204: HUNTING TERMS. 



speak ; and one word from a sure hound makes the 



presence of a fox certain. 

 Throw up. When hounds lose the scent they " throw 



up their heads." A good sportsman always takes 



note of the exact spot and cause, if he can, to tell the 



huntsman. 

 Tailing. The reverse of streaming. The result of bad 



scent, tired hounds, or an uneven pack. 

 Throw off. After reaching the " meet," at the master's 



word the pack is " thrown into cover," hence " throw 



off." 



There are many other terms in common use too plain 

 to need explanation, and there are a good many slang 

 phrases to be found in newspaper descriptions of runs, 

 which are both vulgar and unnecessary. One of the 

 finest descriptions of a fox-hunt ever written is to be 

 found in the account of Jorrocks' day with the " Old 

 Customer," disfigured, unfortunately, by an overload 

 of impossible cockneyisms, put in the mouth of the im- 

 possible grocer. Another capitally-told stoiy of a fox- 

 hunt is to be found in Whyte Melville's " Kate Coventry." 

 But the Rev. Charles Kingsley has, in his opening chap- 

 ter of " Yeast," and his papers in Eraser on North 

 Devon, shown that if he chose he could throw all writers 

 on hunting into the shade. Would that he would give 

 us some hunting-songs, for he is a true poet, as well as 

 a true sportsman ! 



Another clergyman, under the pseudonym of " Uncle 

 Scribble," contributed to the pages of the Sporting 

 Magazine an admirable series of photographs to adopt 

 a modern word of hunting and hunting men, as re- 

 markable for dry wit and common sense, as a thorough 

 knowledge of sport. But " Uncle Scribble," as the head 

 of a most successful Boarding School, writes no more. 



