FOXHOUNDS
AN!) TMF'IR MANDIJNG IN
i J :•■, !■- :.n
BY
LORD HKNRY BENTINCK
Willi KODUC'llUN 15 V
\lSLOUNT CHAPLIN
LONDON
I HUMPHREYS
Shillings.
3 9090 013 412 198
FOXHOUNDS
AND THEIR HANDLING IN THE FIELD
FOXHOUNDS
AND THEIR HANDLING IN
THE FIELD
BY
LORD HENRY BENTINCK
(1804-1870)
WITH INTRODUCTION BY
VISCOUNT CHAPLIN
LONDON
ARTHUR L HUMPHREYS
187 Piccadilly, W. i
1922
5F
INTRODUCTION
By VISCOUNT CHAPLIN
THE history of the little treatise, by the
late Lord Henry Bentinck, on handling
a pack of hounds out hunting is not without
its interest, and it has authority, I may add, of
the highest order.
It is the copy of a letter written to me by the
late Lord Henry Bentinck himself, one day not
very long after I had bought his pack of hounds,
from Loch Ericht, his small shooting lodge in
the famous deer forest of Ardverickay, only six
miles from Dalwhinnie station, on the Highland
line. It was written on a day when there was
such a tremendous blizzard that even he, who
was never known to miss a day in any week in
the course of the stalking season, was unable to
go out.
So he occupied himself by writing to me,
in a letter, the contents of the little pamphlet in
question, and its republication, which has been
the subject of our correspondence. To this
I rephed by saying that I thought it ought to
be published, and I asked his leave to do it.
5
INTRODUCTION
But this he would not give me, saying he could
write something much better than that, and
would do so, some day.
But I had it printed for private circulation,
and I gave a copy to several of the older
Masters, and among others one to Mr. George
Lane Fox, of Bramham Moor celebrity, who
the day after Lord Henry's death sent a copy
to Bailys Magazine, who published it.
And here a word about my own relations
with the late Lord Henry may not be out of
place.
He was the fourth son of the fourth Duke
of Portland, who died in 1854, being succeeded
by his second son, the Marquis of Titchfield
(the eldest son having died in 1821); the third
being Lord George Bentinck, who in his earlier
days was the Napoleon of the Turf; and the
fourth. Lord Henry, who in the hunting world
was very much what his brother George had
been upon the turf. ^ And these three brothers
it was, or rather the forces they were able to
command, which enabled them to establish
Mr. Disraeli as Leader of the Conservative
Party, and finally to defeat, and oust. Sir Robert
Peel from power, after their homeric conflicts in
connection with the Repeal of the Corn Laws.
* See lAfe of Disraeli, by Buckle, Vol. III., pp. 116-128,
129, 133.
6
INTRODUCTION
For reasons I need not enter into now Lord
Henry shortly afterwards abandoned politics alto-
gether, and his favourite pursuits were, for the
remainder of his life, hunting in the winter,
deer-stalking in the autumn, and playing whist
in the summer, in which he was facile princeps —
in fact, in those days he was said to be the
finest player in Europe.
My acquaintance with him was on this wise :
I knew him, and well, from the time I was a
boy. He had been Master of the Burton Country
in Lincolnshire for many years — nearly thirty,
I think — one of the three countries in England
which were hunted six days a week at that time,
and where his chief supporter was my uncle,
Mr. Charles Chaplin, who gave him a sub-
scription of 1200/. a year, and whose tenants on
an estate of between twenty and thirty thousand
acres used to walk for him a very large number
of puppies, than which nothing is more important
for the successful breeding of a first-class pack
of hounds. And 1 succeeded him within no
long period after I became of age, my uncle
having died while I was still at Christ Church,
in the University of Oxford, when I continued
the old subscription. It was shortly after that,
however, that Lord Henry expressed his wish to
give up the country, whereupon I bought his
hounds for 3500/. and took the Burton Country
7 B
INTRODUCTION
myself, of which he had been the Master for so
many years.
Lord Henry was a man of quite exceptional
ability, as I had every reason to believe— not
only from what I knew myself, but, some years
afterwards, from no less an authority than that
of Mr. Disraeli, and in the way I shall describe
directly. And, from all the experience I have
had since then, I have very Httle doubt that his
was probably the best brain ever given to the
breeding of hounds, and hunting; and he was
also, I think, upon the whole, one of the best
horsemen, and with the finest hands upon a
horse that was difficult to ride I ever knew,
with the possible exception of Lord Lonsdale.
