The Life of a Great Sportsman 



Only three addenda are wanting for a day's hunting to 

 arrive at that state of perfection described by the light-hearted 

 " Dazzle " in London Assurance as the " consummation of 

 all earthly bliss," and these are a good fox, a good scent, and 

 a good country. Unfortunately it is not a very frequent 

 occurrence for a treble event of this description to be brought 

 off in one day. A good scent makes the foxes fly from a 

 covert, and on these occasions it is most important that the 

 huntsman should get away close to his fox, in which case the 

 scent may be good enough to hunt him on almost any day. 

 If, on the contrary, the fox is allowed to get a few minutes' 

 start, the scent, as often as not, is too bad to press him. So, 

 as Mr. Jorrocks impressed upon his "beloved 'earers," in one 

 of his famous lectures on "'unting," "Get close away to the 

 varmint ! " If a huntsman cannot get his hounds quickly out 

 of covert, it is a sure sign that they neither care about him nor 

 trust him. 



The Hounds. 



A foxhound must be stout in the first place, or he is not 

 worth keeping, no matter how good-looking he may be, or 

 how well he will work for half the day. A good foxhound 

 in condition never tires, and can outstay any other animal in 

 the world, the nearest approach to him as regards power of 

 endurance, so far as I know, being the wolf. 



The greatest benefactors to foxhunting are those masters 

 and huntsmen who breed hounds only from none other but 

 those strains that are noted for their stoutness. In no animal 

 that can be named do the vices and virtues of their ancestors 

 so surely repeat themselves in their offspring as in a foxhound. 

 Even small traits of character will be handed down from father 

 to son in a manner that to any one unacquainted with these 



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