78 . THE HUNTING FIELD 



because they are always up when wanted. Who looks 

 for a Whipper-in except then? He does not hunt 

 the fox." 



It has always appeared to us, in our casual observa- 

 tion of hounds and different establishments, that 

 servants Whippers-in in particular do not give 

 that delightful animal, the hound, due credit for the 

 extraordinary sagacity it possesses. They treat them 

 too much like cattle or flocks of sheep. There is no 

 animal so grateful for kindness, so sensible of injury 

 or reproach as the dog. We often think a London 

 dray-horse possesses far more sense than the great 

 two-legged, plush-breeched buffer on the flags, whose 

 whip point dangles in our eyes. We should be sorry 

 to say the same of hounds and their attendants ; but 

 we should like to see a little more reasoning power, 

 and a little less whip-cord used in some hunting 

 establishments to hear men talking to their hounds 

 instead of rating them. 



It has been well said that no animals take their 

 character from their master so much as hounds do 

 from their Huntsman. If the Huntsman is wild, 

 noisy, or nervous, so will his hounds be ; if steady, 

 quick, and quiet, he may rely upon it that his pack 

 will be the same. 



The same gentleman 1 who made that observation 

 gives the following judicious advice to Whippers-in : 



" In going through riot, let not the hounds be 

 driven in a heap under their Huntsman's horse, and 

 indiscriminately rated without reason, as is too often 

 the case; but, on the contrary, let the Huntsman 

 seem carelessly to trust them, at a certain distance 

 from him, to take their own way, with the simple 

 precaution of having his men a little wide on either 

 flank ; he will then see which hound is to be trusted 

 and which not, and if riot is begun, his men are 



1 " Skim," in the " New Sporting Magazine," describing the 

 Hon. Grantley Berkeley's system of management. 



