE OF

is continued whilst my patience lasts, which of
course depends on the value of the dog. It is a
trial betwixt the whipper-in and the dog, which
will tire first ; and the whipper-in, I think, gene-
rally prevails. If this method will not make
then) steady, no other can : they then are looked
upon as incorrigible, and are put away.

Such hounds as are notorious offenders should
also feel the lash, and hear a rate, as they go to
the cover : it may be a useful hint to them, and
may prevent a severer flogging afterwards. A
sensible whipper-in will wait his opportunity to
single out his hound ; he will then hit him hard,
and rate him well : whilst a foolish one will often
hit a dog he did not intend to hit ; will ride full
gallop into the midst of the hounds ; will per-
haps ride over some of the best of them, and put
the whole pack into confusion. This is a ma-
noeuvre I cannot bear to see.

Have a care! are words which seldom do any
harm ; since hounds, when they are on a right

sportsman is the most uniform consistent character, from
his own representation, that we ever contemplated ! " and
yet, perhaps, there are sportsmen to be found, possessed of
as tender feelings of humanity as any critic whatsoever.
The motto prefixed to these letters, if it had been attended
to, might have entitled the author to more candour than
the critic has thought fii to bestow upon him.

PUNISHIXG HOUNDS. 221

scent, will not mind them. Let your whipper-
in be careful how he encourages the hounds :
that, improperly done, may spoil your pack.

A whipper-in will rate a hound, and then en-
deavour to flog him. A dog after having been
rated, will naturally avoid the whip. Tell your
whipper-in, whenever a hound deserves the lash,
to hit him first, and rate him afterwards.

When there are two whippers-in, one ought
always to be forward. When there is only one,
he, to be very perfect, should be a very Mungo,
here, there, and every where.

You will find it difiicult to keep your people
in their proper places. I have been obliged to
stop back myself to bring on hounds, which my
servants had left behind. I cannot give you a
greater proof how necessary it is that a whipper-
in should bring home all his hounds, than by
telling you that I have lost an old hound for
ten days, and sent all the country over to inquire
after him ; and at last, when I thought no more
about him, in drawing a large cover in the
country where he had been lost, he joined the
pack : he was exceedingly emaciated, and it was
a long time before he was recovered. How he
subsisted all that time I cannot imagine. When
any of your hounds are missing, you should

222 HALI.OO FORWARD.

send the vhipper-in back immediately to look
for them : it will teach him to keep them more
together.

The getting forward the tail hounds is a
necessary part of fox-hunting, in which you will
find a good whipper-in of the greatest use. He
must also get forward himself at times, when
the huntsman is not with the hounds; but the
second whipper-in (who frequently is a young
lad, ignorant of his business) on no account
ought to encourage or rate a hound, but when
he is quite certain it is right to do it; nor is he
ever to get forward, as long as a single hound
remains behind.

Halloo forward, is certainly a necessary and
a good halloo ; but is it not used too indiscrimi-
nately.'' — it is for ever in the mouth of a whip-
per-in. If your hounds are never used to that
halloo till after a fox is found, you will see them
fly to it. At other times, other halloos will
answer the purpose of getting them on as well.

Most huntsmen, I believe, are jealous of the
whipper-in : they frequently look on him as a
successor, and therefore do not very readily
admit him into the kennel ,• yet, in my opinion,
it is necessary lie should go there ; for he ought
to be well acquainted with the hounds, who

OF STEADINESS. 223

should know and follow him as well as the
huntsman.

I am sorry to hear your hounds are so un-
steady : it is scarcely possible to have sport
with unsteady hounds ; they are half tired before
the fox is found, and are not to be depended
upon afterwards. It is a great pleasure, when
a hound challenges, to be certain he is right : it
is a cruel disappointment to hear a rate imme-
diately succeed it, and the smacking of whips,
instead of halloos of encouragement. A few
riotous and determined hounds do a deal of
mischief in a pack. Never, when you can avoid
it, put them among the rest : let them be taken
out by themselves, and well chastised ; and if
you find them incorrigible, hang them. The
common saying, evil communications corrupt
good manners, holds good with regard to
hounds ; they are easily corrupted. The se-
parating of the riotous ones from those which
are steady answers many good purposes. It
not only prevents the latter from getting the
blood they should not, but it also prevents
them from being overawed by the smacking of
whips, which is too apt to obstruct drawing,
and going deep into cover. A couple of
hounds, which I received from a neighbour

224 STRANGE HOUNDS TO BE

last year, were hurtful to my pack. They had
run with a pack of harriers ; and, as I soon
found, were never afterwards to be broken from
hare. It was the beginning of the season ;
covers were thick, hares in plenty, and we
seldom killed less than five or six in the morn-
ing. The pack at last got so much blood, that
they would hunt them as if they were designed
to hunt nothing else. I ])arted with the two
hounds; and the others, by proper manage-
ment, are become as steady as they were before.
You will remind me, perhaps, that they were
draft hounds. It is true, they were so; but
they were three or four years hunters; an age
when they might be supposed to have known
better. I advise you, unless a known good
pack of hounds are to be disposed of, not to
accept old hounds. I mention this to encou-
rage the breeding of hounds, and as the likeliest
means of getting a handsome, good, and steady
pack. Though I give you this advice, it is
true I have accepted draft hounds myself, and
some have been very good ; but they were the
gift of the friend mentioned by me in a former
letter ;* and, unless you meet with such ano^

* The Hon. INIr. Booth Grey, brother to the Earl of
Stamford. The hounds here alluded to were from I^ord
Stamford's kennel.

ADOPTED WITH CAUTION. 225

ther, old hounds will not prove worthy your
acceptance : they never can be very good ; and
may bring vices along with them, to spoil your
pack. If old hounds are unsteady, it may not
be in your power to make them otherwise ; and
I can assure you from experience, that an
unsteady old hound will give you more trouble
than all your young ones. The latter will at
least stop ; but an obstinate old hound will
frequently run mute, if he finds he can run no
other way : besides, old hounds, that are unac-
quainted with your people, will not readily
hunt for them as they ought; and such as
were steady in their own pack, may become un-
steady in yours. I once saw an extraordinary
instance of this, when I kept harriers. Hunt-
ing one day on the downs, a well-known fox-
hound of a neighbouring gentleman came and
joined us ; and as he both ran faster than we
did, and skirted more, he broke every fault, and
killed many hares. I saw this hound often in
his own pack afterwards, where he was per-
fectly steady ; and though he constantly hunted
in covers, where hares were in great plenty, I
never remember to have seen him run one step
after them.

I am sorry to hear so bad an accident has
l3

226

SHEEP-KILLERS.

happened to your pack, as that of killing sheep ;
but I apprehend, from your account of it, that
it proceeded from idleness, rather than vice.
The manner in which the sheep were killed may
give you some insight into it : old practitioners
generally seizing by the neck, and seldom, if
ever, behind. This, like other vices, sometimes
runs in the blood : in an old hound it is, I
believe, incorrigible; the best way, therefore,
will be to hang all those which, after two or
three whippings, cannot be cured of it. In
some countries hounds are more inclined to kill
sheep than they are in others. Hounds may be
steady in countries where the covers are fenced,
and sheep are only to be seen in flocks, either in
large fields, or on open downs; and the same
hounds may be unsteady in forests and heathy
countries, where the sheep are not less wild than
the deer. However, hounds, should they move
but a step after them, should undergo the
severest discipline : if young hounds do it from
idleness, that, and plenty of work, may reclaim
them ; for old hounds, guilty of this vice, I
know, as I said before, of but one sure remedy,
the halter.

Though I so strongly recommend to you to
make your hounds steady, from having seen

OF STEADINESS. 227

unsteady packs; yet I must also say, that I
have frequently seen the men even more un-
steady than the hounds. It is shocking to
hear hounds hallooed one minute, and rated
the next : nothing offends a good sportsman
so much, or is in itself so hurtful. I v/ill
give you an instance of the danger of it : — My
beagles were remarkably steady ; they hunted
hare in Cranbourn Chase, where deer are in
great plenty, and would draw for hours, with-
out taking the least notice of them. When
tired of hare-hunting, I was inclined to try if
I could find any diversion in hupting of fallow
deer. I had been told it would be impossible
to do it with the same hounds ; and, to put it
to the trial, I took them into a cover of my
own, which has many ridings cut in it, and
where are many deer. The first deer we saw
we hallooed, and by great encouragement, and
constant hallooing, there were but few of these
steady hounds but would run the scent. They
hunted deer constantly from that day, and never
lost one afterwards. Dogs are sensible animals ;
they soon find out what is required of them,
when we do not confuse them by our own
heedlessness : when we encourage them to hunt
a scent they have been rated from, and per-

228 OF STEADINESS.

haps severely chastised for hunting, they must
needs think us very cruel, capricious, and in-
consistent.*

If you know any pack that is very unsteady,
depend upon it, either no care has been taken in
entering the young hounds to make them steady,
or else the men, afterwards, by hallooing them
on improperly and to a wrong scent, have forced
them to become so.

The first day of the season, I advise you to
take out your pack where you have least riot,
and where vou are most sure to find : for, not-
withstanding tl^eir steadiness at the end of the last
season, long rest may have made them other-
wise. If you have any hounds more vicious
than the rest, they should be left at home a
day or two, till the others are well in blood :
your people, without doubt, will be particularly

* Though all hounds ought to be made obedient, none
require it so much as fox-hounds, for without it they will
be totally uncontroulable ; yet not all the chastisement that
cruelty can inflict will render them obedient, unless they be
made to understand what is required of them : when that
is effected, many hounds will not need chastisement, if you
do not suffer them to be corrupted by bad example. Few
packs are more obedient than my own, yet none, I believe
are chastised less ; for as those hounds that are guilty of an
offence are never pardoned, so those that are innocent, being
by this means less liable to be corrujited, are never jnmished.

OF STEADINESS. 229

cautious, at the beginning of the season, what
hounds they halloo to ; for if they should be
encouraged on a wrong scent, it will be a great
hurt to them.

The first day that you hunt in the forest, be
also particularly cautious what hounds you take
out. All should be steady from deer : you
afterwards may put others to them, a few at
a time. I have seen a pack draw steadily
enough ; and yet, when running hard, fall on a
weak deer, and rest as contented as if they had
killed their fox. These hounds were not chas-
tised, though caught in the fact, but were suf-
fered to draw on for a fresh fox : I had rather
they had undergone severe discipline. The
finding of another fox with them afterwards
might then have been of service ; otherwise,
in my opinion, it could only serve to encourage
them in the vice, and make them worse and
worse.

I must mention an instance of extraordinary
sagacity in a fox beagle, which once belonged
to the Duke of Cumberland. I entered him
at hare, to which he was immediately so steady,
that he would run nothing else. When a fox
was found by the beagles, which sometimes
happened, he would constantly come to the

230 SAGACITY OF A BEAGLF,.

heels of the huntsman's horse. Some years
afterwards I hunted fox only, and though I
parted with most of the others, I kept him :
he went out constantly with the pack, and as
hares were scarce in the country I then hunted,
he (lid no hurt : the moment a fox was found,
he came to the horse's heels. This continued
some time, till catching view of a fox that
was sinking, he ran in with the rest, and was
well blooded. He, from that time to the day
of his death, was not only as steady a hound
to fox as ever I knew, but became also our
very best finder. I bred some buck-hounds
from him, and they are remarkable for never
changing from a hunted deer.

Your huntsman's weekly return is a very
curious one: he is particularly happy in the
spelling. My huntsman is author of the in-
closed. It may make you laugh, and is per-
haps no improper return for yours.

Sir,

Honored I beg your honouers par-
don a thousand times my wicked daufter is
brout to bed this day God be praisd the child
Is dead har mother nor I new nothing of it nor
nobody as I can hear off tis that vile fellow
R P at as he has acted such a

A LEARNED EPISTLE. 231

Roges part she shall not have him by no means
I am all most at my wits end I dont now what
to do. I bag your honouer will Consider me
and Let har stay in har place I dont hear but
that all har fellow sarvants likes har very well
I have been out with the hounds this day to
ayer the frost is very bad the hounds are all
pure well at prasent and horses shepard has
had a misfortin with his mare she hung har-
self with the holter and throd har self and
broak her neck, and frac tard skul so we was
forsd to knock har In the head from your
ever dutyful Humbel Sarvant,

Wednesday evening.

232 HINTS RESPECTING THE

LETTER XIX.

Finding, by your last letter, that an early
hour does not suit you, I will rtiention some
particulars which may be of use to you when
you hunt late. An early hour is only necessary
where covers are large, and foxes scarce ; where
they are in plenty, you may hunt at any hour
you please. When foxes are weak, by hunting
late you have better chases; when they are
strong, give me leave to tell you, you must
hunt early, or you will not always kill them.
I think, however, when you go out late, you
should go immediately to the place where you
are most likely to find ; which, generally speak-
ing, is the cover that hounds have been least in.
If the cover be large, you should draw only
such parts of it as a fox is likely to kennel in ;
it is useless to draw any other at a late hour.
Besides, though it is always right to find as
soon as you can, yet it is never so necessary
as when the day is far advanced ; if you do not
find soon, a long and tiresome day is generally

TIME OF HUNTING. 233

the consequence. Where the cover is thick,
you should draw it as exactly as if you were
trying for a hare, particularly if it be furzy ;
for when there is no drag, a fox, at a late hour,
will lie till the hounds come close upon him.
Having drawn one cover, let your huntsman
stay for his hounds, and take them along with
him to another : I have known hounds find
a fox after the himtsman had left the cover.
The whippers-in are not to be sparing of their
whips or voices on this occasion, and are to
come through the middle of the cover, to be
certain that they leave no hounds behind.

A huntsman will complain of hounds for stay-
ing behind in cover. It is a great fault, and
makes the hound that has it of little value ; —
a fault frequently occasioned by his own mis-
management. Having drawn one cover, he
hurries away to another, and leaves tlie whip-
per-in to bring on the hounds after him : but
the whipper-in is seldom less desirous of getting
forward than the huntsman ; and, unless they
come off easily, it is not often that he gives him-
self much concern about them. Also, hounds
that are left too long at their walks will acquire
this trick from hunting by themselves, and are
not easily broken of it. Having said all I can

234 DUTY OF A HUNTSMAN.

at present recollect of the duty of a whipper-in,
I shall now proceed to give you a further ac-
count of that of a huntsman. What has been
said on the subject of drawing and castinc/i
related to the fox-chase described in a former
letter. Much, without doubt, is still left to
say ; and I will endeavour, as well as I am
able, to make good the deficiency. I shall con-
sider, first, in what manner he should draw^
and, afterwards, how he should cast his hounds.

The fixing on the country you intend to
hunt, a day or two before, is a great hinderance
to sport in fox-hunting. You, that have the
whole country to yourself, and can hunt on
either side of your house, as you please, should
never (when you can help it) fix your place
of hunting till you see what the weather is.*
The most probable means to have good chases
is to choose your country according to the
wind.

Hounds that lie idle are always out of wind,
and are easily fatigued. The first day you go
out after a long frost, you cannot expect much

* When the scent lies badly, small covers, or those in
which a fox cannot move unseen, are most favourable to
hounds. In such covers, good sportsmen will kill foxes in
almost any weather.

CARE IN DRAFTING. 235

sport ; take, therefore, considerably more than
your usual number of hounds, and throw them
into the largest cover that you have: if any foxes
are in the country, it is there you will find
them. After once or twice going out in this
manner, you should reduce your number.*

Before a huntsman goes into the kennel to
draft his hounds, let him determine within
himself the number of hounds he intends to
take out; as likewise the number of young
hounds that he can venture in the country
where he is going to hunt. Different coun-
tries may require different hounds : some may
require more hounds than others. It is not
an easy matter to draft hounds properly ; nor
can any expedition be made in it without some
method. -|-

* During a frost , hounds may be exercised on downs, or
the turnpike-roads; nor will it do any material injury to
their feet. Prevented from hunting, they should be fed
sparingly ; and such as can do without Hesh should have
none given them ; a course of vegetables, sulphur, and thin
meat, is the likeliest means to keep them healthy.

