A POSTSCRIPT ON HOUND WORK. 77 



some sinister design to lead him astray. If a man is ridden at 

 like this he loses his head and forgets where he actually saw 

 the fox. I knew a huntsman in Ireland, one of the best, who 

 always rode up to a holloaing countryman with the same words, 

 " What way are ye, Mike ? " which in English is, " How do 

 you do ? " He waited a second or two and then said : " And 

 now did you by any chance see the fox ? " This method of 

 conversation had a calming effect on the excited Hibernian, 

 who had shouted himself black in the face, and he collected 

 himself and said just where he saw the fox last. 



If a huntsman is always trying to lift hounds or cast 

 them before they have done making their own effort, they 

 soon learn to stand and wait for assistance at every 

 difficulty. If hounds are lifted and galloped three or four 

 fields it is difficult to get their heads down again. It is 

 better on bad scenting days to leave it a good deal to hounds 

 than to try and force things. If on a good scenting day it 

 is obvious at a check where the fox has gone and what has 

 turned him, then a quick, decisive cast may set them 

 going before anyone realises that a check has occurred. 

 High-class hounds will keep on trying if left alone, if they 

 occasionally hit off the line, even if they only run it over 

 half a field. Good hounds cast themselves better than the 

 huntsman can cast them. 



Now, if hounds have been at a fox for an hour or 

 so, and he is running short or may get to ground, it is 

 permissible for a whip to go ahead, and if he can see the fox, 

 stick to him. If hounds have hunted their fox for an hour, 

 they deserve him, and he should be killed if possible. If 

 a fox, hunted for an hour to an hour and a half at fair 

 pace, gets to ground, he will most likely die ; he gets stiff and 

 cannot get out, so it is quite legitimate to dig for him. A fox 

 seldom can go with breast high scent for more than twenty to 

 twenty-five minutes, and if he gets to ground after, say, 

 thirty-five minutes at racing pace, it would be quite reasonable 

 to dig him out. No good huntsman would blow to ground 

 to pretend his fox had got in unless hounds actually 

 " mark." Hounds can be taught to bay when " gone to 

 ground " is blown, but it is usually a bad huntsman, wanting 

 to get home to tea, who will encourage this. Hounds must 



