JEM HILLS 129 



propriety of Hills' method, and I particularly recollect 

 a circumstance a few years ago which confirms me in 

 the opinion that it is correct under the difficulties by 

 which he is surrounded. They met at New Barn early 

 in December, and found in Farmington Grove a brace 

 if not a leash of foxes, but there was no scent to afford 

 a run with either. They then proceeded to Sherborne 

 Cow Pasture, where they again found, and Hillsi seemed 

 determined not to lose a chance by allowing the scent 

 to die away whenever a check occurred. A master of 

 hounds accustomed to a slow, good-scenting, woodland 

 country, not intruded upon by many horsemen, who 

 was out, expressed to me his astonishment, at the same 

 time giving an opinion that hounds so treated would 

 never hunt when required to do so ; and in which opinion 

 I should certainly coincide with respect to nine packs in 

 ten. Almost at the moment the observation was made 

 the hounds came to a check. They spread beautifully, 

 and every one of them had his nose to the ground, trying 

 to recover the scent. They soon hit off the line, and 

 by dint of hunting and Jem's talent they killed their 

 fox after a dodging run of an hour, in the osier bed 

 close to where they found him. "There," said I to my 

 neighbour, " can any hounds work better than that ?" 

 Jem Hills is actually thought by some people to 

 possess an intuitive it may be said a supernatural 

 knowledge of a fox's line, and I have heard a somewhat 

 ridiculous anecdote of his having nearly ridden a fox 

 down himself, without any hounds, in a covert, merely 

 by placing himself in the ride and hallooing to the fox 

 as he crossed; but the tale is rather too marvellous, 

 because it is well known a fox will not continue on the 

 move more especially he will not cross open spaces, 

 unless pressed by hounds. Neither can I believe Hills 

 ever perpetrated such an unsportsman-like act. If a 

 huntsman does not know the run of the foxes, he does 

 not know a most important part of his business. Of 

 Jem Hills' talent I have a very high opinion, and what- 

 ever may be said against his system of lifting his hounds 