•\ No hound ought to be left at home, unless there be a
reason for it ; it is therefore that I say, great nicety is re-
quired to draft hounds properly Many huntsmen, I be-
lieve, think it of no great consequence which they take out
and which they leave, provided they have the number
requisite. A perfect knowledge in feeding and drafting
hounds are the two most essential parts of fox-hunting:

236 pu^^cTUAL attendance.

I seldom suffer many unsteady hounds to be
taken out together ; and when I do, 1 take care
that none shall go with them but such as they
cannot spoil.

When the place of meeting and time are
fixed, every huntsman ought to be as exact to
them as it is possible for him to be. On no
account is he to be before the time ; yet, on
some occasions, it might be better, perhaps, for
the diversion, were he permitted to be after
it.* The course your huntsman intends to take
in drawing ought also to be well understood be-
fore he leaves the kennel.

good hounds will require but little assistance afterwards.
By feeding, I mean the bringing the hound into the field
in his highest vigour ; bj drafting^ I particularly mean the
taking out no unsteady hound, nor any that are not likely
to be of service to the pack. When you intend to hunt two
days following, it is then tl^at the greatest nicety will be
requisite to make the most of a small pack. Placing
hounds to the greatest advantage, as mentioned ])age 234
may also be considered as a necessary part of fox-hunting.

Hounds that are intended to hunt the next day, and are
drafted oft" into the hunting-kennel as soon as they are fed,
should be let out again into the outer court in the evening :
my hounds have generally some thin meat given them at
this time, while the feeder cleans out their kennel. — ("Vide
note, page 45.) I have already said that cleanliness is not
less essential than food.

* When there is a white frost, for instance, at the going
oft" of which the scent never lies.

HAUNTS OF THE FOX. 237

If your huntsman, without inconvenience, can
begin drawing at the farthest cover down the
wind, and so draw from cover to cover up the
wind till you find, let him do it : it will have
many advantages attending it: he will draw
the same covers in half the time ; your people
cannot fail of being in their proper places ; you
will have less difficulty in getting your hounds
off; and as the fox will most probably run the
covers that have been already drawn, you are
certain not to change.

Judicious huntsmen will observe where foxes
like best to lie. In chases and forests, where
you have a great tract of cover to draw, such
observation is necessary, or you will lose much
time in finding. Generally speaking, I think
they are fondest of such as lie high, and are dry
and thick at bottom ; such also as lie out of the
wind ; and such as are on the sunny side of
hills.* The same cover where you find one
fox, when it has remained quiet any time, will
probably produce another.

It is to little purpose to draw hazel coppices
at the time when nuts are gathered ; furze

* This must of course vary in different countries: a
huntsman who has been used to a country knows best
where to find his game.

238 ON THE MAXKEK AND

covers, or two or three years coppices, are then
the only quiet places a fox can kennel in : they
also are disturbed when pheasant-shooting be-
gins, and older covers are more likely. The
season when foxes are most wild and strong is
about Christmas: a huntsman, then, must lose
no time in drawing; he must draw up the wind,
unless the cover be very large ; in which case it
may be better perhaps to cross it, giving the
hounds a side-wind, lest he should be obliged to
turn down the wind at last: in either case, let
him draw as quietly as he can.

Young coppices, at this time, are quite bare :
the most likely places are four or five years cop-
pices, and such as are furzy at bottom.

It is easy to perceive, by the account you
give of your hounds, that they do not draw
well ; your huntsman, therefore, must be parti-
cularly attentive to them after a wet night.
The best drawing hounds are shy of searching
a cover when it is wet ; yours, if care is not
taken, will not go into it at all : your huntsman
should ride into the likeliest part of the cover,
and, as it is probable there will be no drag, the
closer he draws the better : he must not draw
too much an end, but should cross the cover
backwards and forwards, taking care at the

IMPORTANCE OF DRAWING. 239

same time to eive his hounds as much the wind
as possible.*

It is not often you will see a pack perfectly
steady where there is much riot, and yet draw
well : some hounds will not exert themselves
till others challenge, and are encouraged .-}-

I fear the many harriers you have in your
neighbourhood will be hurtful to your sport :
by constantly disturbing the covers, they will
make the foxes shy ; and when the covers
become thin, there will be but little chance of
finding foxes in them : furze covers are then
the most likely places. Though I like not to see
a huntsman to a pack of hounds ever off his
horse, yet, at a late hour, he should draw a
furze cover as slowly as if he were himself on
foot. I am well convinced that huntsmen, by
drawing in too great a hurry, leave foxes some-
times behind them. I once saw a remarkable
instance of ,it with my own hounds : we had
drawn (as we thought) a cover, which, in the

* Hounds that are hunted constantly at an early hour
seldom, I think, draw well : they depend too much upon a
drag, and it is not in the strongest part of the cover that
they are accustomed to try for it.

f This i-elates to making hounds steady only, which
always causes confusion, and interrupts drawing. "When
once a pack are become steady, they will be more likely to
draw well than if they were not.

240 THE LARGE COVERS

whole, consisted of about ten acres ; yet, whilst
the huntsman was blowing his horn, to get his
hounds off, one young fox was hallooed, and
another was seen immediately after : it was a
cover on the side of a hill, and the foxes had
kennelled close together at an extremity of it,
where no hound had been. Some huntsmen
draw too quick, some too slow. The time of
the day, the behaviour of his hounds, and the
covers they are drawing, will direct an observing
huntsman in the pace which he ought to go.
When you try a furze-brake, let me give you
one caution ; — never halloo a fox till you see he
is got quite clear of it. When a fox is found in
such places, hounds are sure to go off well with
him ; and it must be owing either to bad scent,
bad hounds, bad management, or bad luck, if
they fail "^o kill him afterwards.

It is usual in most packs to rate, as soon as a
young hound challenges. They often are wrong,
yet, since it is not impossible that they may
sometimes be right, is it not better to have a
little patience, in order to see whether any of
the old ones will join, before any thing is said
to tliem ?

Never hunt your small covers till you have
well rattled the large ones ; for until the foxes

SHOULD FIRST BE TRIED. 241

are thinned and dispersed where they are in
plenty, it must be bad policy to drive others
there to increase the number. If you would
thin your foxes, you must throw off at the same
cover as long as you can find a fox. If you
come off with the first fox that breaks, you do
not disturb the cover, and may expect to find
there again the next day ; but where they are
scarce, you should never draw the same cover
two days following.

When a fox slinks from his kennel, gets
a great way before the hounds, and you are
obliged to hunt after him with a bad scent ; if
you are in a country where foxes are in plenty,
and you know where to find another, you had
better do it.*

While hounds are drawing for a fox, let your
people place themselves in such a manner that
he cannot go off unseen. I have known them
lie in sheep''s scrapes on the side of hills, and
in spnall bushes, where huntsmen never think of
looking for them ; yet, when they hear a hound,
they generally shift their quarters, and make
for closer covers. Gentlemen should take this

* Yet, if this were practised often, it might make the
hounds indifferent when upon a cold scent. Hounds
should be made to believe they are to kill that game which
they are first encouraged to pursue.
M

242 KDLES FOIl DRAWING.

necessary part of fox-hunting on themselves, for
the whipper-in has other business to attend to.*

I approve not of long drags in large covers ;
they give too great an advantage to the fox,
who frequently sets off a long way before you.
This may be prevented by throwing your
hounds into that part of the cover in which
he is most likely to kennel : for want of this
precaution, a fox sometimes gets so far the start
of hounds, that they are not able to do any
thing with him afterwards. Also, when hounds
first touch on a drag, some huntsmen are so
careless, that while they are going on with it the
wrong way themselves, a single hound finds the
fox, and is not caught any more by the pack till
he has lost him again.

Foxes are said to go down the wind to their
kennel; but, I believe, they do not always ob-
serve that rule.

Huntsmen, whilst their hounds are drawing,
or are at a fault, frequently make so much noise
themselves, that they can hear nothing else :
they should always have an ear to a halloo. I
once saw an extraordinary instance of the want

* Upon these occasions, when you see two gentlemen
togetfier, you may reasonably conclude that one of them, at
least, knows nothing of the matter.

RULES FOR DRAWING. 243

of it in my own huntsman, who was making so
much noise with his hounds, which were then at
a fault, that a man hallooed a long while before
he heard him ; and when he did hear him, so
little did he know whence the halloo came, that
he rode a couple of miles the wrong way, and
lost the fox.

When hounds approach a cover which it is
intended they should draw, and dash away to-
wards it, whippers-in ride after them to stop
them. It is too late, and they had better let
them alone ; it checks them in their drawing,
and is of no kind of use : it will be soon enough
to begin to rate when they have found, and hunt
improper game. If a huntsman has his hounds
under good command, and is attentive to them,
they will not break off till he chooses they should.
If he goes by the side of a cover which he does
not intend to draw, his whippers-in must be in
their proper places ; but if he rides up to a co-
ver with them unawed, uncontrouled, — a cover
where they have been used to find, they must
be slack indeed if they do not dash into it. It
is for that reason better, I think, not to come
to a cover always the same way ; hounds, by
not knowing what is going forward, will be less
likely to break off, and will draw more quietly.
M 2

244

DRAWING A COVER.

I have seen hounds so flashy, that they would
break away from the huntsman as soon as they
saw a cover ; and I have seen the same hounds
stop when they got to the cover side, and not
go into it. It is want of proper discipline which
occasions faults like these. Hounds that are
under such command as never to leave their
huntsman till he encourages them to do it, will
then be so confident that they will not return
to him again.

Were fox-hounds to stop, like stop-hounds,
at the smack of a whip, they would not do their
business the worse for it, and it would give you
many advantages very essential to your sport :
such as, when they have to wait under a cover
side ; when they run riot ; when they change
scents ; when a single hound is on before; and
when a fox is headed back into a cover. Hounds
that are not under good command subject you
to many inconveniences ; and you may, at times,
be obliged to go out of your way, or be made
to draw a cover against your will. A famous
pack of hounds in my neighbourhood, I mean

the late Lord C n's, had no fault but what

had its rise from bad management ; nor is it
possible to do any thing with a pack of fox-
hounds, unless they are obedient. They should

THE BUCK-HOUND. 245

both love and fear the huntsman ; they should
fear him much, yet they should love him more.
Without doubt hounds would do more for
huntsmen, if they loved them better. Dogs
that are constantly with* their masters acquire a
wonderful deal of penetration, and much may
be done through the medium of their affections.
I attribute the extraordinary sagacity of the
buck-hound to the manner in which he is
treated. He is the constant companion of his
instructor and benefactor ; the man whom he
was first taught to fear, and has since learned
to love. Can we wonder that he should be
obedient to him .'' Oft have we viewed, with
surprise, the hounds and the deer amusing
themselves familiarly together on the same
lawn, — living, as it were, in the most friendly
intercourse ; and with no less surprise have we
heard the keeper give the word, when instantly
the verynatureof the dog seemed changed: rous-
ed from his peaceful state, he is urged on with
a relentless fury, which only death can satisfy
—the death of the very deer he is encouraged
to pursue. The business of the day over, see
him follow, careless and contented, his master's
steps, to repose on the same lawn, where the
frightened deer again return, and are again in-

246 ON DRAWING WITH

debtee! to his courtesy for their wonted pasture.
Wonderful proofs of obedience, sagacity, and
penetration ! The many learned dogs and learn-
ed horses that so frequently appear, and astonish
the vulgar, sufficiently evince what education
is capable of; and it is to education I must
chiefly attribute the superior excellence of the
buck-hound, since I have seen high-bred fox-
hounds do the same under the same good mas-
ters. But to return to my subject. —

Young foxes, that have been much disturbed,
will lie at ground. I once found seven or eight
in a cover, where, the next day, I could not
find one ; nor were they to be found elsewhere :
the earths, at such times, should be stopped
three or four hours before day, or you will find
no foxes.

The first day you hunt a cover that is full
of foxes, and you v/ant blood, let them not be
checked back into the cover, which is the usual
practice at such times, but let some of them get
off: if you do not, what with continual chang-
ings, and sometimes running the heel, it is pro-
bable you will not kill any. Another precaution,
I think, may be also necessary — that is, to stop
such earths only as you cannot dig. If some
foxes should go to ground, it will be as well ;

UNSTEADY HOUXDS. 247

and if you should be in want of blood at last,
you will then know where to get it.

It is usual, Avhen people are not certain of
the steadiness of their hounds from deer, to find
a fox in an adjacent cover, that they may be on
their right scent when they come where deer
are. I have my doubts of the propriety of this
proceeding. If hounds have not been well awed
from deer, it is not fit they at any rate should
come among them ; but if hounds are tolerably
steady, I had rather find a fox with them
amongst deer, than bring them afterwards into
covers where deer are. By drawing amongst
them, they in some degree will be awed from
the scent, and possibly may stick to the fox
when once he is found ; but should unsteady
hounds, when high on their mettle, run into a
cover where deer are in plenty, there is no doubt
that, the first check they come to, they will all
fall off. I always have found hounds most in-
clined to riot when most upon their mettle :
such as are given to sheep, will then kill sheep ;
and such as are not quite steady from deer, will
then be most likely to break off after them.
When hounds are encouraged on a scent, if they
lose that scent, it is then an unsteady hound is
ready for any kind of mischief.

248

ON THE SILENCE

I have been more particular than I otherwise
should have been, upon a supposition that your
hounds draw ill ; however, you need not ob-
serve all the cautions I have given, unless
your hounds require them.

Some art may be necessary to make the most
of the country that you hunt. I would advise
you not to draw the covers near your house,
while you can find elsewhere : it will make
them certain places to find in, when you go out
late, or may otherwise be in want of them.
For the same reason, I would advise you not
to hunt those covers late in the season: they
should not be much disturbed after Christmas.
Foxes will then resort to them, will breed there,
and you can pi'eserve them with little trouble.
This relates to the good management of a pack
of hounds, which is a business distinct from
hunting them.*

Though a huntsman ought to be as silent as
possible at going into a cover, he cannot be too
noisy at coming out of it again ; and if at any
time he should turn back suddenly, let him give

* Breeding, feeding, steadying, drafting, and placing,
are the essential parts of fox-hunting. When these are
properly attended to, the hounds will require but little
assistance from the huntsman, whose chief business then
will be to keep with them, say little, and do nothing.

OF HUNTSMEN. 249

as much notice of it as he can to his hounds, or
he will leave many of them behind him ; and
should he turn down the wind, he may see no
more of them.

I should be sorry that the silence of my
huntsman should proceed from either of the fol-
lowing causes. — A huntsman that I once knew
(who, by the by, I believe is, at this time, a
drummer in a marching regiment) went out one
morning so very drunk, that he got off his horse
in the midst of a thick cover, laid himself down,
and went to sleep. He was lost ; nobody knew
what was become of him; and he was at last
found in the situation I have just described.
He had, however great good luck on his side ;
for, at the very instant he was found, a fox was
hallooed ; upon which he mounted his horse,
rode desperately, killed his fox handsomely,
and was forgiven.

1 remember another huntsman silent from a
different cause ; this was a sulky one. Things
did not go on to please him ; he therefore
alighted from his horse in the middle of a wood,
and, as quietly as he could, collected his hounds
about him. He then took an opportunity,
when the coast was clear, to set off silently, and
by himself, for another cover : however, his
M 3

250 ANECDOTE.

master, who knew his tricks, sent others after
him to bring him back : they found him run-
ning a fox most merrily, and to his great
astonishment, they stopped the hounds, and
made him go back along with them. This fel-
low had been often very severely beaten, but
was stubborn and sulky to the last.

