im] STEVENSS SYSTEM. 187 



Tanwortli & througli tlic uin])erslade woods to the Caiinal opper.site Moi-kley 

 Houso ct ran Paralall with the Cauual to Salterstrctt Lodg'o ifc Kilhnl 

 hiiu. 



Stevens often used to say that he would ratlier go down 

 *' Eirminghani way '' than on to the grass near Ladbroke, 

 because tlie former country carried a better scent, and we 

 have often heard (jther huntsmen and masters of hounds 

 say the same thing. Stevens seems to have been death 

 on foxes. His peculiar system, which was not altogether 

 approved of by ^Ir. Barnard, helped him very much in 

 this. He used to keep some hounds always near him or 

 at his horse's heels, and the moment a fox broke covert, 

 away went Stevens after him, clapped his leading hounds 

 on his back, never waiting a moment for the others to be 

 brought up.* Thus he burst his fox at first, and so 

 generally accounted for him. A great deal of the fine 

 sport he showed was owing to this, but he was a terrible 

 fellow to ride, and well mounted as he was by Mr. Barnard 

 nothing stopped him. He would go tearing through ITfton 

 Wood on his hack ; out he would come with his face 

 running down with blood ; he would jump oft" his hack on 

 the first horse that offered, till he got his own, and away he 

 went.f A very good judge, who hunted for many years with 

 the Pytchley and Warwickshire, has told us that he thinks 



* This system is, of course, open to much question. It is not, of course, the same 

 thing as allowing two or three couples of hounds to slip away by themselves, which 

 should never be suffered. " Cecil " [p. 211, 1854 Ed.] says, speaking of Lord 

 Fitzharding's hounds : " Tlie wonderfiil head they carry is another subject for admira- 

 tion. I could not fail, on one occasion last season, observing the judicious .system 

 adopted to ensure this important property, and which is universally practised with them. 

 The hounds had been running their fox some httle time in covert, when he broke over a 

 large grass field, and was viewed by one of the second horsemen, who hallooed him, 

 upon which two couples of hounds got to the halloo in advance of the pack. Coming 

 up at the moment, and therefore enabled to see this, Ayris (the huntsman) stoppe<l 

 them from going on with the scent till the body of the pack arrived^a plan which I am 

 satisfied is perfectly correct, although I have seen many huntsmen of celebrity who 

 would go on with one or two couples of hounds, leaving the remainder to bo brought 

 forward by the whipper-in. The motive for doing so is, that one or two couples of 

 hounds being allowed to carry on the scent, will show the line the fox has taken ; yet it 

 must Ije remembered that hounds will not run so fast single-handed as when they are in 

 a body." From what " Cecil " says, it appears that the point may be an open question, 

 hut I fancy that Stevens' plan was more likely to kill his fox, and that's what we come 

 out for after all.— W. R. V. 



t I remember that Stevens always sat very far back in the saddle when his horse 

 was taking off at a big fence. — C. M. 



