220 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



way the fox is gone, when he is so far before that you 

 cannot hunt him ? A Newmarket boy, with a good 

 understanding and a good voice, might be preferable, 

 perhaps, to an indifferent and slack huntsman ; he 

 would press on his hounds while the scent was good, 

 and the foxes that he killed he would kill handsomely. 

 A perfect knowledge of the intricacies of hunting is 

 chiefly of use to slow huntsmen, and bad hounds; since 

 they more often stand in need of it. Activity is the 

 first requisite in a huntsman to a pack of fox-hounds : 

 a want of it, no judgment can make amends for; while 

 the most difficult of all his undertakings is the dis- 

 tinguishing between different scents, and knowing 

 with any certainty the scent of his hunted fox. Much 

 speculation is here required — the length of time that 

 hounds remain at fault ; difference of ground ; change 

 of weather; — all these contribute to increase the diffi- 

 culty, and require a nicety of judgment, and a 

 precision, much above the comprehension of most 

 huntsmen. 



When hounds are at fault, and cannot make it out 

 of themselves, let the first cast be quick : the scent is 

 then good ; nor are the hounds likely to go over it : — 

 as the scent gets worse, the cast should be slower, and 

 be more cautiously made. This is an essential part of 

 hunting, and which, I am sorry to say, few huntsmen 

 attend to. I wish they would remember the following 

 rules, viz. that, with a good scent, their cast should be 

 quick ; with a bad scent, slow ; and that, when their 

 hounds are picking along a cold scent, they are not to 

 cast them at all. 