To give you an idea, before I quit this
subject, how little some people know of fox-
hunting, I must tell you that, not long ago, a
gentleman asked me if I did not send people
out the day before, to find where the foxes lay.

What relates to the casting of hounds shall
be the subject of my next letter.

OF CASTIXG. 251

LETTER XX.

In my seventeenth letter, I gave you the
opinion of my friend ****, " that a pack of
fox-hounds, if left entirely to themselves, would
never lose a fox.'''' I am always sorry when I
differ from that gentleman in any thing : yet
I am so far from thinking they never would
lose a fox, that I doubt much if they would
ever kill one. There are times when hounds
should be helped, and at all times they must
be kept forward : hounds will naturally tie
on a cold scent when stopped by sheep, or
other impediments ; and when they are no
longer able to get forward, will oftentimes
hunt the old scent back again, if they find
that they can hunt no other. It is the ju-
dicious encouraging of hounds to hunt when
they cannot run, and the preventing them
from losing time by hunting too much, when
they might run, that distinguishes a good
sportsman from a bad one.* Hounds that

* In hunting a pack of hounds, a proper medium should
be observed ; for though too much help will make them

252 HOW A HUNTSMAN

have been well taught will cast forward to a
hedge of their own accord : but you may assure
yourself this excellence is never acquired by
such as are left entirely to themselves. To
suffer a pack of fox-hounds to hunt through
a flock of sheep, when it is so easy to make
a regular cast round them, is, in my judg-
ment, the height of absurdity : it is wilfully
losing time to no purpose. I have indeed
been told, that hounds at no time should be
taken off their noses : I shall only say, in an-
swer to this, that a fox-hound who will not bear
lifting is not worth the keeping ; and I will
venture to say, it should be made part of his
education.

Though I like to see fox-hounds cast wide
and forward, and dislike to see them pick a
cold scent through flocks of sheep to no pur-
pose, yet I must beg leave to observe, that I
dislike still more to see that unaccountable
hurry which huntsmen will sometimes put
themselves into the moment their hounds are
at a fault. Time ought always to be allowed
them to make their own cast ; and if a hunts-
man is judicious, he will take that opportunity

slack, too little will make them tie on the scent, and hunt
back the heel.

SHOULD CAST HIS HOUNDS. 253

to consider what part he himself has next to
act : but instead of this, I have seen hounds
hurried away the very instant they came to
a fault, a wide cast made, and the hounds
at last brought back again to the very place
from whence they were so abruptly taken, and
where, if the huntsman had had a minute's
patience, they would have hit off the scent
themselves. It is always great impertinence
in a huntsman to pretend to make a cast him-
self, before the hounds have made theirs. Pru-
dence should direct him to encourage, and I
may say, humour his hounds, in the cast they
seem inclined to make, and either to stand still
or trot round with them, as circumstances may
require.

I have seen huntsmen make their cast on bad
ground, when they might as easily have made
it on good. I have seen them suffer their
hounds to try in the midst of a flock of sheep,
when there was a hedge near, where they might
have been sure to take the scent; and I have
seen a cast made with every hound at their
horse's heels. When a hound tries for the
scent, his nose is to the ground : when a
huntsman makes a cast, his eye should be on
his hounds ; and when he sees them spread

254 OF CASTING.

wide, and try as they ought, his cast may then
be quick.

When hounds are at a fault, and the hunts-
man halloos them off the line of the scent, the
whippers-in smacking their whips, and rating
them after him, if he trots away with them,
may not they think the business of the day
is over ? Hounds never, in my opinion, (unless
in particular cases, or when you go to a hal-
loo,) should be taken entirely off their noses ;
but when lifted, should be constantly made
to try as they go. Some huntsmen have a
dull, stupid way of speaking to their hounds :
at these times little should be said, and that
should have both meaning and expression in it.

When your huntsman makes a cast, I hope
he makes it perfect one way before he tries
another, as much time is lost by going back-
wards and forwards. You will see huntsmen,
when a forward cast does not succeed, come
slowly back again : they should return as fast
as they can.

When hounds are at a fault, and it is pro-
bable that the fox has headed back, your cast
forward should be short and quick ; for the
scent is then likely to be behind you : too
obstinate a perseverance forward has been the

OF CASTING. 255

loss of many foxes. In heathy countries, if
there are many roads, foxes will always run
them in dry weather ; when hounds, therefore,
over-run the scent, if your huntsman returns to
the first cross road, he probably will hit off the
scent again.

In large covers, if there are many roads, in
bad scenting days when these roads are dry,
or after a thaw, when they carry, it is necessary
your huntsman should be near to his hounds to
help them and hold them forward. Foxes will
run the roads at these times, and hounds cannot
always own the scent. When they are at a
fault on a dry road, let not your huntsman
turn back too soon ; let him not stop till he
can be certain that the fox is not gone on.
The hounds should try on both sides the road
at once ; if he perceives that they try on one
side only, on his return let him try the other.

If a fox runs up the wind when first found,
and afterwards turns, he seldom, if ever, turns
again. This observation may not only be of
use to your huntsman in his cast, but may
be of use to you, if you should lose the
hounds.

When you are pursuing a fox over a country,
the scent being bad, and the fox a long way

256 A HUNTSMAN SHOULD NOT

before, without ever having been pressed, if

his point should be for strong earths that are

open, or for large covers, where game is in

plelity, it may be acting wisely to take oft'

the hounds at the first fault they come to;

for the fox will go many miles to your one,

and probably will run you out of all scent ;

but if he should not, you will be likely to

change at the first cover you come into : when

a fox has been hard pressed, I have already

given it as my opinion, that he never should be

given up.

When you would recover a hunted fox, and

have no longer a scent to hunt him by, a long

cast to the first cover which he seems to point

to is the only resource you have left : get there

as fast as you can ; and then let your hounds

try as slowly and as quietly as possible : if

hunting after him is hopeless, and a long cast

does not succeed, you had better give him up.

Need I remind you that when the scent lies

badly, and you find it impossible for hounds

to run, you had better return home, since the

next day may be more favourable.* It surely

• Though I would not go out on a very windy day, yet
a bad scenting day is sometimes of service to a pack of
fox-hounds : they acquire patience from it, and method of
hunting.

PERSEVERE IN BAD WEATHER. 257

is a great fault in a huntsman to persevere
in bad weather, when hounds cannot run, and
when there is not a probability of killing a fox.
Some there are, who, after they have lost one
fox for want of scent to hunt him by, will
find another ; this makes their hounds slack,
and sometimes vicious : it also disturbs the co-
vers to no purpose. Some sportsmen are more
lucky in their days than others. If you hunt
every other day, it is possible they may be all
bad, and the intermediate days all good ; an
indifferent pack, therefore, by hunting on good
days, may kill foxes, without any merit ; and
a good pack, notwithstanding all their exertion,
may lose foxes which they deserve to kill.
Had I a sufficiency of hounds, I would hunt
on every good day, and never on a bad one.*

A perfect knowledge of his country certainly
is a great help to a huntsman : if yours, as
yet, has it not, great allowance ought to be

• On windy days, or such as are not likely to afford any
scent for hounds, it is better, I think, to send them to be
exercised on the turnpike-road ; it will do them less harm
than hunting with them might do, and more good than if
they were to remain confined in their kennel : for though
nothing makes hounds so handy as taking them out oflen,
nothing inclines them so much to riot as taking them out
to hunt when there is little or no scent, and particularly on
windy days, when they cannot hear one another.

258 HINTS TO THE HUNTSMAN.

made. The trotting away with hounds, to
make a long and knowing cast, is a privilege
which a new huntsman cannot pretend to : an
experienced one may safely say a fox has made
for such a cover, when he has known, perhaps,
that nine out of ten, with the wind in the same
quarter, have constantly gone thither.

In a country where there are large earths, a
fox that knows the country, and tries any of
them, seldom fails to try the rest. A huntsman
may take advantage of this ; they are certain
casts, and may help him to get nearer to
his fox.

Great caution is necessary when a fox runs
into a village : if he is hallooed there, get
forward as fast as you can. Foxes, when tired,
will lie down any where, and are often lost
by it. A wide cast is not the best to recover
a tired fox with tired hounds ; they should
hunt him out, inch by inch, though they are
ever so long about it, for the reason I have just
given, that he will lie down any where.

In chases and forests, where high fences are
made to preserve the coppices, I like to see
a huntsman put only a few hounds over, enough
to carry on the scent, and get forward with the
rest : it is a proof that he knows his business.

HINTS TO THE HUNTSMAN. 259

A huntsman must take care, where foxes are
in plenty, that he does not run the heel ; for it
frequently happens that hounds can run the
wrong way of tlie scent better than they can
the right, when one is up the wind, and the
other down.

Fox-hunters, I think, are never guilty of
the fault of trying up the wind, before they
have tried down. I have known them lose
foxes, rather than condescend to try up the
wind at all.

When a huntsman hears a halloo, and has
five or six couple of hounds along with him, the
pack not running, let him get forward with
those which he has : when they are on the scent,
the others will soon join them.

Let him lift his tail hounds, and get them
forward after the rest: it can do no hurt.
But let him be cautious how he lifts any
hounds to get them forward before the rest:
it always is dangerous, and foxes are some-
times lost by it.

When a fox runs his foil in cover, if you
suffer all your hounds to hunt on the line
of him, they will foil the ground, and tire
themselves to little purpose. I have before
told you that your huntsman, at such a time,

260 ACTIVITY INDISPENSABLE

may stop the tail hounds, and throw them in-
at head. I am almost inclined to say, it is the
only time it should be done. Whilst hounds
run straight, it cannot be of any use ; for they
will get on faster with the scent than they would
without it.

When hounds are hunting a cold scent, and
point towards a cover, let a whipper-in get for-
ward to the opposite side of it. Should the fox
break before the hounds reach the cover, stop
them, and get them nearer to him.

When a fox persists in running in a strong
cover, lies down often behind the hounds, and
they are slack in hunting him, let the hunts-
man get into the cover to them : it may
make the fox break ; it may keep him off
his foil; or may prevent the hounds from
giving him up.

It is not often that slow huntsmen kill
many foxes : they are a check upon their
hounds, which seldom kill a fox but with a
high scent, when it is out of their power to
prevent it. What avails it to be told which
way the fox is gone, when he is so far before
that you cannot hunt him ? A Newmarket
boy, with a good understanding and a good
voice, might be preferable, perhaps, to an in-

IN FOX-HUNTING- 261

different and slack huntsman : he would press
on his hounds whilst the scent was good, and
the foxes he killed he would kill handsomely.
A perfect knowledge of the intricacies of hunt-
ing is chiefly of use to slow huntsmen, and
bad hounds; since they more often stand in
need of it. Activity is the first requisite in
a huntsman to a pack of fox-hounds: a want
of it no judgment can make amends for; but
the most difficult of all his undertakings is
the distinguishing betwixt different scents, and
knowing with any certainty the scent of his
hunted fox. Much speculation is here re-
quired ;— the length of time hounds remain at
fault; — difference of ground; — change of wea-
ther; all these contribute to increase the diffi-
culty, and require a nicety of judgment, and
a precision, much above the comprehension of
most huntsmen.

When hounds are at fault, and cannot make
it out of themselves, let the first cast be quick ;
the scent is then good, nor are the hounds
likely to go over it : as the scent gets worse,
the cast should be slower, and be more cauti-
ously made. This is an essential part of hunt-
ing, and which, I am sorry to say, few hunts-
men attend to. I wish they would remember

262 HUNTING MAXIMS.

the following rules, viz. that, with a good scent,
their cast should be quick; with a bad scent,
slow; and that when the hounds are picking
along a cold scent, they are not to cast them
at all.

When hounds are at fault, and staring about,
trusting solely to their eyes and to their ears,
the making a cast with them, I apprehend,
would be to little purpose. The likeliest place
for them to find a scent is where they left it ;
and when the fault is evidently in the dog,
a forward cast is least likely to recover the
scent.*

When hounds are making a good and regu-
lar cast, trying for the scent as they go, suffer
not your huntsman to say a word to them :
it cannot do any good, and probably may make
them go over the scent.

When hounds come to a check, a huntsman
should observe the tail hounds : they are least
likely to over-run the scent, and he may see
by them how far they brought it. In most
packs there are some hounds that will show
the point of the fox, and, if attended to, will

* Hounds know where they left the scent, and, if let
alone, will try to recover it. Impatience in the hunts-
man, at such times, seldom fails in the end to spoil the
hounds.

HUNTING MAXIMS. 263

direct his cast. When such hounds follow-
unwillingly, he may be certain the rest of the
pack are running without a scent.

When he casts his hounds, let him not cast
wide, without reason ; for of course it will take
more time. Huntsmen, in general, keep too
forward in their casts ; or, as a sailor would
say, keep too long on one tack. They should
endeavour to hit off the scent by crossing the
line of it. Two parallel lines, you know, can
never meet.*

When he goes to a halloo, let him be care-
ful lest his hounds run the heel, as much
time is lost by it. I once saw this mistake
made by a famous huntsman : after we had
left a cover, which we had been drawing, a
disturbed fox was seen to go into it: he was
hallooed, and we returned. The huntsman,
who never inquired where the fox was seen,
or on ivhich side the cover he entered, threw
his hounds in at random ; and, as it happen-
ed, on the opposite sid^: they immediately
took the heel of him, broke cover, and hunt-
ed the scent back to his very kennel.

* By attending to this, a huntsman cannot fail to make
a good cast ; for, if he observe the point of the fox, he may
always cross upon the scent of him.

HINTS TO THE HUNTSMAN.

Different countries require different casts:
such huntsmen as have been used to a wood-
land and inclosed country, I have seen lose
time in an open country, where wide casts
are always necessary.

When you want to cast round a flock of
sheep, the whipper-in ought to drive them the
other way, lest they should keep running on
before you.

A fox seldom goes over or under a gate,
when he can avoid it.

Huntsmen are frequently very conceited, and
very obstinate. Often have I seen them, when
their hounds came to a check, turn directly
back, on seeing hounds at head, which they
had no opinion of. They supposed the fox
was gone another way ; in which case Mr.
Bayes's remark in the Rehearsal always occurs
to me, " that if he should not, what then
becomes of their suppose.''' Better, surely,
would it be, to make a short cast forward
first ; they then might be certain the hounds
were wrong, and of course could make their
own cast with greater confidence. The ad-
vantage, next to that of knowing where the
fox is gone, is that of knowing, with certainty,
where he is not.

OF HEADING THE FOX. 265

Most huntsmen like to have all their hounds
turned after them, when they make a cast : I
wonder not at them for it, but I am always
sorry when I see it done ; for till I find a
huntsman that is infallible, I shall continue
to think the more my hounds spread the bet-
ter: as long as they are within sight or heai*-
ing, it is sufficient. Many a time have I seen
an obstinate hound hit off the scent, when an
obstinate huntsman, by casting the wrong way,
has done all in his power to prevent it. Tv.'o
foxes I remember to have seen killed in one
day by skirting hounds, whilst the huntsman
was making his cast the contrary way.

When hounds, running in cover, come into a
road, and horses are on before, let the huntsman
hold them quickly on beyond where the horses
have been, trying the opposite side as he goes
along. Should the horsemen have been long
enough there to have headed back the fox, let
them then try back. Condemn me not for suf-
fering hounds to try back, when the fox ?ias
beeUf headed back ; I recommend it at no
other time.

When your hounds are divided into many
parts, you had better go off with the first fox
that breaks. The ground will soon get tainted,
N

266 LAME HOUNDS.

nor will hounds like a cover where they are
often changing.

The heading a fox back at first, if the cover
be not a large one, is oftentimes of service to
hounds, as he will not stop, and cannot go off
unseen. When a fox has been hard run, I have
known it turn out otherwise ; and hounds that
would easil}' have killed him out of the cover,
have left him in it.

