242 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



state here described, you will keep them fresh for the 

 first fine day ; when, supposing them to be all per- 

 fectly steady, I do not question that they will kill their 

 fox. 



When hounds are in want of blood, give them every 

 advantage ; go out early, choose a good quiet morning, 

 and throw off your hounds where they are likely to 

 find, and are least likely to change : — if it be a small 

 cover, or furze-brake, and you can keep the fox in, it 

 is right to do it ; for the sooner you kill him, when 

 you are in want of blood, the better for the hounds. 



When hounds are in want of blood, and you get a 

 fox into a small cover, it must be your own fault if you 

 do not kill him there : place your people properly, and 

 he cannot get off again. You will hear, perhaps, that 

 it is impossible to head back a fox. No animal is so 

 shy ; consequently, no animal is so easily headed back 

 by those who understand it. When it is your intention 

 to check a fox, your people must keep at a little dis- 

 tance from the cover side ; nor should they be sparing 

 of their voices ; for, since you cannot keep him in (if 

 he be determined to come out), prevent him, if you 

 can, from being so inclined. All kind of mobbing is 

 allowable, when hounds are out of blood; 1 and you 

 may keep the fox in cover, or let him out, as you think 

 the hounds will manage him best. 



Though I am so great an advocate for blood, as to 

 judge it necessary to a pack of fox-hounds, yet I by no 

 means approve of it, so far as it is sometimes carried. 



1 Yet, how many foxes owe their lives to the too great eagerness of 

 their pursuers ? 



