72 LETTERS TO YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



A POSTSCRIPT ON HOUND WORK. 



THERE have been many books on hunting, the horse, 

 hound breeding and care of kennels, but there is a 

 rather marked silence on the subject of actually hunting 

 hounds, and I must plead the following letter, the writer 

 of which is unknown to me, as my excuse for dashing in 

 where angels innumerable have feared to tread : 



It seems to me the tendency on the part of the younger generation is 

 to think far too much of the horse and his doings and too little of the 

 hound and his important work. Hunting people talk about good gallops, 

 formidable fences, and so on, but all too seldom say anything about the 

 fascinating work of the pack. In my opinion they would get much additional 

 pleasure if they knew more of hound work and were better able to follow 

 what is being done by the huntsman and whips. I wish you could see your 

 way clear to writing something on this side of hunting. 



Successful huntsmen do what they find answers best 

 largely from instinct, from an intuitive and sometimes almost 

 uncanny knowledge of the ways of the most astute of wild 

 animals. Often, though not invariably, the best huntsmen 

 are professionals, and are not so willing to give away their 

 secrets as to sit down and write a handbook on how the 

 business is done. All I can presume to do, never having 

 hunted a pack of hounds, nor in my vainest moments even 

 imagined that I could do so, will be to set down what I have 

 seen good huntsmen do. 



A huntsman lives in a lantern and has to bear the full 

 gaze of a public not always appreciating the enormous diffi- 

 culties which face him on many occasions ; but, after all, 

 professionals of every class are more or less fair game for 

 criticism, for it is their fate to be watched. Can a huntsman, 



