156 



The Chase 



the inside of a man was the outside of a horse ? 

 Personally, I don't think he was far wrong. I 

 don't want to be sour, but very different is the 

 hunting of the present day of which some young 

 men think so much, from the sport of our grand- 

 fathers, in the days when railways were unheard 

 of, and every face was known at a meet. Now- 

 adays many people go out for the sake of pace and 

 jumping fences rather than for love of the good 

 old sport of fox-hunting. How many of our 

 modern sportsmen know the name of one hound 

 from another, or which are most reliable or throw 

 their tongue in cover ? 



Imagine yourself living at the early part of the 

 nineteenth century, when our forefathers set out at 

 daybreak with their friends and neighbouring squires, 

 having heard of damage done to hen-roosts ; they 

 would unkennel their hounds and try to get on the 

 drag of the old fox, and slowly hunt up to where he 

 was sleeping off the effects of his midnight feast. 

 What hound work ! What music from those old- 

 fashioned, deep-throated packs ! The huntsmen 

 knew every hound and cheered them on by their 

 names ; many long runs they had, and surely it 

 was better sport than running into a fox after 

 twenty minutes, as with present-day hounds, for 

 very few foxes nowadays will stand up before 

 them longer if there is a scent. . . . 



Many of the packs in the early days were 

 trencher fed, and on a hunting morning were 

 collected by a man who went through the villages 

 blowing a horn. I know an old man who still 

 takes a keen interest in all matters connected with 

 sport, although he has grown too old and feeble to 

 do much himself. When a boy he managed to 

 persuade his father, rather against the latter's will, 



