JOHNA.SEAVERNS

The Late

Lord Henry Bentlnck
Foxhounds.

GOODALL'S PRACTICE.

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London :
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' " EC.4.

THESE NOTES, PROBABLY THE
MOST VALUABLE EVER PENNED ON
THEIR SUBJECT, STILL OUTLINE
THE BEST PRACTICE IN TRAININC;.
HANDLING AND HUNTING HOUNDS.

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'' Cold^ dreary, and chill as the
New Year broke over Lincolnshire,
there was yet a greater chill at the
heart of her hunting nien^ for as
the last hours of i8yo passed away,
the spirit of Lord Henry tooli its
UightJ' — Baily's Magazine, Feb-
ruary, 1871.

Ox THE 1st of May, 1859,

Died

WILLIAM GOODALL,

For 17 Years Huntsman to the
Duke of Rutland.

He Died in the Prime of Life universally
ret^re/ted.

Lord Henry Bentinck's Remarks

on the Late

William Goodairs Method

with the Belvoir Hounds.

In handling his hounds in the
open, with a fox before him, he
never had them rated or driven to
him by his whips ; never hal-
looed them from a distance. When
he wanted them he invariably
went himself to fetch theni^ anxi-
ously 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 /// 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 believing in each
other. When cast in this ivay^
the huntsman learns the exact
value of each hound, while the
young hounds learn what old
hounds too believe in and tiy to,
and when the scent is taken up
no hound is disappointed. When
the huntsman trails his hounds
behind him, four-hfths of his best
honnds will be staring at his horse s
tail^ doing nothing.

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 ; w^hile
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 shortest tinie^ with every
hound busily at work, and with
his nose tied to the ground.

On the opposite vulgar 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 direc-
tion ; four or five minutes are lost
before the whip can come up and
get to their heads, then they are
fiogged up to their huntsman, the
hoimds 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.

8

A few minutes more are lost be-
fore the best hounds will put
their noses down and begin to
feel for the scent, a second check
becomes fatal, and the fox is irre-
trievably lost. Often enough, in
being whipped up to their hunts-
man in this way, 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 nor the hounds ;
it never can occur when the
huntsman moves his hounds in
his front with their noses down.
In these two different systems
lies the distinction between being
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 tLp ivind of the body of his
hounds, and blowing iJieni 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 Iheni to be
rogues. For this purpose Goodall
had one particular note of his
horn never used at any other time

10

except when his fox was goue^ or
his fox was in his Jiand : 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 /;;/.
punity. This was Goodall's great
secret for getting his hounds
away all in a lump on the hack of
his /o.r, and hustling him before
he had time to empty himself.
This w^as his system for getting
his hounds through large wooil-
.lands — 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
Jield they gathered themselves

11

together, in the third tliey com-
menced a terrible burst.''

(3) Goodall's chief aim was to
get the hearts of his hounds. He
considered hounds should be
treated Uke women — that they
would not bear to be bullied, to
be deceived^ or neglected with im-
punity. For this end he would
not meddle with them in their
casts until they had done trying
for themselves, and felt the ivaui
of him : he paid them the com-
pliment of going to fetch them ;
he never deceived or neglected
them ; he was continually cheer-
ing and making much of his
hounds ; if he was compelled to
disappoint them by roughly stop-
ping off a suckling vixen or dying
fox at dark, you would see him,
as soon as he had got them stop-
ped, jump off his horse, get into
the middle of his pack, and spend
ten minutes in making friends

12

with them again. The result
was that the hounds were never
happy without him, and when
lost w^ould 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 condition, besides now ex-
posing 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 fly to him and
ivork 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 ex-
cellence, and each has often said

13

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
hdunds to meddle with them be-
fore they had done trying for
themselves. The reasoning upon
this most material point is very
simple. If the hounds are habitu-
ally checked, and meddled with
in their natural casts, they will
learn to stand still at every diiB-
culty, and wait for their hunts-
man ; 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 diffi-
culty, 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 Musters' remark, that for the

14

first ten luiiiiilcs the hounds knew
a great 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 iniportaucc to getting his
hounds away together. Before
his hounds were a held away
from a wood you might hear him
sing ont^ " 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 live or ten minutes at
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.