I may add that it was from Lord Henry
I learnt everything I ever knew — about horses,
hounds, deer-stalking and deer-forests, and sport
of all kinds, and a great deal about politics, too.
And it was by him practically, before he aban-
doned politics, as is shown in one of Mr. Buckle's
most admirable volumes of the Life of Disraeli —
it was by him and his exertions, freely admitted
by Mr. Disraeli himself, that he was success-
fully run into the leadership of the Party after
Lord George Bentinck's death. "^
•^ See Life of Disraeli, by Buckle, who showed himself in
that work as another great English historian. Vol. III.,
pp. 116, 128-132, 133, 135.
8
INTRODUCTION
Lord Henry Bentinck died at Tathwell, on
the last day of 1870, in one of my houses in
Lincolnshire, which I had lent him with ten
thousand acres of shooting, and there he used to
practise rifle-shooting in the summer, with pea-
rifles, at both rabbits and hares, which were
rather plentiful on some parts of the estate at
that time, in preparation for the stalking season
in the autumn, where he seldom missed a stag
with a different weapon, killing, on an average,
about a hundred every year himself.
And, when Parliament met, early in Feb-
ruary afterwards, if I remember rightly, and
I was shown into Mr. DisraeH's room, at his
Party Dinner, to which he was kind enough
to invite me when the Queen's Speech was
read, he accosted me as follows :
* Ah ! ' he said, ' you and I have both lost
a great friend since we parted/
* Yes, sir,* I replied ; ' I know that Lord
Henry and yourself were great friends at one
time, and he has often talked to me about
you.'
* Yes,' he said ; ' and I always wished it could
have remained so.' And then, after a pause, he
added : ' I have always said that, take him all
round, I think upon the whole that Henry
Bentinck was probably the ablest man I ever
knew.' And very soon afterwards dinner was
9
INTRODUCTION
announced, and we went into the dining-
room.
I make no comments on Lord Henry's
description of GoodalVs Practice, in the handUng
of his hounds, excepting this : I agree with every-
thing he says, but it is necessary to remember
this — the Burton Country, where his chief ex-
perience lay, was a country of comparatively
small and manageable fields of horsemen ; very
different from those you see in the Quorn, the
Cottesmore, the Pytchley, and the chief fashion-
able grass countries, and sometimes the Belvoir,
on the grass side of that country. But the prin-
ciples which are inculcated, nevertheless, hold
good ; and, once a pack of hounds have learnt to
know, and believe in, their huntsman, they are
never happy away from him, and there is nothing
they won't do, and no effort they won't make, to
get back to him. Tom Firr was a notable
instance of this in the Quorn ; but then he had
the best Master in England (Lord Lonsdale) to
help him, and no one could handle a big field
better than he could, that I've ever seen ; and
the way in which he controlled a field of possibly
five or six hundred horsemen on a Quorn Friday
was a triumph of organization I have never seen
surpassed.
For instance, when drawing one of their
crack coverts in that country, the field was kept
10
INTRODUCTION
away some distance from it, often nearly a whole
field, until the fox had gone away, and the
huntsman had got hold of his hounds sufficiently
to get a start with him ; and then, when the
field got the order to go, my word ! There was
a charge of cavalry with a vengeance, to get up
to them.
Lord Annaly did the same thing in the
Pytchley and had the same complete control of
his field ; and in this way with the combination
of Lonsdale and Firr in the Quorn, and Annaly
and Freeman in after years in the Pytchley,
there could not have been a happier arrangement
for successful sport out hunting, if there was any
scent at all.
They were two first-rate huntsmen also. The
rarest and most difficult thing in the world to
find in my experience is a really good hunts-
man.
And here I can't omit some reference to
Tom Smith, who was originally my second
whipper-in — who was afterwards huntsman to
the Bramham Moor hounds, and became so
celebrated for many years in that country ;
and though it never was my fortune to see
him hunting hounds myself, I know it must
have been so — from so many sources, all of
which came from men who were absolutely
reliable.
