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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.