When a fox has been often headed back on
one side of a cover, and a huntsman knows there
is not any body on the other side to halloo him,
the first fault his hounds come to, let him cast
that way, lest the fox should be gone off; and
if he is in the cover, he may still recover him.

Suffer not your huntsman to take out a lame
hovmd. If any are tender-footed, he will tell
you, perhaps, that they will not mind it when
they are out : probably the}"^ may not; but how
will they be on the next day ? A hound, not
in condition to run, cannot be of much service
to the pack ; and taking him out at that time
may occasion him a long confinement after-
wards. Put it not to the trial.

I have seen huntsmen hunt their young
hounds in couples. Let me beg of you not to
suffer it. I know you would be sorry to see

DUTIES OF HUNTSMEN. 267

3'our hounds hanging across a hedge, grinning
at each other : yet it is an accident that often
has happened ; and it is an accident so likely
to happen, that I am surprised any man of
common sense will run the risk of it. If ne-
cessary, I had much rather they should be held
in couples at the cover side till the fox is found.

The two principal things which a huntsman
has to attend to, are the keeping of his hounds
healthy and steady. The first is attained by
cleanliness and proper food ; the latter, by put-
ting as seldom as possible any unsteady ones
amongst them.

When a fox is lost, the huntsman, on his
return home, should examine himself, and en-
deavour to find in what he might have done
better ; he may by this means make the very
losing of a fox of use to him.

Old tieing hounds, and a hare-hunter turned
fox-hunter, are both as contrary to the true
spirit of fox-hunting as any thing can possibly
be. One is continually bringing the pack back
again ; the other as constantly does his best
to prevent them from getting forward. The
natural prejudices of mankind are such, that
a man seldom alters his style of hunting, let
him pursue what game he may ; besides, it may
N 2

268 QUALITIES OF HUNTSMEN.

be constitutional, as be is bimself slow or active,
dull or lively, patient or impatient : it is for
that reason I object to a hare-hunter for a pack
of fox-bounds ; for the same ideas of bunting
will most probably stick by bim as long as
he lives.

Your huntsman is an old man : should he
have been working bard all his life on wrong
principles, he may be now incorrigible.

Sometimes you will meet with a good kennel
huntsman ; sometimes an active and judicious
one in the field: some are clever at finding a
fox, others are better after be is found ; whilst
perfection in a huntsman, like perfection in any
thing else, is scarcely any where to be met with :
there are not only good, bad, and indifferent
huntsmen, but there are perhaps a few others,
who, being as it were of a different species,
should be classed apart ; I mean such as have
real genius. It is this peculiar excellence,
which I told you in a former letter I would
rather wish my first whipper-in to be possessed
of, than my huntsman; and one reason among
others is, that he, I tbini<, would have more
opportunities of exercising it.

The keeping hounds clean and healthy, and
bringing them into the field in their fullest

EXCELLENCE IN HUNTSMEN. 269

vigour, is the excellence of a good kennel hunts-
man ;* if, besides this, he makes his hounds
both love and fear him ; if he is active, and
presses them on whilst the scent is good, always
aiming to keep as near to the fox as he can ; if,
when his hounds are at fault, he makes his cast
with judgment, not casting the wrong way first,
and blundering on the right at last, as many do :
if, added to this, he is patient and persevering,
never giving up a fox whilst there remains a
chance of killing him, he then is a perfect
huntsman.

Did I not know your love of this diversion, I
should think, by this time, I must have tired
you completely. You are not particular, how-
ever, in your partiality to it ; for to show you

* To make the most of a pack of hounds, and bring them
into the field in their fullest vigour, is an excellence that
huntsmen are very deficient in. To obtain a knowledge of
the different constitutions of so many animals, requires*
more discernment than most of them are endowed with.
To apply that knowledge, by making separate drafts when
they feed them, would also take up more time than they
choose to bestow : hence it is that they generally are fed
all together : — they may be well fed, but I much doubt
whether they are ever made the most of; such as require
to be fed a little at a time and often, must, I believe, be con-
tented with a little only. Few huntsmen seem fond of their
hounds ; one reason of it, perhaps, may be, that they are
paid for looking after them.

270 ANECDOTE.

the effect which fox-hunting has on those who
are really fond of it, I must tell you what hap-
pened to me not long ago. — My hounds, in
running a fox, crossed the great western road,
where I met a gentleman travelling on horse-
back, a servant, with a portmanteau, following
him. He no sooner saw me, than he rode up to
me with the greatest eagerness. " Sir,'''' said he,
" are you after a fox ?" — When I told him we
were, he immediately stuck spurs to his horse,
took a monstrous leap, and never quitted us
any more till the fox was killed. I suppose,
had I said we were after a hare, my gentleman
would have pursued his journey.

THE HARE-HUNTER. 271

LETTER XXI.

Your huntsman, you say, has hunted a pack
of harriers. It might have been better, per-
haps, had he never seen one ; since fox-hunting
and hare-hunting differ ahnost in every particu-
lar : so much so, that I think it might not be
an improper negative definition of fox-hunting
to say, it is, of all hunting, that which resem-
bles hare-hunting the least. A good huntsman
to a pack of harriers seldom succeeds in fox-
hunting : like old hounds, they dwell upon the
scent, and cannot get forward; nor do they
ever make a bold cast, so much are they afraid
of leaving the scent behind them. Hence it is
that they poke about, and try tiie same place
ten times over, rather than they will leave it ;
and when they do, are totally at a loss which
way to go, for want of knowing the nature of
the animal they are in pursuit of. As hare-
hounds should scarcely ever be cast, hallooed,
or taken off their noses, they think to hunt their
fox-hounds in the same manner ; but it will not

272 THE BEAGLE, THE HARRIER,

do ; nor could it please you, if it would. Take
away the spirit of fox-hunting, and it is no
longer fox-hunting ; it is stale small beer com-
pared to brisk champaign. You would also find
in it more fatigue than pleasure. It is said,
there is a pleasure in being mad which only
madmen know ; and it is the enthusiasm, I
believe, of fox-hunting which is its best sup-
port : strip it of that, and you then, I think,
had better let it quite alone.

The hounds themselves also differ in their
manner of hunting. The beagle, who has
always his nose to the ground, will puzzle an
hour on one spot sooner than he will leave the
scent ; while the fox-hound, full of life and
spirit, is always dashing and trying forward. A
high-bred fox-hound, therefore, shows himself
to most advantage when foxes are at their
strongest, and run an end. A pack of harriers
will kill a cub better, perhaps, than a pack of
fox-hounds ; but when foxes are strong, they
have not the method of getting on with the
scent which fox-hounds have, and generally tire
themselves before the fox. To kill foxes when
they are strong, hounds must run^ as well as
hunt ; besides, the catching of a fox by hard
running is always preferred, in the opinion of

AND THE rOX-HOTJND. 273

a fox-hunter. Much depends, in my opinion, on
the style with which it is done ; and I think,
without being sophistical, a distinction might
be made betwixt the hunting of a fox and fox-
hunting. Two hackneys become not racers by
running round a course; nor does the mere
hunting of a fox change the nature of the
harrier. I have also seen a hare hunted by
high-bred fox-hounds ; but I confess to you, it
gave me not the least idea of what hare-hunting
ought to be. Certain ideas are necessarily an-
nexed to certain words ; this is the use of lan-
guage : and when a fox-hound is mentioned, I
should expect not only a particular kind of
hound, as to make, size, and strength, by which
the fox-hound is easy to be distinguished ; but
I should also expect by fox-hunting a lively,
animated, and eager pursuit, as the very essence
of it.* Eagerness and impetuosity are such
essential parts of this diversion, that I am never
more surprised than when I see a fox-hunter
without them. One hold hard ! or reproof un-

* The six following lines may have a dangerous ten-
dency. Only a good sportsman can know when a reproof
is given unnecessarily, and only a bad one will be deserving
of rfeproof. This passage, therefore, should be compared
with pages 150, 191, 193, 209, where the meaning of the
author is very clearly expressed.

x3

274 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

necessarily given, would chill me more than a
north-east wind i, it would damp my spirits, and
send me home. The enthusiasm of a fox-hunter
should not be checked in its career, for it is the
very life and soul of fox-hunting. It is the ea-
gerness with which you pursue your game that
. makes the chief pleasure of the chase ; and what
animal do you pursue with the same eagerness
you do a fox ?

Knowing your partiality to hounds that run
in a good style, I advise you to observe strictly
yours, when a fox is sinking in a strong cover ;
that is the time to see the spirit of a fox-hound.
If they spread not the cover, but run tamely on
the line of one another, I shall fear it is a sort
that will not please you long. A fox-hound
that has not spirit and ambition to get forward
at such a time as this, is at no time likely to do
much good.

You talked, in your last letter, of pretty
hounds: certainly I should not pretend to criti-
cise others, who am so incorrect myself; yet,
with your leave, I think I can set you right in
that particular. Pretty is an epithet improperly
applied to a fox -hound ; we call a fox-hound
handsome when he is strong, bony, of a proper
size, and of exact symmetry ; and fitness is

OF THE FOX-HOUND. 275

made essential to beauty. A beagle may be
pretty, but, according to my idea of the word,
a fox-hound cannot : but as it is not to be sup-
posed that you will keep a pack of fox-hounds
for the pleasure of looking at them, without
doubt you will think goodness more necessary
than beauty. Should you ever be ambitious to
have a handsome pack of hounds, on no account
must you enter an ugly dog, lest you should be
tempted to keep him afterwards.

I once heard an old sportsman say, that he
thought a fox, to show sport, should run four
hours at least ; and I suppose he did not care
how slow his hounds went after him. This
idea, however, is not conceived in the true
spirit of fox hunting ; which is not to walk
down a fox, or starve him to death, but to
keep close at him, and kill him as soon as
you can. I am convinced a fox-hound may
hunt too much : if tender-nosed, and not over-
hurried, he will always hunt enough; whilst
the highest-bred hounds may be made to tie
on the scent by improper management.*

It is youth and good spirits which suit best

* It more frequently is owing either to want of patience
or want of mettle than to want of nose, that a hound does
not hunt well.

276 DIFFEEENCE BETWEEN FOX

with fox-hunting; slackness in the men occa-
sions slackness in the hounds ; and one may
see, by the manner in which hounds hunt,
what kind of men they have been accustomed
to. The speediest hounds may, by degrees,
be rendered slow ; and it is impossible for
the best to do their business as they ought,
unless they are followed with life and spirit.
Such men as are slack themselves will be al-
ways afraid of hurrying their hounds too
much; and by carrying this humour too far,
commit a fault which has nothing to excuse
it. The best method to hunt a fox, they say,
is never, on any account, to cast the hounds ;
but, on the contrary, to let them tie upon
the scent as long as they will, and that they
will hit it off at last. I agree with them
partly : it certainly must be the best method
to hunt a fox, for by this means you may
hunt him from morning till night ; and if
you have the luck to find him, may hunt
him again the next day : the likeliest method,
however, to catch him, is to take every ad-
vantage of him you can.

All hounds go fast enough with a good
scent; but it is the particular excellence of a
fox-hound, when rightly managed, to get on

AND irAHE-IIUNTING. 277

faster with an indifF<M'ent scent than any other
hf)un(l : * it is the business of a huntsman to
encourage this ; and here, most probably, the
hare-himter will fail. He has been used to
take his time; he has enjoyed a cold scent,
like a southern hound ; and has sat patiently
upon his horse to sec his ho mds hunt. It
is, to be sure, very pretty to sec ; and when
you consider that the hare is all the time,
perhaps, within a few yards of you, and may
leap up the next minute, you are perfectly
contented with what you are about : but it
is not so in fox-hunting. Every minute you
lose is precious, and increases your difficul-
ties ; and while you are standing still, the
fox is running miles. It is a satisfaction to
a hare-hunter to be told where his game was
seen, thougii a long while before; but it is
melancholy news to a fox-hunter, whose game
is not likely to stop. I believe I mentioned
to you, in- a former letter on hare-hunting, a
great fault which I had observed in some
harriers from being let too much alone, — that
of running back the heel. I have seen a

• It is a quick method of huntiiiff tliat I mostly value in
any hound : such as are possessed of it are seldom long <;fl
the scent ■ it is the reverse of slackness.

278 HOUNDS SHOULD BE

pack of high-bred fox-hounds do the same,
for the same reasons.

When hounds flag from frequent changes,
and a long day, it is necessary for a hunts-
man to animate them as much as he can: he
must keep them forward, and press them on;
for it is not likely, in this case, that they
should over-run the scent: at these times the
whole work is generally done by a few hounds,
and he should keep close to them : here I
also fear the hare-hunter will fail : * if they
come to a long fault, it is over, and you had
better then go home.

* It is at a time like this that good sportsmen may be of
great service to hounds : it is the only time when they
want encouragement ; and it is (I am sorry to say) almost
the only time when they do not receive it. Those who ride
too forward in the morning will, in the evening, perhaps,
be too far behind, and thereby lose an opportunity that
is offered them of making some amends for the mischiefs
they have already done. When hounds flag from frequent
changes, and the huntsman's horse sinks under the fatigue
of a tiresome day, then it is that sportsmen may assist
them. Such as know the hounds should then ride up to
them : they should endeavour, by gi-eat encouragement, to
keep them running, and get those forward that may be
behind ; for when hounds that are tired once come to
hunting, they tie upon the scent, and, by losing time,
lose every chance they had of killing the fox : great en-
couragement, and proper and timely assistance, only can
prevent it.

KEPT NEAR TO THE FOX. 279

The many chances that are against you in
fox-hunting ; the changing frequently ; the
heading of the foxes; their being coursed by
sheep-dogs; long faults; cold hunting, and
the dying away of the scent, make it neces-
sary to keep always as near to the fox as
you can ; which should be the first and inva-
riable principle of fox-hunting. Long days
do great hurt to a pack of fox-hounds. I set
out one day last winter from the kennel at
half-past seven, and returned home a quarter
before eight at night, the hounds running
hard the greatest part of the time. The
huntsman killed one horse and tired another,
and the hounds did not recover it for more
than a week :* we took them off at last, when
they were running with a better scent than
they had the whole day. I remember, after
it was quite dark, to have heard a better view
halloo from an owl than I ever heard from
a sportsman in my life, though I hope that
I shall never hear such another. A long day,
nevertheless, once or twice in a season, is of

* Hounds, after a very hard day, should have two clear
davs to rest : it does them less hurt to hunt two days fol-
lowing, when their work is easy, than to hunt, before they
may be perfectly recovered, after having been hard run.

280 KNOWLEDGE OF COUNTRY,

use to a huntsman: it shows the real good-
ness and stoutness of his hounds.

I am glad to hear that your huntsman knows
the country which he is to hunt : nothing in
fox-hunting is more essential than that ; and
it may make amends for many faults. Foxes
are not capricious; they know very well Avhat
they are about ; are quick, I believe, at de-
termining, and resolute in perseverance. They
generally have a point to go to ; and, though
lieaded and turned directly from it, seldom
fail to make it good at the last : this, there-
fore, is a great help to an observing huntsman.

Suffer not your huntsman to encourage his
hounds too much on a bad scenting day ; par-
ticularly in covers, where there is much riot.
Hark, hark, hark! which injudicious huntsmen
are so fond of upon every occasion, must often
do mischief, and cannot do good : whilst hounds
are near together, they will get sooner to the
hound that challenges without tliat noise than
with it. If it be a right scent, they will be
ready enough to join ; and if it be a wrong
one, provided you let them alone, they will
soon leave it : injudicious encouragement, on
a bad day, might make them run something
or other, right or wrong.

AND OF THE PACK. 281

I know of no fault so bad in a hound as that
of running false ; it should never be forgiven :
such as are not stout, that are stiff-nosed, or
that have other faults, may at times do good,
and at their worst may do no harm ; whilst
such as run false, most probably, will spoil
your sport. A hound capable of spoiling one
day's sport is scarcely worth your keeping. In-
different ones, such as I have above described,
may be kept till you have better to supply their
places.

