A HINT TO FOX-HUNTERS. 191 



mornin° f ; the run from point to point being at least twenty 

 miles, and the ground traversed not less than five or six 

 more. 



"Well, Will," inquired Malcolm, "what do you purpose 



doing 1 " 



" Give the horses a bucket of gruel each, with a mouthful of 

 hay, and then homewards." 



" What, thirty miles more to-night for hounds and horses, 

 after such a run % " 



" Just so, Malcolm ; they are of the right sort not to give 

 in ; but it won't do to let them get stiff by loitering about 

 at a public-house. Quick march, is our motto, and I hope 

 to be home before the supper hour in the servant's hall." 



"Very well, then Bob and I will overtake you on the road, 

 and brinsc Markham with us." 



Beauchamp was too good a sportsman, and by far too fond 

 of his hounds and horses, to consign them to the care of servants, 

 however trustworthy, after a severe day, always accompanying 

 them home, and feeding the hounds himself before he left the 

 kennels. He therefore jogged leisurely along with his pets, 

 which once more cheered by the presence of their young master 

 among them, trotted on with sterns erect, as if ready for a 

 second fox. 



The. system adopted by Beauchamp in the management of 

 his pack was of the silent order, with as little interference as 

 possible in the field, to which must be attributed their uniform 

 success in killing: their foxes. Noise in man or hound bein^ 

 his aversion, he would allow of no holloaing or screaming from 

 his field, which invariably occasions so much confusion, and the 

 hounds were thrown silently into covert, and only spoken to 

 occasionally to assure them of their master's presence. Although 

 a fine melodious voice may be very pleasing to the ear, }^et 

 instead of its being (as too often considered) a great recommen- 

 dation in a huntsman to a pack. of fox-hounds, it is most decidedly 

 the reverse, particularly in a woodland country, where, in nine 

 cases out of ten, the fox will be unkenneled bv the huntsman 

 instead of his hounds. We cannot so arrange, when the fixtures 

 are made some time before, always or very often to draw up 

 wind ; and a noisy, vociferous huntsman, when taking a line of 

 coverts down wind, will disturb every fox (unquestionably 

 every good one) long before the pack can get upon his drag ; in 

 fact, a good fox will be off, and perhaps miles away, before the 

 hounds reach his kennel. It is related of the famous Butter- 



