176 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



the scent, it cannot be right to take them off from it ; 

 but when they are stopped for want of it, it cannot 

 then be wrong to give them every advantage in your 

 power. 



It is wrong to suffer hounds to hunt after others 

 that are gone on with the scent, particularly in cover ; 

 for how are they to get up to them with a worse 

 scent? Besides, it makes them tie on the scent, 

 teaches them to run dog, and destroys that laudable 

 ambition of getting forward which is the chief excel- 

 lence of a fox-hound. A good huntsman will seldom 

 suffer his head hounds to run away from him ; if it 

 should so happen, and they be still within his hear- 

 ing, he will sink the wind with the rest of the pack, 

 and get to them as fast as he can. Though I suffer 

 not a pack of fox-hounds to hunt after such as may be 

 a long way before the rest, for reasons which I have 

 just given ; yet, when a single hound is gone on with 

 the scent, I send a whipper-in to stop him. Were the 

 hounds to be taken off the scent to get to him, and he 

 should no longer have any scent when they find him, 

 the fox might be lost by it. This is a reason why, in 

 large covers, and particularly such as have many roads 

 in them, skirting hounds should be left at home on 

 windy days. 



Skirters, I think, you may find hurtful, both in 

 men and dogs. Such as skirt to save their horses, 

 often head the fox. Good sportsmen never quit 

 hounds but to be of service to them : with men of this 

 description, skirting becomes a necessary part of fox- 

 hunting, and is of the greatest use. Skirters, beware 