A huntsman should know how to marshal
every hound in his pack, giving to each his
proper rank and precedence ; for, without this
knowledge, it is not possible he should make
a large draft, as he ought. There are, in most
packs, some hounds that assist but little in kill-
ing the fox ; and it is the judicious drafting off
of such hounds that is a certain sign of a good
huntsman.

My huntsman is very exact : he carries al-
ways a list of his hounds in his .pocket, and
when in a distant country, he looks it over
to see if any of them are missing. He has
also a book, in which he keeps a regular ac-
count where every fox is found, and where he
is killed.

282 DISCRIMINATION.

Your huntsman, you say, knows perfectly
the country he has to hunt : let him then ac-
quire as perfect a knowledge of his hounds :
good sense and observation will do the rest, at
least will do as much as you seem to require
of him; for I am glad to find you had rather
depend upon the goodness of your hounds for
sport, than on the genius of your huntsman. It
is, believe me, a much surer dependence.

NECESSITY OF BLOOD. 283

LETTER XXII.

Abe not your expectations somewhat too san-
guine, when you think you shall have no oc-
casion for bag-foxes to keep your hounds in
blood the first season? It may be as well,
perhaps, not to turn them all out till you are
more certain that your young pack will keep
good and steady without them. When blood
is much wanted, and they are tired with a hard
day, one of these foxes will put them into spi-
rits, and give them, as it were, new strength
and vigour.

You desire to know what I call being out of
blood 9 In answer to which, I must tell you
that, in my judgment, no fox-hound can fail of
killing more than three or four times follow-
ing, without being visibly the worse for it.
When hounds are out of blood, there is a
kind of evil genius attending all they do ;
and though they may seem to hunt as well
as ever, they do not get forward : whilst a
pack of fox-hounds well in blood, like troops

284 HOW TO PROCURE IT.

flushed with conquest, are not easily withstood.
What we call ill luck, day after day, when
hounds kill no foxes, may frequently, I think,
be traced to another cause, viz. their being out
of blood ; nor can there be any other reason as-
signed why hounds, which we knaw to be good,
should remain so long as they sometimes do
without killing a fox,* Large packs are least
subject to this inconvenience : hounds that are
quite fresh, and in high spirits, least feel the
want of blood. The smallest packs, therefore,
should be able to leave at least ten or twelve cou-
ple of hounds behind them, to be fresh against
the next hunting day. If your hounds are
much out of blood, give them rest : take this
opportunity to hunt with other hounds, to see
how they are managed, to observe what stallion
hounds they have, and to judge yourself whe-
ther they are such as it is fit for you to breed
from or not. If what I have now recommended
should not succeed ; if a little rest and a fine
morning do not put your hounds into blood again,
I know of nothing else that will ; and you must
attribute your ill success, I fear, to another cause.

* A pack of hounds that had been a month without kill-
ing a fox, at last ran one to gro\uid, which they dug, and
killed upon the earth : the next seven days that they hunted,
they killed a fox each day.

LATE TRYING HURTFUL. 285

You say, you generally hunt at a late hour :
after a tolerably good run, try not to find
another fox. Should you be long in finding,
and should you not have success afterwards, it
will hurt your hounds : should you try a long
time, and not find, that also will make them
slack. Never try to find a fox after one
o'clock ; you had better return home, and hunt
again on the next day. Not that I, in general,
approve of hunting two days following with the
same hounds : the trying so many hours in vain,
and the being kept so long off their food, both
contiTbute to make them slack, and nothing
surely is more contrary to the true spirit of fox-
hunting ; for fox-hounds ought always to be
above their work. This is another particular,
in which hare-hunting and fox-hunting totally
differ; for harriers cannot be hunted too much,
as long as they are able to hunt at all. The
slower they go, the less likely they will be to
over-run the scent, and the sooner, in all pro-
bability, will they kill their game. 1 have a
friend who hunted his five days following, and
assured me he had better sport with them the
last day than he had the first.

I remember to have heard, that a certain
pack of fox-hounds, since become famous, were

286 BEST METHOD OF

many weeks, from a mixture of indifferent
hounds, bad management, and worse luck, with-
out killing a fox. However, they killed one at
last, and tried to find another. They found
him — and they lost him ; and were then, as you
may well suppose, another month without kill-
ing another fox. This was ill-judged: they
should have returned home immediately.

When hounds are much out of blood, some
men proceed in a method that must necessarily
keep them so : they hunt them every day, as if
the tiring them out was a means to give them
strength and spirit : — this, however, proceeds
more from ill-nature and resentment than sound
judgment.* As I know your temper to be the
reverse of this, without doubt you will adopt a
different method ; and should your hounds ever
be in the state here described, you will keep
them fresh for the first fine day ; when, sup-
posing they are all perfectly steady, I do not
question that they will kill their fox.

When hounds are in want of blood, give
them every advantage : go out early ; choose a
good quiet morning; and throw off" your hounds

" It is not the want of blood only that is prejudicial to
hounds : the trying long in vain to recover a lost scent no
less contributes to make them slack.

BLOODIXG THE HOUNDS. 287

where they are likely to find, and are least
likely to change. If it is a small cover, or
furze-brake, and you can keep the fox in, it is
right to do it ; for the sooner you kill him,
when you are in want of blood, the better.

When hounds are in want of blood, and you
get a fox into a small cover, it must be your
own fault if you do not kill him there. Place
your people properly, and he cannot get off*
again. You will hear, perhaps, that it is im-
possible to head back a fox. No animal is so
shy, consequently no animal is so easily headed
back by those who understand it. ' When it is
your intention to check a fox, your people must
keep at a little distance from the cover side, nor
should they be sparing of their voices; for, since
you cannot keep him in, if he be determined to
come out, prevent him, if you can, from being
so inclined. All kind of mobbing is advisable,
when hounds are out of blood ; *' and you may
keep the fox in cover, or let him out, as you
think the hounds will manage him best.

Though I am a great advocate for blood, so
necessary, in my judgment, to a pack of fox-
hounds, yet I by no means approve of it to the

* Yet, how many foxes owe their lives to the too great
eagerness of the pursuers ?

288 BLOOD ALSO NECESSARY

extent to which it is sometimes carried. I
have known three young foxes chopped in a
furze-brake in one day, without any sport ; a
wanton destruction of foxes scarcely answering
the purpose of blood, since that blood does
hounds most good, that is most dearly earned.
Such sportsmen richly deserve blank days ;
and, without doubt, they often meet with them.
Mobbing a fox, indeed, is only allowable when
hounds are not likely to be a match for him
without it. One would almost be inclined to
think blood as necessary to the men as to the
hounds, since the best chase is flat unless you
kill the fox. When you ask a fox-hunter what
sport he has had, and he replies it was good ; I
think the next question generally is. Did your
hounds kill? If he says they did not^ the con-
versation ends ; but if, on the coutraiy, he tells
you that they did, you then ask a hundred
questions, and seldom are satisfied till he has
told you every particular of the chase.

When there is snow on the ground, foxes
will lie at earth.* Should your hounds be in

* Earths should be watched when there is snow upon the
ground ; for foxes then will lie at earth. Those who are
inclined to destroy them can track them in, and may di^
them out.

TO THE FOX-HUNTER. 289

want of blood, it will at that time be easy to
dig one to turn out before them when the wea-
ther breaks : but I seem to have forgotten a
new doctrine which I lately heard, that blood
is not necessary to a pack of fox-hounds. If
you also should have taken up that opinion, I
have only to wish that the goodness of your
hounds may prevent you from changing it, or
from knowing how far it may be erroneous.*

Before you have been long a fox-hunter, I
expect to hear you talk of the ill luck which so
frequently attends it. I assure you, it has pro-
voked me often, and has made a parson swear.
It was but the other day we experienced an ex-
traordinary instance of it. We found, at the
same instant, a brace of foxes in the same
cover, and they both broke at the opposite ends
of it. The hounds soon got together, and went
off very well with one of them ; yet, notwith-
standing this, such was our ill luck, that, though
the hunted fox took a circle of several miles, he
at last crossed the line of the other fox, the heel
of which we hunted back to the cover, from
whence we came : it is true, we perceived our

* Those who can suppose the killing of a fox to be of
no service to a pack of fox-hounds, may suppose, pei'haps,
that it does them hurt : it is going but one step further.
O

290 ANECDOTES OF FOX-HUNTING.

scent worsted, and were going to stop the
hounds ; but the going oflp of a white frost
deceived us in that also.

Many a fox have I known lost by running
into houses and stables. It is not long since
my hounds lost one, when hunting in the New
Forest ; and, after trying the country round,
had given him up, and were returned home ;
when, just as they were going to be fed, in rode
a farmer, full gallop, with news of the fox : he
had found him, he said, in his stable, and had
shut him in. The hounds returned : the fox,
however, stood but a little time afterwards, as
he was quite run up before.

Some years ago, my hounds running a fox
across an open country in a thick fog, the fox
scarcely out of view, three of the leading iiounds
disappeared all of a sudden ; and the whipper-
in, luckily, was near enough to see it happen.
They fell into a dry well, near a hundred feet
deep : they and the fox remained there toge-
ther till the next day ; when, with the greatest
difficulty, we got them all four out.

Another time, having run a fox a burst of
an hour and a quarter, the severest, I think, I
ever knew, the hounds, at last, got up to him
by the side of a river, where he had staid for

FATAL ACCIDENT. 291

them. One hound seized him as he was swim-
ming across, and they both went down together.
The hound came up again, but the fox appeared
no more. By means of a boat and a long pole,
we got tlie fox out. Had he not been seen to
sink, he would hardly have been tried for under
water ; and, without doubt, we should have
wondered what had become of him.

Now we are at the chapter of accidents, I
must mention another, that lately happened to
me on crossing a river, to draw a cover on the
other side of it. The river Stower frequently
overflows its banks, and is also very rapid, and
very dangerous. The flood, that morning,
though sudden, was extensive. Tlie neighbour-
ing meadows were all laid under water, and
only the tops of hedges appeared. There were
posts to direct us to the bridge, but we had a
great length of water to pass before we could
get at it: it was, besides, so deep, that our
horses almost swam ; and the shortest-legged
horses, and longest-legged riders, were worst ofl".
The hounds dashed in as usual ; and were im-
mediately carried, by the rapidity of the cur-
rent, a long way down the stream. The hunts-
man was far behind them ; and as he could go
but slow, he was constrained to see his hounds
o 2

292 FATAL ACCIDENT.

wear themselves out in an useless contention
with the current, in endeavouring to get to him
It was a shocking scene : many of the hounds,
when they reached the shore, had entirely lost
the use of their limbs; for it froze, and the cold
was intolerable. Some lay as if they were dead,
and others reeled as if they had been drinking
wine. Our distress was not yet complete: the
weakest hounds, or such as were most affected
by the cold, we now saw entangled in the tops
of the hedges, and heard their lamentations.
Well-known tongues ! and such as I had never
before heard without pleasure. It was shock-
ing to see their distress, and not know how to
relieve them. A number of people, by this
time, were assembled by the river side ; but
there was not one amongst them that would
venture in. However, a guinea, at last, tempt-
ed one man to fetch out a hound that was
entangled in a bush, and would otherwise have
perished. Two hounds remained upon a hedge
all night, yet they got together before the morn-
ing ; when, the flood abating, they were found
closely clasping each other, and without doubt
it was the little heat they could afford each
other that kept both alive. We lost but one
hound by this unlucky expedition, but we lost

WHEN HUNTING SHOULD CEASE. 293

all our terriers. They were seen to sink, their
strength not being sufficient to resist the two
enemies they had to encounter — powerful when
combined, — the severity of the cold, and the
rapidity of the stream.

You ask, at what time you should leave off
hunting ? It is a question which I know not
how to answer ; as it depends as well on the
quantity of game that you have, as on the
country that you hunt. However, in my
opinion, no good country should be hunted
after February, nor should there be any hunt-
ing at all after March. Spring hunting is sad
destruction of foxes : in one week you may
destroy as many as would have shown you sport
for a whole season. We killed a bitch-fox one
morning, with seven young ones, which were all
alive : I can assure you we missed them very
much the next year, and had many blank days,
which we need not to have had, but through
our own fault. I should tell you, that this
notable feat was performed literally on the first
of April. If you will hunt late in the season,
you should, at least, leave your terriers behind
you. I hate to kill any animal out of season.
A hen-pheasant with egg, I have heard, is fa-
mous eating; yet I can assure you I never

294? WANTON DESTRUCTION

mean to taste it : and the hunting a bitch-fox
big with young, appears to me cruel and un-
natural. A gentleman of my acquaintance, who
killed most of his foxes at this season, was
humorously called midwife to the foxes.

Are not the foxes'" heads, which are so pom-
pously exposed to view, often prejudicial to
sport in fox-hunting? How many foxes are
wantonly destroyed, without the least service to
the hounds or sport to the master, that the
huntsman may say he has killed so many brace !
How many are digged out and killed, when
blood is not wanted, for no better reason ! —
foxes that, another day, perhaps, the earths
well stopped, might have run hours, and died
gallantly at last. I remember myself to have
seen a pack of hounds kill three in one day :
and though the last ran to ground, and the
hounds had killed two before, therefore could
not be supposed to be in want of blood, the
fox was digged out, and killed upon the earth.
However, it answered one purpose you would
little expect, — it put a clergyman present in
mind that he had a corpse to bury, which other-
wise had been forgotten.

I should have less objection to the number of
foxes' heads that are to be seen against every

OF FOXES CENSURED. 295

kennel door, did it ascertain with more precision
the goodness of the hounds : which may more
justly be known from the few foxes they lose,
than from the number that they kill. When
you inquire after a pack of fox-hounds, whether
they are good or not, and are told they seldom
miss a fox, your mind is perfectly satisfied
about them, and you inquire no further : — it is
not always so, when you are told the number of
foxes they have killed. If you ask a Frenchman
what age he is of, he will tell you that he is in
good health. In like manner, when I am asked
how many brace of foxes my hounds have
killed, I feel myself inclined to say, the hounds
are good ; an answer which, in my opinion, goes
more immediately to the spirit of the question
than any other I could give; since the number
of foxes' heads is at best but a presumptive
proof of the goodness of the hounds. In a
neighbouring country to mine, foxes are diffi-
cult to kill, and not easy to find ; and the gen-
tlemen who hunt that country are very well
contented when they kill a dozen brace of foxes
in a season. My hounds kill double that num-
ber : ought it to be inferred from thence that
they are twice as good ?

All countries are not equally favourable to

296 EFFECT OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES.

hounds. I hunt in three, all as different as it is
possible to be ; and the same hounds that be-
have well in one, sometimes appear to behave
indifferently in another. Were the most famous
pack, therefore, to change their good country
for the bad one I here allude to, though
without doubt they would behave well, they
certainly would meet with less success than they
are at present used to : our cold flinty hills
would soon convince them that the difference
betwixt one fox and another — the difference of
goodness betwixt one hound and another — are
yet but trifles when compared with the more
material difference of a good scenting country
and a bad one.*

I can hardly think you serious, when you ask
me if the same hounds can hunt both hare and
fox : however, thus far you may assure your-

* Great inequality of scent is very unfavourable to
hounds. In heathy countries the scent always lies ; yet I
have remarked that the many roads which cross them, and
the many inclosures of poor land that surround them,
render hunting in such countries, at times, very difficult to
hounds. The sudden change from a good scent to a bad
one puzzles their noses, and confuses their understand-
ings ; and many of them, without doubt, follow the scent
unwillingly, owing to the little credit that they give toit.
In my opinion, therefore, a scent which is less good, but
more equal, is more favourable to hounds.

