202 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



taking care, at the same time, to give his hounds as 

 much the wind as possible. 1 



It is not often that you will see a pack perfectly 

 steady where there is much riot, and yet draw well : 

 some hounds will not exert themselves till others chal- 

 lenge, and are encouraged. 2 



I fear the many harriers that you have in your 

 neighbourhood will be hurtful to your sport : by con- 

 stantly disturbing the covers, they will make the foxes 

 shy, and when the covers become thin, there will be 

 but little chance of finding foxes in them: furze-covers 

 are then the most likely places. Though I like not to 

 see a huntsman to a pack of fox-hounds ever off his 

 horse, yet, at a late hour, he should draw a furze-cover 

 as slowly as if he were himself on foot. I am well con- 

 vinced that huntsmen, by drawing in too great a hurry, 

 leave foxes sometimes behind them. I once saw a re- 

 markable instance of it with my own hounds: we had 

 drawn (as we thought) a cover, which, in the whole, con- 

 sisted of about ten acres; yet, whilst the huntsman was 

 blowing his horn to get his hounds off, one young fox 

 was halloo'd, and another was seen immediately after : 

 it was a cover on the side of a hill, and the foxes had 

 kennelled close together at an extremity of it, where 

 no hound had been. Some huntsmen draw too quick, 

 some too slow. The time of day, the behaviour of his 



1 Hounds that are hunted constantly at an early hour, seldom, I think, 

 draw well : they depend too much upon a drag, and it is not in the 

 strongest part of the cover that they are accustomed to try for it. 



2 This relates to making hounds steady only, which always causes 

 confusion, and interrupts drawing. When once a pack are become steady, 

 they will be more likely to draw well than if they were not. 



