HUNTSMAN 11 



ever does. By the middle of the season a hunts- 

 man will, or ought to, know where to put his 

 hand on a fox (if there is one in the country), let 

 him be in what part he may, but to do this he 

 must be very observant on all occasions. 



To have even spirits (not easily dejected) is also 

 a requisite for a huntsman, otherwise on bad 

 scenting seasons he will often go home without his 

 fox, and will be apt to feel disheartened, and that 

 he is never to kill another. But this will not do, 

 although his hounds after a continuation of it 

 will scarcely turn to a halloo, and it requires the 

 patience of Job to put up with what one hears 

 and sees ; for some men will say, it is all the 

 huntsman's fault that the hounds will not draw ; 

 some, it is the fault of the hounds ; others, that 

 they are too high fed ; others too low ; in short, 

 no end to complaints. But a change of scent does 

 come ; and the same hounds which would not 

 leave his horse's heels, no sooner get sight of the 

 cover they are to draw, than in they fly, and not 

 a hound is to be seen, find their fox, and turn 

 at a word across flints and fallows, and probably 

 kill every fox they find for weeks following. This 

 again requires evenness of spirits, else the delusive 

 conceit that he can kill any fox with half a scent, 

 will only be the cause of greater annoyance on 

 a return to bad scent. It is not meant that he 