11
INTRODUCTION
He comes, too, of a famous family of hunts-
men of that name, three generations of whom,
I think I am right in saying, had been hunts-
men to the Brocklesby hounds — one of the
oldest and best packs of hounds in the country
at that time.
I have often said it was easier to find a good
Prime Minister than a real good huntsman, and
Heaven knows that either is difficult enough ;
and I incline to think it is more so than ever
now for Ministers to-day, whose difficulties are
far greater than they ever were in my time.
How many have there been since Lord Palmer-
ston, the first that I remember?
Curiously enough, the only two men promi-
nent in public life that I knew personally and
at all well, when I became a member of the
House of Commons in 1868, were Lord Palmer-
ston and the old Lord Derby; but they were
both of them members of the Jockey Club, and
in that way I got to know them well.
To go back to GoodalVs Practice from which
I'm afraid I have rather strayed — I think that
the good work done by Bailys Magazine for so
many years should not be thrown away, and that
this admirable little treatise called GoodalVs
Practice should be preserved in the interest of
Fox-hunting for the use of this and future
generations.
12
INTRODUCTION
The language is so simple, and so much of it
is ordinary common-sense, that any one can
understand it.
It would be invaluable for Hunt servants,
both huntsmen and their whippers-in who serve
under them in particular — many of whom are
seldom taught enough by their superiors or
masters. I think it is a better education in
their case which is needed more than anything,
and I will conclude with an instance of what
I mean.
I was rather late one morning in arriving at a
gorse covert in the Belvoir Country ; Coston
covert, I think it was, into which the hounds
had just been put to draw. I had come from
Barley Thorpe, and I saw at once it wasn't the
huntsman who was in the covert with the hounds,
and I was told it was the first whip, Freeman,
who had never hunted them before, the hunts-
man being disabled by a fall the previous day.
I knew him quite well, so I went into the covert
to see if I could help him.
* So you are handling the hounds, I under-
stand/ I said, * for the first time to-day ? '
* Ah, yes, Squire,' he said, * and I can do
nothing with them,' he replied.
' Well,' 1 said, * I've been at it all my life,
and perhaps I could tell you one or two things
which might be useful.'
13
INTRODUCTION
' I should be most grateful if you would,' he
said.
He had been blowing his horn whenever the
fox crossed a ride, with the same note that ought
only to be used when he has gone away, or he
has caught him.
So I replied, ' Put your horn into its case to
begin with, and don't blow it again like you have
been doing, till your fox has gone away, or
till you want to draw your hounds out of covert,
which you should do with one or two long-drawn
notes ; or till you have caught your fox and got
him lying dead before you. Then you may blow
the note you've been using as long as you like.
That is one thing.
' The next thing is this : when you've gone
away with a fox, and come to a check, don't go
to help your hounds till they ask you, and the
way you will know they are asking you is this,
and these hounds (who at that time were con-
stantly interfered with) will ask you immediately
because they are accustomed to it.
' You will see them standing with their heads
up, waggling their tails, and doing nothing to
feel for the scent or to help themselves. V¥hen
you see that, go straight into the middle of the
pack, turn your horse, say ** cop-cop," or anything
you like, trot off, and they will go with you like
a flock of sheep.
14
INTRODUCTION
' Trot gently up to wherever you think your
fox is most Ukely to have gone, and if you are
lucky enough to hit off his line, they will go all
the easier with you the next time.
* Now,' I said, ' that is enough for to-day, and
I shall stay out to see how you get on.'
I stayed out till quite late in the evening. It
was in the Spring. He was fortunate enough to
hit off his fox the first time, and before the
evening the hounds had taken to him com-
pletely, and he could do anything he liked
with them.
He was so nice and modest-minded a fellow
that he came half a mile out of his way to meet
me on his way home, and when we met he said,
* I couldn't go home, Squire, without thanking
you for what you told me this morning. The
ambition of my life is to be a huntsman. I am
most anxious to learn, and you are the first
person, gentleman or huntsman, who has ever
told me a single thing.'
* Well,' I said, * you seem very appreciative,
and whenever you find yourself in a difficulty
either as whipper-in or huntsman, if you will
write and tell me what it is, I will tell you
anything I can to help you.'
That is the difficulty, I fear, with too many
of the younger ones in that profession, and
nothing could help them more than what they
15 c
INTRODUCTION
would learn from Lord Henry Bentinck's plain
and simple letter to me on GoodalVs Practice.
