MODERN FARRIER. 545 



^Vhen they make their double on a high road or 

 dry path, and then leave it with a spring, it is often 

 the occasion of a long fault: the spring which a 

 hare makes on these occasions is hardly to be credit- 

 ed, any more than is her ingenuity in making it : 

 both are wonderful. 



' Let cavillers deny 



That brutes have reason : sure, 'tis something more : 

 'Tis heav'n directs, and stratagems inspire. 

 Beyond the short extent of human thought.' 



She frequently, after running a path a considera- 

 ble way, will make a double, and then stop till the 

 hounds have passed her ; she will then steal away as 

 secretly as she can, and return the same way she 

 came. This is the greatest of all trials for hounds. 

 It is so hot a foil, that in the best packs there are 

 not many hounds that can hunt it : you must fol- 

 low those hounds that can, and try to hit her off 

 where she breaks her foil, which in all probability 

 she will soon do, as she now flatters herself she is 

 secure. When the scent lies bad in cover, she will 

 sometimes hunt the hounds. 



' The coverts utmost bound 



Slily she skirts; behind them cautious creeps, 

 And in that very track, so lately stain'd 

 By all the steaming crowd, seems to pursue 

 The foe she flies.' 



When the hounds are at a check, make your 

 huntsman stand still, nor suffer him to move his 

 horse one way or the other ; hounds lean naturally 

 towards the scent, and, if he does not say a word to 

 them, will soon recover it. 



In a fine day, good hounds seldom give up the 

 scent at head ; if they do, there is generally an ob- 

 vious reason for it: this observation a huntsman 

 should always make ; it will direct his cast. If he 

 be a good one, he will be attentive as he goes, not 

 only to his hounds, nicely observing which have 

 the lead, and the degree of scent they carry, but 



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