Goodall combined, with his
other excellencies in the field,
condition and kennel manage-
ment quite the best. Mr. Foljambe

15 .

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
DiiddUng Jot work like first- rate
hounds.

Old Dick Burton 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 up 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
cubhunting made the hounds find
their cub for themselves, and
would not have him hallooed at

10

Jirsl 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 his hounds in the thick
covert, where they could not use
their eyes, as quick as possible,
and then 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
carefully behind his hounds ; by
so doing, lirst, 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

17

learn to steal away after the
hounds are gone. Second, it
enabled him to get the body and
tail hounds out of the covert with-
out hunting the line of the fox
through the strong g o r s e ;
brought the two ends together all
away on the back of the old fox
— the true secret of getting a
sharp burst.

No man could turn out a high-
mettled pack of hounds, and so
young a Jot steady from hares. 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, com-
ing away from Hatton Wood the
last time to see what I had got.
To my astonishment I found my

18

pack consisted of 11 couples of
puppies and 5^ of old hounds ! !
We had had an old dog kicked,
and old " Darling" leading them,
then live years old, and showing
himself for ih^ first time.

Old Dick's principle was to
break his puppies by themselves,
showing them ail the riot he
could in the summer, and drilhng
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, blood-
ing them up to their eyes to
make them forget their punish-
ment, and to care for nothing but
a fox. Hounds being unsteady
for hares, when foxes are plenti-
ful, is entirely the fault of the
HANDLING. The highest praise

19

that can be given to a huntsman'
is for a fool to say, '' We had a
great run, and killed our fox ; as
for the huntsman, he might have
BEEN IX bed/' a huntsman's
FIRST BOAST should be, that alt
his hounds required was to be
taken to the covert side and taken
home again. His greatest dis-
grace is (1) to leave his hounds
squandered all over the country,
and to leave them out ; (2) to be
unable to get them out of a wood ;
(3) not to know to a yanf where
he lost his fox — if properly
managed the hounds will always.
tell it to him.

The causes that have produced
the present unsteadiness in the
hounds from hares : —

(1) In 1863, seventeen z'/r///^//v
blank clays^ that is, not finding a
fox whilst there was light to kill
him, and rarely a day with two
or three foxes to bring the hounds

20

to their senses and work them
down, left that season's puppies
unbroken.

(2) In 1864 the terrible mistake
was made of leaving the hounds
at home through the cubhunting
season, on account of the dryness
of the ground. Regular hunting
was commenced with the two-
year-olds, worse than puppies
entirely undyilled ; and short days
were made.

(3) In breaking the hounds in
1865 they were completely ruined
by being rated and flogged in
coming out of covert to their
huntsman, 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.

(4) 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.

(5) 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 to-
gether. To get them right it
would be desirable to put together
all the two-year-olds, and all de-
termined hare-hunters, and such
as " Saladin," &c., of the three-
year-olds, and drill them by them-
selves, 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, hav-
ing 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 -weary cub. The
next time their turn is to go out,
take them to Blankney or Ashby,
and smash up another Htter in the
middle of the hares. After being
hunted three weeks by them-
selves, then to mix them to-
gether. It is essential that the
steady, quick 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, xor guiding, the pack.

[Reprinted from Baily's Mag-
azine OF Sports and Pastimes.
Vinton & Co., Ltd., Publishers,
8, Bream's Buildings, Chancery
Lane, London, E.C.4.]

J. BALE, SONS & DAMEI.SSON, LTD., LOiNDON, \V.

"THE STANDARD ANNUAL ON HUNTING.

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