I sent a copy of it to Freeman very shortly
afterwards, and we corresponded frequently,
and do still ; and no one that I know has a
better reputation as a huntsman to-day, or shows
more sport than he does.
CHAPLIN.
April, 1922.
16
THE LATE LORD HENRY BENTINCK.
William Goodall's Method
WITH Hounds.
TN handling his Hounds in the open, with
a Fox before him, he never had them rated
or driven to him by his whips ; never hallooed
them from a distance. When he wanted them he
invariably went himself to fetch them, anxiously
watching the moment that the Hounds had
done trying for themselves, and felt the want
of him. He then galloped straight up to their
heads, caught hold of them, and cast them in a
body a hundred yards m his front, every Hound
busy before him with his nose snuffing the
ground, his hackles up, his stern curled over his
back, each Hound relying on himself and believ-
ing in each other. When cast in this way, the
Huntsman learns the exact value of each Hound,
while the young Hounds learn what old Hounds
too believe in and fly to, and when the scent is
taken up no Hound is disappointed. When the
Huntsman trails his Hounds behind him, four-
fifths of his best Hounds will be staring at his
horses tail, doing nothing,
17
LORD HENRY BENTINCK
The Hounds came to have such confidence
in Goodall, that with a burning scent, he would
cast them in this way at a hand gallop, all the
Hounds in his front making every inch of ground
good ; while with a poor scent he would do it in
a walk, regulating his pace by the quality of the
scent; the worse the scent, the more time the
Hounds want to puzzle it out.
On this system the Hounds are got to the
required spot in the very shoi^test time, with every
Hound busily at work, and with his nose tied to
the ground.
On the opposite vulga?^ plan, the Huntsman,
galloping off to his Fox, hallooing his Hounds
from a distance, his noise drives the Hounds in
the first instance to flash wildly in the opposite
direction ; four or five minutes are lost before
the whip can come up and get to their heads ;
then they are flogged up to their Huntsman, the
Hounds driving along with their heads up, their
eyes staring at their Huntsman's horse's tail,
looking to their Huntsman for help, disgusted,
and not relying upon themselves, especially the
best and most sagacious Hounds. A few minutes
more are lost before the best Hounds will put
their noses down and begin to feel for the scent,
a second check becomes fatal, and the Fox is
irretrievably lost. Often enough, in being
whipped up to their Huntsman in this way,
18
ON FOXHOUNDS
when crossing the line of the Fox with their
heads up, they first catch his wind, and then, as
a matter of course, they must take the scent
heelways, the Fox, as a rule, running down the
wind. This fatal piece of bungling, so injurious
to Hounds — is always entirely owing to the
Huntsman ; it is neither the fault of the whips
or the Hounds ; it never can occur when the
Huntsman moves his Hounds in his front with
their noses down. In these two different sys-
tems lies the distinction between be'mg quick and
a bad hurry.
2. — When the Fox was gone, in place of
galloping off after his Fox without his Hounds,
blowing them away down the wind from such
a distance that half the Hounds would not hear
him, and he would only get a few leading
Hounds still further separated from the body,
Goodall would take a sharp hold of his horse's
head, quick as lightning turn back in the
opposite direction, get up wind of the body of
his Hounds, and blowing them away from the
tail, bring up the two ends together, giving
every Hound a fair chance to be away with
the body.
It is impossible to over-estimate the mischief
done to a pack of Hounds by unfairly and
habitually leaving a Hound behind out of its
place : it is teaching them to be rogues. For this
19
LORD HENRY BENTINCK
purpose, Goodall had one particular note of his
horn never used at any other time except when
his Fox was gone, or his Fox was in his hand:
the Hounds, learning the note, would leave a
Fox in covert to fly to it. Hounds are very
sagacious animals ; they cannot bear being left
behind, nor do they like struggling through thick
covert ; but if that note is ever used at any other
time the charm is gone ; the Hounds will not
believe in it ; you cannot lie to them with vn-
puniiy. This was Goodall's great seciet for
getting his Hounds away all in a lump on the
back of his Fooo, and hustling him before he had
time to empty himself. This was his system for
getting his Hounds through large woodlands : to
come tumbling out together without splitting,
and sticking to their run Fox. This is the
explanation of the famous old Meynell saying,
' In the second field they gathered themselves
together, in the third they commenced a terrible
hurst'
3. — Goodall's chief aim was to get the hearts
of his Hounds. He considered Hounds should
be treated like women : that they would not bear
to be bullied, to be deceived, or neglected with
impunity. For this end, he would not meddle
with them in their casts until they had done
trying for themselves, and felt the want of him :
he paid them the compliment of going to fetch
20
ON FOXHOUNDS
them ; he never deceived or neglected them ; he
was continually cheering and making much of his
Hounds ; if he was compelled to disappoint them
by roughly stopping them off a suckling vixen
or dying Fox at dark, you would see him, as
soon as he had got them stopped, jump off his
horse, get into the middle of his pack, and spend
ten minutes in making friends with them again.