ADVANTAGE OF EDUCATION. 297

self, that it cannot be done with any degree
of consistency. As to your other question of
hunting the hounds yourself, that is an under-
taking, which, if you will follow my advice,
you will let alone. It is your opinion, I find,
that a gentleman might make the best hunts-
man : I have no doubt that he would, if he
chose the trouble of it. I do not think there is
any profession, trade, or occupation, to which a
good education would not be of service; and
hunting, notwithstanding it is at present exer-
cised by such as have not had an education,
might, without doubt, be carried on much better
by those that have. I will venture to say,
fewer faults would then be committed ; nor is it
probable the same faults would be committed
over and over again, as they now are. Hunts-
men never reason by analogy, nor are they
much benefited by experience.

Harving told you, in a former letter, what a
huntsman ought to be ; the following, which I
can assure you is a true copy, will show you, in
some instances at least, what he ought not to be.

Sir

Yours I received the 24th of this pre-
sent Instant June and at your request I will
o3

298 CHAUACTEK OF A HUNTSMAN.

give you an impartial account of my man John
Grey's Character. He is a Shoemaker or Cord-
wainer which you please to call it by trade and
now in our town he is following the Carding
Business for every one that wants him he ser-
ved his Time at a Town called Brigstock in
Northamptonshire and from thence in great
Addington Journeyman to this Occupation as
before mentioned and used to come to my house
and found by rideing my horses to water that
be rode a horse pretty well which was not at all
mistaken for he rides a horse well and he looks
after a kennel of hounds very well and finds a
hare very well he hath no judgment in hunting
a pack of hounds now tho he rides well he dont
with discretion for he dont know how to make
the most of a horse but a very harey starey fel-
low will ride over a church if in his way tho
may prevent the leap by having a gap within
ten yards of him and if you are not in the field
with him yourself when you are a hunting to
tutor him about riding he will kill all the horses
you have in the stable in one month for he hath
killed downright and lamed so that will never
be fit for use no more than five horses since he
hath hunted my hounds which is two years and
upwards he can talk no dog language to a

CHARACTER OF A HUNTSMAN. 299

hound he hath no voice speaks to a hound just
as if his head were in a drum nor neither does
he know how to draw a hound when they are
at a loss no more than a child of 2 years old as
to his honesty I always found him honest till
about a week ago and have found him dishonest
now for about a week ago I sent my servant
that I have now to fetch some sheep's feet from
Mr. Stanjan of Higham Ferrers where Grey
used to go for feet and I always send my money
by my man that brings the feet and Stanjan
told my man that I have now that I owed him
money for feet and when the Boy came home
he told me and I went to Stanjan and when I
found the truth of the matter Grey had kept
my money in his hands and had never paid
Stanjan he had been along with me once for a
letter in order for his character to give him one
but I told him I could not give him a good one
so I would not write at all Grey is a very great
drunkard canH keep a penny in his pocket a
sad notorious lyar if you send him upon a mile
or two from Uppingham he will get drunk stay
all day and never come home while the middle
of the night or such time as he knows his mas-
ter is in bed he can nor will not keep any secret
neither hath he so much wit as other people for

300 CHARACTER OF* A HUNTSMAlJ..

the fellow is half a fool for if you would have
business done with Expedition if he once gets
out of the town or sight of you shall see him
no more while the next morning he serves me
so and so you must expect the same if you hire
him I use you just as I would be used myself
if I desired a character of you of a servant that
I had designed to hire of yours as to let you
know the truth of every thing about him.

I am Sir
Your most humble servant to command

P. S.

He takes good care of his horses with good
looking after him as to the dressing e'm but if
you dont take care he will fill the manger full
of corn so that he will cloy the horses and ruin
tlie whole stable of horses.

Great Addington
June the 28th 1734.

BAG FOXES. 301

LETTER XXIII.

1 TOLD you, I believe, at the beginning of
our correspondence, that I disliked bag-foxes;
I shall now tell you what my objections to them
are: — the scent of them is different from that of
other foxes : it is too good, and makes hounds
idle ; besides, in the manner in which they
generally are turned out, it makes hounds
very wild. They seldom fail to know what
you are going about before you begin, and
if often used to hunt bag-foxes, will become
riotous enough to run any thing. A fox that
has been confined long in a small place, and
carried out afterwards, many miles perhaps, in
a sack, his own ordure hanging about him,
must needs stink extravagantly. You are also
to add to this account, that he most probably is
weakened for want of his natural food and usual
exercise ; his spirit broken by despair, and his
limbs stiffened by confinement : he then is turn-
ed out in open ground, without any point to go
to. He runs down the wind, it is true ; but he

302 OBJECTIONS TO

is so much at a loss all the while, that he loses
a deal of time in not knowing what to do ; while
the hounds, who have no occasion to hunt, pur-
sue as closely as if they were tied to him. I
remember once to have hunted a bao;-fox with
a gentleman, who, not thinking these advan-
tages enough, poured a whole bottle of aniseed
on the fox's back. I cannot say I could have
hunted the fox, but I assure you I could very
easily have hunted the aniseed. Is it to be
expected that the same hounds will have pa-
tience to hunt a cold scent the next day over
greasy fallows, through flocks of sheep, or on
stony roads ? However capable they may be
of doing it, I should much doubt their giving
themselves the trouble. If, notwithstanding
these objections, you still choose to turn one
out, turn him into a small cover, give him
what time you judge necessary, and lay on
your hounds as quietly as you can ; and, if
it be possible, let them think they find him.
If you turn out a fox for blood, I should, in
that case, prefer the j;urning him into a large
cover, first drawing it well, to prevent a
change. The hounds should then find him
themselves; and the sooner he is killed the
better. Fifteen or twenty minutes is as long

BAG-FOXES. 303

as I should ever wish a bag-fox to run, that
is designed for blood: the hounds should then
go home.

Bag-foxes always run down the wind : such
sportsmen, therefore, as choose to turn them
out, may at the same time choose what country
they shall run. Foxes that are found, do not
follow this rule invariably. Strong earths and
large covers are great inducements to them, and
it is no inconsiderable wind that will keep them
from them. A gentleman, who never hunts,
being on a visit to a friend of his in the coun-
try, who hunts a great deal, heard him talk
frequently of bag-foxes : as he was unwilling
to betray his ignorance, his discretion and cu-
riosity kept him for some time in suspense,
till at last he could not refrain from asking,
'^ what kind of an animal a hag-fox was?''''
and if it was not "a species of fox peculiar
to that country ?"

A pack of hounds having run a fox to ground
immediately after he was found, he was dug
and turned out again ; and that the operation
of turning him out might be better performed,
the master of the hounds undertook it him-
self. You will hardly believe me when 1 tell

304 FOX-COURTS RECOMMENDED.

you, that he forgot the place where he turned
him out, and they never once could hit upon
the scent.

If you breed up cubs, you will find a fox-
court necessary : they should be kept there
till they are large enough to take care of them-
selves. It ought to be open at the top, and
walled in. I need not tell you that it must
be every way well secured, and particularly
the floor of it, which must be either bricked
or paved. A few boards fitted to the corners
will also be of use to shelter and to hide them.
Foxes ought to be kept very clean, and -have
plenty of fresh water : birds and rabbits are
their best food : horse-flesh might give them
the mange ; for they are subject to this dis-
order. I remember a remarkable instance of
it. Going out to course, I met the whipper-
in returning from exercising his horses, and
asked him if he had found any hares ? " No,
sir,"*' he replied ; " but I have caught a fox. I
saw him sunning himself under a hedge, and
finding he could not run, I drove him up into
a corner, got off" my horse, and took him up ;
but he is since dead." I found him at the place
he directed me to, and he was indeed a curiosity.

TREATMENT OF CUBS. 305

He had not a single hair on his brush, and very
few on his body.

I have icept foxes too long : I also have turned
them out too young. The safest way, I believe,
will be to avoid either extreme. When cubs
are bred in an earth near you, if you add two
or three to the number, it is not improbable
that the old fox will take care of them. Of
this you may be certain, that if they live they
will be good foxes ; for the others will show
them the country. Those which you turn
into an earth should be regularly fed. If
they are attce neglected, it is probable they
will forsake the place, wander away, and die
for want of food. When the cubs leave the
earth, (which they may soon do,) your game-
keeper should throw food for them in parts
of the cover where it may be most easy for
them to find it ; and when he knows their
haunt, he should continue to feed them there.
Nothing destroys so much the breed of foxes
as buying them to turn out, unless care is taken
of them afterwards.

Your- country being extensive, probably it
may not be all equally good : it may be worth
your while, therefore, to remove some of the
cubs from one part of it into the other : it is

306 TREATMENT OF CUBS.

what I frequently do myself, and find it an-
swer.* A fox-court, therefore, is of great use :
it should be airy, or I would not advise you to
keep them long in it. I turned out one year
ten brace of cubs, most of which, by being kept
till they were tainted before they were turned
out, were found dead in the covers, with scarce
any hair upon them ; whilst a brace, which had
made their escape by making a hole in th^- sack
in which they were brought, lived, and showed
excellent sport. If the cubs are large, you may
turn them out immediately ; — a large earth will
be best for that purpose, where tl^ should be
regularly fed with rabbits, birds, or sheep's
henges, whichever you can most conveniently
get. I believe, when a fox is once tainted,
he never recovers it. The weather being re-
markably hot, those that I kept in my fox-

* Though turned-out foxes may ?ometimes answer the
purpose of entering j'oung hounds, yet they seldom show
any diversion. Few of those I have turned into my woods
have I ever seen again ; besides, the turning out of foxes,
and alarming the neighbourhood, may hasten their destruc-
tion. Foxes will be plentiful enough where traps are not
set to destroy them. Should they do any injury to the
farmer, make satisfaction for it : encourage the neighbour-
ing game-keepers to preserve them, by paying them hand-
somely for every littei' of cubs that they take care of for
you. If you act in this manner, you may not have occasion
to turn any out.

TREATMENT OF CUBS. 307

court (which at that time was a very close
one) all died, one after the other, of the same"
disorder.

Where rabbits are plentiful, nature will soon
teach them how to catch the young ones ; and,
till that period of abundance arrives, it may be
necessary to provide food for them.* Where
same is scarce, wet weather will be most fa-
vourable to them : they can then live on beetles,
chafers, worms, &c. which they will find great
plenty of. I think the morning is the best time
to turn them out : if turned out in the evening,
they will be more likely to ramble ; but if
turned out early, and fed on the earth, I think
there is little doubt of their remaining there. -f-
I also recommend to you to turn them into large
covers and strong earths: out of small earths
they are more liable to be stolen, and from
small covers are more likely to wander away.

* If a sheep die, let it be carried to the earth, and it will
afford the cubs food for some time.

t A more certain method, perhaps, might be to pale in
part of a copse which has an earth in it. It might be well
stocked with rabbits ; the young ones of which, the cubs
would soon learn to catch. You might have muses in
the pale, and let them out when capable of getting their
own food. Foxes turned out answer best when left to
breed.

308 FURZE-COVERS USEFUL.

Your game-keepers, at this time of the year,
having little else to do, may feed and take care
of them. When you stop any of these earths,
remember to have them opened again, as I
have reason to think I lost some young foxes
one year by not doing it. For your own
satisfaction, put a private mark on every fox
which you turn out, that you may know him
again. Your cubs, though they may get off
from the covers where they were bred, when
hunted, will seldom fail to return to them.

Gentlemen who buy foxes do great injui'y to
fox-hunting : they encourage the robbing of
neighbouring hunts ; in which case, without
doubt, the receiver is as bad as the thief. It
is the interest of every fox-hunter to be cau-
tious how he behaves in this particular : indeed,
I believe most gentlemen are so; and it may
be easy to retaliate on such as are not. I
am told, that in some hunts it is the constant
employment of one person to watch the earths
at the breeding time, to prevent the cubs from
being stolen. Furze-covers cannot be too much
encouraged, for that reason, for there they
are safe. They have also other advantages
attending them : they are certain places to

DIGGING OF FOXES. 309

find in : foxes cannot break from them un-
seen ; nor are you so liable to change as in
other covers.*

Acquainted as I am with your sentiments, it
would be needless to desire you to be cautious
how you buy foxes. The price some men pay
for them mi^ht well encourao-e the robbing; of
every hunt in the kingdom, their own not ex-
cepted. But you despise the soi disant gen-
tleman who receives them, more than the poor
thief who takes them. Some gentlemen ask no
questions, and flatter themselves they have
found out that convenient 7nez%o termino to
settle tlicir consciences by.

With respect to the digging of foxes that you

run to ground, — what I myself have observed

in that business I will endeavour to recollect.

My people usually, I think, follow the hole,

except when the earth is large, and the terriers

have fixed the fox in an angle of it; for they

* A fox, wben pressed by hounds, will seldom jtq into a
furze-brake. Rabbits, which are the fox's favourite food,
may also be encouraged there., and yet do little damage.
Were tliey suffered to establish themselves in your woods,
it would be difficult to destroy them afterwards. Thus far
I object to them as a farmer : I object to them also as a fox-
hunter ; since nothing is more prejudicial to the breeding of
foxes, than disturbing your woods late in the season to de-
stroy the rabbits.

310 INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE

then find it a more expeditious method to sink
a pit as near to him as they can. You should
always keep a terrier in at the fox, for if you
do not, he not only may move, but also, in loose
ground, may dig himself further in. In digging,
you should keep room enough ; and care should
be taken not to throw the earth where you may
have it to move again. In following the hole,
the surest way not to lose it is to keep below it.
When your hounds are in want of blood, stop
all the holes, lest the fox should bolt out unseen.
It causes no small confusion when this happens.
The hounds are dispersed about, and asleep in
different places : the horses are often at a consi-
derable distance; and many a fox, by takmg
advantage of this favourable moment, has saved

his life.

If hounds are in want of blood, and they
have had a long run, it is the best way,
without doubt, to kill the fox upon the earth ;
but if they have not run long, if the fox is
easy to be digged, and the cover is such a
one as they are not likely to change in, it
does the hounds more good to turn him out
upon the earth, and let them work for him.
It is the blood that will do them most good,
and may be serviceable to the hounds, to the

DIGGING OF FOXES. 311

horses, and to vourself. Dioffing a fox is
cold work, and may require a gallop after-
wards to warm you all again. Before you do
this, if there are any other earths in the cover,
they should be stopped, lest the fox should go
to ground again.

Let your huntsman try all around, and let
him be perfectly satisfied that the fox is not
gone on, before you try an earth : for want
of this precaution, I dug three hours to a
terrier that lay all the time at a rabbit : there
was another circumstance which I am not
likely to forget, — "that I had twenty miles
to ride home afterwards." A fox sometimes
runs over an earth, and does not go into it :
he sometimes goes in, and does not stay : he
may find it too hot, or may not like the
company he meets with there. I make no
doubt that he has good reasons for every thing
he does, though we are not always acquainted
with them.

Huntsmen, when they get near the fox, will
sometimes put a hound in to draw him. This
is, however, a cruel operation, and seldom
answers any other purpose than to occasion
the dog a bad bite, the fox's head generally
being towards him ; besides a few minutes'

312 BADGERS MISCHIEVOUS.

digging will make it unnecessary. If you let
the fox first seize your whip, the hound will
draw him more readily.*

You should not encourage badgers in your
woods : they make strong earths, which will
be expensive and troublesome to you to stop,
or fatal to your sport if you do not. You,
without doubt, remember an old Oxford toast :

Hounds stout, and horses healthy ;
Earths well stopp'd, and foxes plent}'.

All certainly very desirable to a fox-hunter;
yet I apprehend the earths stopped to be the
most necessary, for the others, without that,
would be useless. Besides, I am not certain
that earths are the safest places for foxes to
breed in ; for frequently, when poachers can-
not dig them, they will catch the young
foxes in trenches, dug at the mouth of the
hole, which I believe they call tunning them.
A few large earths near to your house are
certainly desirable, as they will draw the foxes
thither, and, after a long day, will sometimes
bring you home.

