158 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



huntsman to be of much use who is not ; for the first 

 thing, and the very sine qua non, of a fox-hunter, is to 

 ride up to his headmost hounds. It is his business to 

 be ready at all times to lend them that assistance 

 which they so frequently need, and which, when they 

 are first at a fault, is then most critical. A fox-hound 

 at that time will exert himself most : he afterwards 

 cools, and becomes more indifferent about his game. 

 Those huntsmen who do not get forward enough to 

 take advantage of this eagerness and impetuosity, and 

 direct it properly, seldom know enough of hunting to 

 be of much use to them afterwards. 



You will perhaps find it more difficult to keep your 

 whipper-in back, than to get your huntsman forward ; 

 at least, I always have found it so. 1 It is, however, 

 necessary ; nor will a good whipper-in leave a cover 

 while a single hound remains in it : for this reason 

 there should be two ; one of whom should always be 

 forward with the huntsman. You cannot conceive the 

 many ills that may happen to hounds that are left 

 behind. 2 I do not know that I can enumerate one half 

 of them ; but of this you may be certain, that the 

 keeping them together is the surest means to keep 



1 Though a huntsman cannot be too fond of hunting, a whipper-in 

 easily may. His business will seldom allow him to be forward enough 

 with the hounds to see much of the sport. His only thought, therefore, 

 should be to keep the hounds together, and to contribute as much as he 

 can to the killing of the fox. 



[ 2 Hounds should never be waited for unless they have not had a 

 chance of hearing the horn. Hounds are very much like children ; they 

 hate being left behind or lost, and if they find no one waits, they will 

 take care to get on, but if they see that there is a nursemaid waiting 

 outside the covert until they choose to come out, they often won't 

 hurry themselves.] 