The result was that the Hounds were never
happy without him, and when lost would drive
up through any crowd of horsemen to get to him
again, and it was very rare for a single Hound
to be left out.
It is impossible to over- rate the mischief done
to a pack of Hounds by leaving them out ; it
teaches them every sort of vice^ upsets their con-
dition, besides now exposing them to be destroyed
on the railway line. There is no more certain
test of the capacity of a Huntsman than the
manner in which his Hounds jly to him and
work for him with a wilL
Goodall, Old Musters, and Foljambe were
undoubtedly the three Master-minds of our day.
Their general system of handling Hounds was
much the same, though each had his peculiar
eoccellence, and each has often said that if they
lived to be a hundred they would learn something
every year. All three agreed in this, that it was
ruinous to a pack of Hounds to meddle with
21
LORD HENRY BENTINCK
them before they had done trying for themselves.
The reasoning upon this most material point is
very simple. If the Hounds are habitually
checked, and meddled with in their natural casts,
they will learn to stand still at every difficulty,
and wait for their Huntsman ; every greasy
wheat-field will bring them to a dead stop, and
however hard the Huntsman may ride on their
back, two or three minutes must be lost before
he can help them out of their difficulty, whilst
in woods he cannot ever know what they are
about. (For once the Huntsman can help them,
nineteen times the Hounds must help themselves.)
It was Old Muster's remark that for the first ten
minutes the Hounds knew a good deal more than
he did, but after they tried all they knew then
he could form an opinion where the Fox was
gone, but not before.
Mr. Foljambe attached the greatest import-
ance to getting his Hounds away together.
Before his Hounds were a field away from a wood
you might hear him sing out, * Want a Hound,'
and his horn would be going at their tails until
he got him, and when got, he would drop back
and not care to go near them until they had been
five or ten minutes at a check. But if a single
Hound was wanting when a Fox was killed,
however great the run, he would harp upon it
for a month.
22
ON FOXHOUNDS
Goodall combined, with his other excellencies
in the field, condition and kennel management
quite the best. Mr. Foljambe was by far the
best breeder of Hounds, and had the keenest
eye for a Hound's work — nothing escaped him.
Mr. Musters was the best hand at fairly hunting
a Fox to death, and could make a iniddling lot
work like first-rate Hounds.
Old Dick Burton was Lord Henry's first
huntsman in the Burton Country, and showed
great sport for many years. He was the best
hand at breaking a pack of Hounds from hares,
and teaching them to draw, upon which so much
depends. He always drew his woods vp the
wind, throwing his Hounds in fifty or sixty yards
from the wood, and allowing them to spread, so
that every Hound should be busy, with his head
down, looking for his Fox ; and had them in his
front, making noise enough to cheer them and
enable them to know where he was ; and in cub-
hunting made the Hounds find their cub for
themselves, and would not have him hallooed at
first across the ride. (Nothing is truer than the
old saying, 'A Fox nicely found is half killed.')
He would trot through the hollow covert with his
Hounds behind him, and an occasional blow of
his horn, to wake up any chance Fox, and get
Hounds in the thick covert, where they could
not use their eyes, as quick as possible, and then
23 D
LORD HENRY BENTINCK
give them as much time as they liked. Nothing
is worse than hurrying Hounds through strong
covert, or forcing them to draw over again a
covert when they are satisfied that there is not a
Fox in it. The blackthorn and gorse coverts he
would always draw down the wind, keeping care-
fully behind his Hounds : by so doing, first, the
Hounds have their heads down, and never chop
a Fox — they do not see him. The Fox hears
them, and the wildest Fox is off at once, and the
cubs learn to steal away after the Hounds are
gone. Second, it enabled him to get the body
and tail Hounds out of the covert without
hunting the line of the Fox through the strong
gorse ; brought the two ends together all away
on the back of the old Fooc — the true secret of
getting a shaiy burst.
