"HOUNDS, GENTLEMEN, PLEASE! " 11 



teaching (often most troublesome) to carry couples, 

 to learn their names ; their education to free them 

 from all riot, the accidents that generally befall some 

 before November arrives, the work to get some of 

 them home after getting away with a fox in a wild 

 and distant country, when, indeed, some never return 

 at all. 



The above details only give a slight notion of the 

 trouble and expense that has been bestowed upon 

 every hound before he begins regular hunting at all. 

 People seem to think that a hound at best is only 

 worth a few sovereigns, so can be replaced at will. 

 Can there be a greater mistake ? 



In the hunting season if a good ivoi'king hound 

 comes to grief he cannot be replaced at all. What 

 huntsman, worth his salt, was ever known to part 

 with one of his real, reliable fox-catchers in the 

 middle of the season? Few even of hunting men 

 realise the enormous amount of trouble hounds give 

 to their huntsmen before he gets them really handy ; 

 they require training as much as pointers or retrievers, 

 and we should be very much annoyed if any one set 

 our best young retriever to course as lightly- wounded 

 hare that had been " tailored " by shooting too far 

 behind. Yet thoughtless people keep holloaing on a 

 huntsman and his hounds to foxes whenever they see 

 them, whether they are sure it is the hunted fox or 

 not ; getting their heads up and making them wild ; 

 indeed, utterly spoiling them unless the huntsman 

 takes precaution and handles them quietly. It takes 

 a very long time to make a bad pack a good one, 

 but a very short time will make the keenest and best 