* You may draw a fox by fixing a piece of whipcord,
made into a noose, at the end of a stick ; which, when the
fox seizes, you may draw him out by.

METHOD OF UNEARTHING. 313

If foxes are bred in an earth which you think
unsafe, yoti had better stink them out : that^ or
indeed any disturbance at the mouth of the
hole, will make the old one carry them off to
another place.

In open countries, foxes, when they are much
disturbed, vvill lie at earth. If you have difS-
<;ulty in finding, stinking the earths will some-
times produce them again. The method which
I use to stink an earth is as follows :— Three
pounds of sulphur and one pound of asafoe-
tida are boiled up together ; matches are then
made of brown paper, and lighted in the holes,
which are afterwards stopped very close. Earths
that are not used by badgers may be stopped
early, which will answer the same purpose ;
but where badgers frequent, it would be use-
less, as they would open them again.

Badgers may be caught alive in sacks, pla-
ced at the mouth of the hole : setting traps
for them would be dangerous, as you might
catch your foxes also. They may be caught
by stinking them out of a great earth, and
afterwards following them to a smaller one,
and digging them.

Your country requires a good terrier. I
should prefer the black or white terrier : some
p

314 SAGACITY OF A FOX.

there are so like a fox, that awkward people
frequently mistake one for the other. If you
like terriers to run with your pack, large ones,
at times, are useful ; but in an earth they do
but little good, as they cannot always get up
to the fox. You had better not enter a young
terrier at a badger : young terriers have not
the art of shifting like old ones; and, if they
are good for any thing, most probably will go
up boldly to him at once, and get themselves
most terribly bitten : for this reason, you
should enter them at young foxes when you
can. Before I quit this subject, I must men-
tion an extraordinary instance of sagacity in
a bitch-fox, that was digged out of an earth
with four young ones, and brought in a sack
upwards of twenty miles to a gentleman in
my neighbourhood, to be turned out thj^ next
day before his hounds. This fox, weak as
she must have been, ran in a straight line
back again to her own covnitry, crossed two
rivers, and was at last killed near to the
earth she was digged out of the day before.
Foxes that are bred in the cliffs near the sea
seldom are known to ramble any great dis-
tance from them ; and sportsmen, who know
the country where this fox was turned out.

reynaud's inveterate foes. 315

will tell vou, that there is not the least rea-
son to think that she could have had any
knowledge of it.

Besides the digging of foxes, by which
method many young ones are taken, and old
ones destroyed, traps, &c. too often are fatal
to them. Farmers, for their lambs, (which,
by the by, few foxes ever kill,) gentlemen
for their game, and old women for their
poultry, are their inveterate enemies. I must,
however, give an instance of civility I once
met with from a farmer. — The hounds had
found, and were running hard : the farmer
came up in high spirits, and said, " I hope,
sir, you will kill him ; he has done me much
damage lately : he carried away all my ducks
last week. I would not gin him, though : —
too good a sportsman for that." — So much for
the honest farmer.

In the country where I live, most of the
gentlemen are sportsmen ; and even those who
are not, show every kind attention to those
who are. I am sorry it is otherwise with you ;
and that your old gouty neighbour should
destroy your foxes, I must own, concerns me.
I know some gentlemen, who, when a neigh-
bour had destroyed all their foxes, and thereby
p2

316 LEX TALIONIS.

prevented them from pursuing a favourite
amusement, loaded a cart with spaniels, and
went all together and destroyed his pheasants.
I think they might have called this, very pro-
perly, lex talionis ; and it had the desired
effect ; for as the gentleman did not think it
prudent to fight them all, he took the wiser
method,- — he made peace with them. He gave
an order that no more foxes should be destroy-
ed, and they never afterwards killed any of
his pheasants.

THE SUBJECT CON'CLUDED. 317

LETTER XXIV.

I AM now, my friend, about to take leave
of you ; and at the same time that I give re-
pose to you, let me entreat you to show the
same favour to your hounds and horses. It
is now the breeding season, a proper time,
in my opinion, to leave off hunting ; since it
is more likely to be your servants' amusement
than yours; and is always to the prejudice
of two noble animals, which we sportsmen are
bound in gratitude to take care of.

After a long and tiresome winter, surely
the horse deserves some repose. Let him then
enjoy his short-lived liberty; and as his feet
are the parts which suffer most, turn him out
into a soft pasture. Some there are who dis-
approve of grass, saying, that when a horse
is in good order, the turning him out undoes
it all again. It certainly does. Yet this, at
the same time, I believe, — that no horse can
be fresh in his limbs, or will last you long,
without it. Can standing- in a hot stable do

318 ON THE MANAGEMENT

him any good ? and can hard exercise, parti-
cularly in the summer, be of any advantage
to him ? Is it not soft ground and long rest
that will best refresh his limbs, while the
night air and morning dews will invigorate
his body? Some never physic their hunters;
only observing, when they first take them up
from grass, to work them gently : some turn
out theirs all the year. It is not unusual for
such as follow the latter method, to physic
their horses at grass; they then are taken
up, well fed, and properly exercised, to get
them into order: this done, they are turned
out for a few hours every day when they are
not ridden. The pasture should be dry,
and should have but little grass: there they
will stretch their limbs and cool their bodies,
and will take as much exercise as is necessary
for them. I have remarked, that, thus treat-
ed, they catch fewer colds, have the use of
their limbs more freely, and are less liable to
lameness than other horses. Another advan-
tage attends this method, which, in the horses
you ride yourself, you will allow to be very
material : — your horse, when once he is in
order, will require less strong exercise than
grooms generally give their horses ; and his

OF A HUNTER, 319

mouth, in all probability, will not be the
worse for it.

The Earl of Pembroke, in his Military
Equitation, is, I find, of the same opinion :
he tells us, — " It is of the greatest conse-
quence for horses to be kept clean, regularly
fed, and as regularly exercised : but whoever
chooses to ride in the way of ease and plea-
sure, without any fatigue on horseback, or,
in short, does not like to carry his horse, in-
stead of his horse's carrying him, must not
suffer his horse to be exercised by a groom ;
standing up on his stirrups, holding himself
on by means of the reins, and thereby hang-
ing his whole dead weight on the horse's
mouth, to the entire destruction of all that
is good, safe, or pleasant about the animal."
And in another place he says, — " Horses
should be turned loose somewhere, or walked
about ever}^ day, when they do not work,
particularly after hard exercise: swelled legs,
physic, &c. will be saved by these means,
and many distempers avoided."' He also ob-
serves, that — "it is a natter of the greatest
consequence, though few attend to it, to feed
horses according to their work. When the
work is hard, food should be in plenty ; when

B20 OF PHYSICKING,

it is otherwise, the food should be diminished
imiTiediately, — the hay particularly."

I have no doubt that the noble author is
perfectly right in these observations : I am
also of opinion that a handful or two of clean
wheaten straw, chopped small, and mixed
with their corn, would be of great service to
your horses, provided that you have interest
enough with your groom to prevail on him
to give it them.

Such of my horses as are physicked at grass
have two doses given them when they are
turned out, and three more before they are
taken up. Grass physic is of so mild a kind,
that you will not find this quantity too much ;
nor have I ever known an accident happen
from it, though it has been given in very
indifferent weather.. I should tell you, that
my horses are always taken in the night after
they take their physic, though the printed
directions, I believe, do not require it. Such
horses as are fidl of humours should be
physicked at house, since they may require
stronger doses than grass physic will admit
of, which, I think, is more proper to prevent
humours than to remove them. The only
use I know in physicking a horse that does

USEFUL EECIPE.

321

not appear to want it, is to prevent, if pos-
sible, his requiring it at a time when you
cannot so well spare him, — I mean the hunt-
ing season. Should an accident of this kind
happen, Stibium's balls, of which I send you
the receipt, you will find of the greatest use.

Crocus metallorum, levigated 2 ozs.

Stibium's ditto 2

Flower of brimstone .... 1

Castile soap 1

Liquorice powder 1

Honey q. s. to make it into a paste.

A ball of one ounce weight is to be given
three mornings following. The horse must
be kept fasting for two hours after he has
taken it : he then may have a feed of corn,
and soon after that, moderate exercise. The
same should be repeated four days after-
wards. These balls purify the blood, and
operate upon the body by insensible per-
spiration.

I frequently give nitre to such of my
hunters as are not turned out to grass : it
cools their bodies, and is of great service to '
them. It may be given them either in their
water or in their corn ; I sometimes give an
ounce in each.

p3

322 OF SHOEING.

I think you are perfectly in the right to
mount your people well: there is no good
economy in giving them bad horses ; they
take no care of them, but wear them out as
soon as they can, that they may have others.

The question you ask me about shoeing,

I am unable to answer: yet I am of opinion,

that horses should be shod with more or less

iron, according as the country where they

hunt requires; but in this a good farrier will

best direct you. Nothing certainly is more

necessary to a horse than to be well siiod.

The shoe should be a proper one, and it

should fit his foot. Farriers are but too apt

to make the foot fit the shoe.* My groom

carries a false shoe, which just serves to save

a horse's hoof, when he loses a shoe, till it

can be put on again. In some countries you

* I venture to give the following rules on shoeing, in a
short and decisive mannei', as founded on the strictest ana-
tomical and mechanical principles laid down by the best
masters : — The shoe should be flat, and not turned up at
the heel, or reach beyond that or the toe; but the mid-
dle part should extend rather beyond the outward edge
of the hoofj that the hoof may not be contracted ; the
outward part of which ma}-^ be pared, to bring it down
to an even surface, to fit it for the fixing on of the
shoe. If the foot be too long, the toe may be pared,
or rasped down ; which, in many cases, may even be

SUMMER HUNTING. 323

see them loaded with saws, hatchets, &c. I
am glad that the country in which I hunt
does not require them. In the book I have
just quoted, you will find the shoeing of hor-
ses treated of very much at large. I beg
leave, therefore, if you want further infor-
mation on that head, to refer you to it.

Having declared my disapprobation of
summer hunting, on account of the horses,
I must add, that I am not less an enemy to
it on account of the hounds also : they^ I
think, should have some time allowed them
to recovef* the strains and bruises of many a
painful chase ; and their diet, in which the
adding to their strength has been, perhaps,
too much considered, should now be altered.
No more flesh should they now eat; but in
its stead, should have their bodies cooled with

necessary to preserve the proper shape of the hoof, and
bring the foot to a stroke and bearing the most natu-
ral and advantageous. Neither the horny sole or frog,
(meant by nature for the guard of the foot and safety
of the horse,) are upon any account to be pared, or cut
away. The small, loose, ragged parts that at times
appear, should be cut off with a pen-knife ; but that
destructive instrument called the butleris, which, in the
hands of stubborn ignorance, has done more injury to
the feet of horses than all the chases of the world,
should be banished for ever.

324 CONTENTMENT A^D FELICITY

whey, greens, and thin meat : without this
precaution, the mange, most probably, would
be the immediate consequence of hot weather,
perhaps madness — direful malady !

As a country life has been recommended
in all ages, as much for the contentment of
the mind as health of the body, it is no won-
der that hunting should be considered by so
many as a necessary part of it, since nothing
conduces more to both. A great genius has
told us, that it is

Better to hunt in fields for health unbought.
Than fee the doctor for a nauseous drthight.

With regard to its peaceful state, a modern

poet tells us.

No fierce unruly senate threatens here.
No axe or scafl'old to the view appear,
No envy, disappointment, and despair.

And for the contentment which is supposed
to accompany a country life, we have not
only the best authority of our own time to
support it, but even that of the best poets of
the Augustan age. Virgil surely felt what
he wrote, when he said, " O fortunatos ni-
mium, sua si bona norint, agricolas T and
Horace's famous ode, '^Beatus ille qui procul
negotiis^'' seems not less to come from the

OF A COUNTKY LIFE. 325

heart of a man who is generally allowed to
have had a perfect knowledge of mankind, —
and this even at the time when he was the
favourite of the greatest emperor, and in the
midst of all the magnificence of the greatest
city in the world.

The elegant Pliny also, in his epistle to
Minutius Fundanus, which is admirably trans-
lated by the Earl of Orrery, whilst he arraigns
the life he leads at Rome, speaks with a
kind of rapture of a country life: — "Wel-
come," says he, " thou life of integrity and
virtue ! Welcome, sweet and innocent amuse-
ment ! Thou art almost preferable to business
and employment of every kind !" And it was
herBi we are told, that the great Bacon expe-
rienced his truest felicity. With regard to
the otium cum dignitate, so much recommen-
ded, no one, I believe, understands the true
meaning of it better, or practises it more
successfully than you do.

A rural life, I think, is better suited to
this country than to any other ; because the
country in England aifords pleasures and
amusements unknown in other countries ; and
because its rival, our English town (or ton)
life, perhaps is a less pleasant one than may

326 HUNTING NOT OFTEN

be found elsewhere. If this, upon a nice in-
vestigation of the matter, should appear to be
strictly true, the conclusion that would neces-
sarily result from it might prove more than
I mean it should ; therefore we will drop the
subject. Should you, however, differ from me
in opinion of your town life, and disapprove
what I have said concerning it, you may
excuse me, if you please, as you would a
lawyer who does the best he can for the
party for whom he is retained. I think you
will also excuse any expressions I may have
used, which may not be current here; if you
find, as I verily believe you may, that I
have not made use of a French word, but
when I could not have expressed my mean-
ing so well by an English one. It is only
an unnecessary and affected application of a
foreign language that, in my opinion, is de-
serving of censure.

To those who may think the danger which
attends on hunting a great objection to the
pursuit of it, I must beg leave to observe,
that the accidents which are occasioned by it
are very few. I will venture to say, that
more bad accidents happen to shooters in
one year, than to those who follow hounds in

A DANGEROUS SPORT. 327

seven. You will remind me, perhaps, of the

death of T -k, and the fall of D 1;

but do accidents never happen on the road ?
The most famous huntsman and boldest rider
of his time, after having hunted a pack of
hounds for several years unhurt, lost his life
at last by a fall from his horse, as he was
returning home. — A surgeon of my acquaint-
ance has assured me, that in thirty years'
practice in a sporting country, he had not
once an opportunity of setting a bone for a
sportsman, though ten packs of hounds were
kept in the neighbourhood. This gentleman,
surely, must have been much out of luck,
or hunting cannot be so dangerous as it is
thought. Besides, they are all tJmid animals
that we pursue, nor is there any danger in
attacking them : they are not like the furious
beasts of the Gevauda)!, which, as a French
author informs us, twenty thousand French
chasseurs went out in vain to kill.