No man could turn out a highly-mettled
pack of Hounds, and so young a lot steady
from hares as old Dick Burton. In the year
1859, when the Hatton country was as full as
Blankney with riot, we found in Hatton Wood,
at a quarter before twelve, and in the month
of February, ran from Fox to Fox until half-
past three, when all the second horses being
beat and a fog rising up, I rode amongst the
Hounds, coming away from Hatton Wood the
last time to see what I had got. To my
astonishment, I found my pack consisted of
24
ON FOXHOUNDS
11 couples of puppies and 5\ of old Hounds!!
We had had an old dog kicked, and old 'Darling '
leading them, then five years old, and showing
himself for the first time.
Old Dick's principle was to break his puppies
by themselves, showing them all the riot he
could in the summer, and drilling them severely,
but never allowing a whip to flog them after
they had escaped to his heels, or to flog them
when coming out of a wood and cutting them
off. After being well drilled, he would then
take them amongst the cubs and smash up a
litter of cubs, blooding them up to their eyes to
make them forget their punishment, and to care
for nothing but a Fox. Hounds being unsteady
for hares, when Foxes are plentiful, is en-
tirely the FAULT OF THE HANDLING. The
highest praise that can be given to a Hunts-
man is for a fool to say : ' We had a great run,
and killed our Fox ; as for the Huntsman, he
might have been in bed.' A Huntsman's first
BOAST should be that all his Hounds required
was to be taken to the covert-side and taken
home again. His greatest disgrace is, first, to
have his Hounds squandered all over the country,
and to leave them out ; second, to be unable to
get them out of a wood ; third, not to know to
a yard where he lost his Fox — if properly
managed, the Hounds will always tell it to him,
25
LORD HENRY BENTINCK
The causes that have produced the present
unsteadiness in the Hounds from hares : —
1st. — In 1863, seventeen virtually blank days,
that is, not finding a Fox whilst there was Hght
to kill him, and rarely a day with two or three
Foxes to bring the Hounds to their senses and
work them down, left that season's puppies un-
broken.
2nd. — In 1864 the terrible mistake was made
of leaving the Hounds at Home through the
cub-hunting season, on account of the dryness
of the ground. Regular hunting was com-
menced with the two-year-olds, worse than
puppies entirely undrilled ; and short days were
made.
3rd. — In breaking the Hounds in 1865, they
were completely ruined by being rated and
flogged in coming out of covert to their Hunts-
man, taught to turn back to the woods, and to
remain there, afraid to come out ; and, when left
to themselves, hunting hares by hours together.
4th. — Taking the Fox's head away from the
Hounds. No practice can be more abominable
or more Cockney. A puppy that has once
fought for the head and carried it home in
triumph, trotting in front of the Hounds, will
NEVER LOOK AT A HARE AGAIN ; he is made
from that day, and marks himself for a stallion
HOUND.
26
ON FOXHOUNDS
5th. — Neither the first, second, nor third
being to be depended upon, the steady old
Hounds never knew when to go to the cry, and
at last joined the wild Hounds when a large
body had got together. To get them right, it
would be desirable to put together all the two-
year-olds, and all determined hare-hunters, such
as ' Saladin,' kc, of the three-year-olds, and drill
them by themselves, then take them into the
Wragby Woodlands, where you are sure of a
large litter ; work the cubs for four or five hours,
and smash up three of them, having three or
four lads to watch the cubs, so that as soon as
they have eaten one you may know where to go
and clap them on another leg-weaby cub.
The next time their turn is to go out, take them
to Blankney and Ashby, and smash up another
litter in the middle of the hares. After being
hunted three weeks by themselves, then to mix
them together. It is essential that the steady,
quiet Hounds should not be exposed to the
annoyance of hearing the wild Hounds rated
and flogged ; it disgusts them, and they will
do nothing, merely following, not guiding,
the pack.
LONDON ; STBANGBWAYS, PBINTBRS.