STYLE OF FOX-HUNTING 175 



throw them in at head ; or, if the cover have any 

 ridings cut in it, and the fox be often seen, your hunts- 

 man, by keeping some hounds at his horse's heels, at 

 the first halloo that he hears, may throw them in close 

 at him. 1 This will put him out of his pace, and, per- 

 haps, put him off his foil. It will be necessary, when 

 you do this, that the whipper-in should stop the pack 

 from hunting after, and get forward with them to the 

 huntsman. I have already given it as my opinion, 

 that hounds may be halloo'd too much. If they should 

 have been often used to a halloo, they will expect it, 

 and may trust perhaps to their ears and eyes, more than 

 to their noses. If they be often taken from the scent, it 

 will teach mem to shuffle, and probably will make them 

 slack in cover : it should be done, therefore, with 

 great caution ; not too often ; and always should be 

 well-timed. Famous huntsmen, I think, by making 

 too frequent a use of this, sometimes hurt their 

 hounds. I have heard of a sportsman who never 

 suffers his hounds to be lifted : he lets them pick along 

 the coldest scent, through flocks of sheep : this is a 

 particular style of fox-hunting, which, perhaps, may 

 suit the country in which that gentleman hunts. I 

 confess to you, I do not think that it would succeed 

 in a bad-scenting country, or, indeed, in any country 

 where foxes are wild. While hounds can get on with 



1 Nothing is meant more than this — " that the huntsman should get 

 the tail hounds off the line of the scent (where they do more harm than 

 good), and encourage them forward ; if he should hear a halloo whilst 

 these hounds are off the scent, he should lay them on to it ; if he should 

 not, the tail hounds, by this means, may still stand a chance of getting 

 to the head hounds by the ear, which they never could do, if they con- 

 tinued to run by the nose." 