If my time in writing to you has not been so
well employed as it might have been, you at
least will not find that fault with it : nor shall
I repent of having employed it in this manner,
unless it were more certain than it is that /
should have employed it better. It is true,

328 THE author's apology.

these letters are longer than I first intended
they should be : they would have been shorter,
could I have bestowed mcrre time upon them.
Some technical words have crept in imper-
ceptibly, and with them some expressions
better suited to the field than to the closet ;
nor is it necessary, perhaps, that a sportsman,
when he is writing to a sportsman, should
make excuses for them. In some of my
letters you will have found great vai'iety of
matter : the variety of questions contained in
yours, made it sometimes unavoidable. I know
there must be some tautology : it scarcely is
possible to remember all that has been said
in former letters ; — let that difficulty, if you
please, excuse the fault. I fear there may
be some contradictions for the same reason,
and I doubt there should be many exceptions.
I trust them all to your candour, nor can they
be in better hands. I hope you will not find
that I have at different times given different
opinions ; but should that be the case, without
doubt you will follow that opinion which coin-
cides most with your own. If on any points I
have differed from great authorities, I am sorry
for it. I have never hunted with those who are
looked up to as the great masters of this science;

EULOGIUM ON SOMEIIVILE. 329

and, when I differ from them, it is without de-
sign. Other methods, without doubt, there are,
to make the keeping of hounds much more ex-
pensive ; which, as I do not practise myself, I
shall not recommend to you : treated after the
manner here described, they will kill foxes, and
show you sport. I have answered all your ques-
tions as concisely as I have been able, and it has
been my constant endeavour to say no more than
I thought the subject required. The time may
come when more experienced sportsmen, and
abler pens, may do it greater j ustice ; till then,
accept the observations that I have made : take
them — read them — try them. There was a
time when I should readily have received the
information they give, imperfect as it may
be ; for experience is ever a slow teacher, and
I have had no other. With regard to books,
Somervile is the only author whom I have
found of any use on this subject. You will
admire the poet, and esteem the man ; yet I
am not certain that you will be always satisfied
with the lessons of the huntsman. Proud of
the authority, I have quoted from him as often
as it would suit your purpose ; and for your
sake have I braved the evident disadvantage
that attended it. I wish this elegant poet

330 ODD NOTIONS.

had answered all your questions : you then
would have received but one letter from me, —
to refer you to him. That no other writer
should have followed his steps, may thus,
I think, be accounted for : — those gentle-
men who make a profession of writing live
chiefly in town, consequently cannot be sup-
posed to know much of hunting ; and those
who do know any thing of it are either ser-
vants who cannot write, or country gentlemen
who will not give themselves the trouble. How-
ever, I have met with some curious remarks,
which I cannot help communicating to you.
One author tells us, that, " coursing is more
agreeable than hunting, because it is sooner
over ; *" — that " a terrier is a mongrel grey-
hound ; " — and that " dogs have often coughs
from eating Jtsh-hones.""

Another (a French author) advises us to
give a horse, after hunting, " a soup made
of bread and wine, and an onion."" I fear an
English groom would eat the onion, and drink
the wine.

The same author has also a very particular
method of catching rabbits, which you will
please to take in his own words : he calls it—
Chasse du lapiii a Vtcrevisse. " Cette chasse

>

CHASSE DU LAPIN. 331

convient aux personnes qui ne veulent employer
ni furets ni armes a feu : on tend des poches a
une extremite d"'un terrier, et a Tautre on glisse
une ecrevisse ; cet animal arrive peu-a-peu au
fond de la retraite du lapin, le pique s'y attache
avec tant de force, que le quadrupede est oblige
de fuir, emportant avec lui son ennemi, et vient
se faire prendre dans le filet qu'on lui a tendu
a Touverture du terrier. Cette chasse demande
beaucoup de patience : les operations de F ecre-
visse sont lentes, mais aussi elles sont quelquefois
plus sures que celles du furet."

This gentleman's singular method of hunting
rabbits with a lobster^ reminds me of a method
harlequin * has of killing hares, not less inge-
nious, with Spanish snufF. Brighella tells him,
that the hares eat up all his master's green
wheat, and that he knows not how to kill them.
" Nothing more easy," replies harlequin : " I
will engage to kill them all with two-penny-
worth of snuff. They come in the night, you
say, to feed on the green wheat : strew a little
snuff over the field before they come ; it will
set them all a sneezing ; nobody will be by to
say, God bless you ! — and of course they will
all die."

* The harlequin of the Italian theatre, whose tongue is
at liberty as well as his heels.

332 CANDOUR OF AUTHORS.

I believe, during our present correspondence,
that I have twice quoted the Encyclopedie with
some degree of ridicule. I must, notwithstand-
ing, beg leave to say, in justice to myself, that
I have great esteem for that most valuable work.

On opening a very large book, called the
Gentleman's Recreation, I met with the follow-
ing remarkable passage : — " Many have written
of this subject, as well the antients as moderns,
yet but few of our countrymen to any purpose ;
and had one all the authors on this subject, (as
indeed on any other,) there would be more trou-
ble to pass by than to retain ; most books being
fuller of words than matter, and of that which
is for the most part very erroneous." All who
have written on the subject of hunting seem to
agree in this at least, — to speak indifferently of
one another.

You have observed in one of your letters,
that I do not always follow my own rules ; and,
as a proof of it, you have remarked that many
of my hounds are oddly named. I cannot deny
the charge. I leave a great deal to my hunts-
man ; but if you aim at perfection, leave as
little as you can help to yours. It is easier, I
believe, in every instance, to know what is
right, than it is to follow it : but if the rules

CAN1\E FIDELITY. 333

I have given are good, what does it signify to
you whether I follow them cr not ? A country
fellow used to call every directing post he saw
a doctor. He was asked why he called them
so ? " Why, master,"'"' said he, " I never see
them but they put me in mind of the parson
of our parish, who constantly points out a road
to us he does not follow himself.""^

If I can add to the amusement of such as
follow this diversion, I shall not think that I
have been ill employed ; and if the rules which
are here given may any way tend to preserve
that friendly animal, the hound, from one un-
necessary lash, I shall not think that they have
been written in vain.*' It never was my expec-
tation to be able to send you a complete trea-

* Strangely unfortunate should I think myself, if, while
I profess to be a friend to dogs, I should prove their bit-
terest enemy, and if those rules, which were intended to
lessen, should increase their sutFerings ; convinced as I am
by experience, that a regular system of education is the
surest means to render correction unnecessary. Hard is
that heart (if any such there be) which can ill-use a crea-
ture so affectionate and so good ; who has renounced his
native liberty to associate with man, to whose service his
whole life is dedicated ; who, sensible of every kindness,
is grateful for the smallest favour ; while the worst usage
cannot estrange his affection, in which he is, beyond all
example, constant, faithful and disinterested ; who guards
him by night, and amuses him by day ; and is, perhaps, the
only companion that will not forsake him in adversity.

334 THE CKITIC ANTICIPATED.

tise : Thoughts on Hunting, in a Series of
familiar Letters^ were all I proposed to myself
the pleasure of sending to you. The trouble
I have taken in writing them entitles me to
some indulgence ; nor need I, therefore, whilst
I endeavour to render them of use, stand in
any dread of criticism. Yet if any man, as
idle as I have already declared myself to be,
should take the trouble to criticise these letters,
tell him this : — An acquaintance of mine, who
had bestowed much time in improving his place,
whenever he heard it found fault Avith, asked
" where the critic lived ? whether he had any
place of his own ? whether he had attempted
any improvements .'' and concluded with pro-
mising a peep at it.'''' The gentleman here
alluded to had less humility than your humble
servant. Take, therefore, my sentiments in the
following lines :

Si quid novisti rectius istis,
Candidus imperii ; si non, his utere mecum.

HOR.

Farewell.

The inclosed curious manuscript was called
by its author a hunt'ing song : it is worth your
notice. — Once more, farewell.

A HUNTING SONG. 335

Hark ! hark to the notes of the melodious French horn

How sweetly she calls you out in the morn

She tells you Jemme is mounted on Tartar his steed

And invites you all to the cover witli speed

Of all pleasures or pastimes ever heard or seen

There 's none in the world like to merry hunting

Hark ! cover hark ! the hounds are all in
The fox they have found and to his kennel they flmg
He's forced now thorow the woods for to fly
Tho' nothing can save him between the earth and the sky
Of all pleasures

Hark ! tally hark ! out of cover they all break
And tell you the fox they ever will seek
They surely will run him until that he die
Unless some kind earth save him in his way
Of all pleasures

The fox now panting sees he must die

The hounds with their ingoys resound to the sky

There's Stalely and Empress the earth scarce touch with

the feet
There's Chasir and Trimmer all together as fleet
Of all pleasures

Triumph and Driver now push to head the whole pack
Whipster being stole his place for to take
I think such rascally treatment as these
Should be reproach' d by all those who seek for to please
Of all pleasures

Bold Reynard now finding his speed will not do
Betakes to the woods the hounds may not him pursue
But the hounds as at first to the cover they fly
And swear old Reynard in the field of honour shall die
Of all pleasures

33(i A HUNTING SONG.

There's Trimbush and Chirrup and others as good
Ralley Cleanly and Comfort drives on thorow the wood
Emperor and Conqueror will never him forsake
But drives on full speed thorow every breake
Of all pleasures

Old ileynaid finding the cover can't save him
Lurkes on for the earth that us'd to preserve him
But Smiler he sees him and soon overtake
And poor Reynard his exit in the field of honour doth make
Of all pleasures

The hounds how eager to enjoy their reward
The huntsman as eager checks them with a word
lie beheads old Reynard and takes off his brush
And to the hounds gives his karcass a toss
Of all pleasures

The hounds now well pleased wallow on the ground
The huntsman as well pleased to see his company around
He buckles Reynard's head to his saddle with a strap
And with his ribbon tyes tlie brush to his cap
Of all pleasures

Our sport being ended and our horses full jaded

We return home well pleased with our sport quite amazed

Saying was there ever such hounds as these

Or ever such hunting on weares

Of all pleasures or pastimes ever heard or seen
There's none in the world like to merry hunting.

COURSING.

COURSING.

This popular amusement, which can be par-
ticipated in more generally, and with less risk,
than any other species of hunting, is of great
antiquity, being described by Arrian in the
second century. It appears, from his account,
the practice of coursing the hare was much the
same as at the present period ; only a brace of
hounds were suffered to pursue her, and she was
also allowed some distance at starting, — a rule
which ought never to be infringed ; for if the
hare is terrified by the hounds being let loose
immediately upon finding her, she is prevented
from using her speed, and killed without diver-
sion to the spectator ; the object of the sports-
man is to enjoy the contest of swiftness, and
the hounds having decidedly the advantage, the
allowance of four or five score yards' law ought
to be strictly enforced. The improved method
of slips for the hounds admitting of their being

340 COURSING MEETINGS.

instantaneously let loose, the distance can be
most accurately adhered to, and it is impossible
for either dog to have the advantage in starting,
except from accident. The extraordinary speed
of greyhounds, and the wonderful facility with
which the hare eludes them by doubling or turn-
ing, afford the greatest sport to the spectator :
killing the hare ought always to be a secondary
consideration, except, as Daniel remarks, with
those " who think no course worth seeing unless
there is a hare at the end of it."

At a coursing meeting, properly conducted,
a person is appointed to hold the dogs in the
slip, and the company must keep behind him
until a hare is found ; the judge should be in a
situation to see the hounds leave the slip, and
the owners of them alone allowed to follow
them with him. The judge has to decide the
merits of the course according to the number of
points gained by each hound, as hereafter de-
scribed in the laws and rules.

Notwithstanding the superiority of speed in
the greyhound, the hare frequently escapes after
a severe course ; the average number killed in
fair coursing does not perhaps exceed one in
three : those found on marshes and downs are
the stoutest runners. The following instances

EXTRAORDIKARY COURSES. 341

of extraordinary courses will prove the distance
for which such great speed can be exerted.

A brace of greyhounds in Lincolnshire ran a
hare from her seat, and killed her at a distance,
measuring straight, of upwards of four miles in
twelve minutes : during the course there were a
great number of turns, which very considerably
increased the space gone over. Daniel says he
recollects a hare being found in Cambridgeshire,
which, after a severe course, was found dead
some yards before the greyhounds, who were
obliged to be bled to recover them ; and, out of
twenty-two horses which started, only one could
make a gallop at the conclusion of the course.
The same writer also mentions an instance of a
brace of greyhounds coupled together coursing
a hare, and killing her at a distance of between
three and four miles ; the hare had, of course,
considerable advantage in the turns, as the dogs
hindered each other in changing the direction.

It is very desirable that one uniform system
of rules and laws should be adopted, and the
following are those established at the principal
Clubs in the kingdom.

1. A hare to be coursed with one brace of
greyhounds only.

2. The hare to have four or five score yards'
law before the hounds are loosed from the slips.

q2

342 RULES AND LAWS

3. The slipper to loose the hounds at a signal
from the judge.

4. The slipper should run a short distance
with the hounds, so that they press forward in
the slips before he loosens them.

5. The hare, when found, should be so-ho'd,
to attract the hounds' attention to her, and hal-
loo ""d gently when started.

6. A cote is when one hound goes end-way
by the other, and turns the hare, for which he
is allowed two points.

7. A turn is reckoned one point ; a partial
turn or wrench half a point : tripping or jerking
one point.

8. A go-by to be counted two points, half a
go-by, unless reckoned in a cote, one point.

9. If one dog gives the first turn and the
other kills, the latter to win. If neither dog
turns the hare, the one first leading to covert
wins.

10. If a dog falls in a course when leading,
he is to be allowed one point.

11. A dog killing the hare without advantage
from the other, to be considered two points ; but
if the hare be turned upon the dog which kills,
to be allowed only one point,* or no point if from
some casual circumstance without merit.

12. If a dog, from any accidental circum-

OF COUKSING. 34f3

stance, does not see the hare when slipped, the
course to be void unless he be in fault, and
then he loses, although the other dog may not
turn, or kill the hare.

13. If a dog loses ground at starting from
any cause not his fault, and afterwards gain
upon the other, he is to be allowed one point
in case the foremost dog gains one, and the
hare escapes without any other advantage being
obtained.

14. If a dog come to a stand in a course, he
loses any points he may afterwards gain if he
continue the course ; if the points are equal at
the end of the course, the dog standing to have
it given against him.

15. A dog refusing to fence, which the other
has taken, only to be allowed the points he has
made up to the fence ; if he endeavour to fence
and cannot, the course to end there ; if the
points are equal, the best fencer to win.

16. If a fence, or other obstacle, prevents the
judge from seeing the conclusion of a course, it
is to end at the obstruction.

17. If a dog be ridden-over or disabled, the
course to end there ; if done by the fault of the
owner of the other dog or his servant, the course
to be decided against such owner.

344 LAWS OF COURSING

18. Should a fresh hare be started during a
course and one dog pursue it, the course to be
there ended and decided by the points gained
or greater speed shown ; the same if another
dog gets loose and joins in the course, unless
he belong to the owner of either of the other
dogs, and then he is to lose the course.

19. If a course be equal, any decided supe-
riority of speed shown, to give the casting point.

20. The brace of dogs next to run to be
taken by the slipper as soon as he has loosed
the preceding ones; but they are not to be
slipped at a hare until the other dogs have been
taken up.

21. The judge to give his decision only to
the person appointed, without holding comnui-
nication with any one ; if the owner of either
dog interfere before he has given his judgment,
the course should be decided against him.

22. The decision to be given in favour of the
dog gaining most points.

THE END.

INDEX.

PAGE

Antiquity of hunting 8

Badgers mischievous 312

Coursing, description of 339

laws of 341

Fox-hunt, description of 162

changing the fox 190

Frenchman's opinion of 213

time of hunting 233

drawing cover 240

activity indispensable 260

maxims 262

accidents 290

time of leaving off 293

Foxes, haunts of 237

wanton destruction censured 295

bag-foTes, objections to 301

directions for treating cubs 305

caution in buying 308

digging for 309

sagacity of 314

Hare-hunting 133

hounds best suited for 134

finders 139

general advice on 147

shifts and doubles of hares 148

hare warren 156

time of leaving off 159

difference between fox and hare-hunting . . 276
Hounds, choice of — speed— number .... 27-36

feeding 37-53

management in kennel 38

breeding 54

treatment of young 58—74

naming 62

list of names 67

346 ixVDEx.

PACK

Hounds, entering young 76, 92

instruction of 86

diseases and remedies 107

drawing of 178, 232

casting 192, 251

discipline 217

killing sheep 226

buck-hound 245

difference of harrier and fox-hound .... 272

characteristics of fox-hound 27-i

necessity of blood to 283

Hunter, management of 317

Hunting, theory of 3

recommended 10

scent 127

Huntsman, qualities necessary for 6

duties of 122, 234, 267

directions to 184, 264

merits of 214

character of 297

Kennel, general observations on 16

plan, duties, discipline, &c 17—26

management 37

Wliipper-in, duties of 123,216

directions to 184

merits of 214

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