12 "HOUNDS, GENTLEMEN, PLEASE! " 



hounds slack or wild. Deceive them, ill-treat them, 

 or abuse them, and the effect will be noticeable in a 

 week ; the bitches will be cowed, and the old dog 

 hounds will sulk ; just put their toes on the ground 

 and stand looking at their huntsman with a superior 

 air of astonishment and disgust. Horsemen should 

 know and consider that their sport will i^np^^ove 

 to a moral certainty in the same ratio that they 

 refrain from kicking and overriding hounds, which 

 will assuredly cowe them more or less, or cause them 

 to sulk ; for the condition and frame of mind that 

 hounds are in contribute about 70 per cent, to the 

 sport they show. 



The field would also do well to remember that a 

 Master or huntsman loves his hound individually as 

 much, or more than, any one who is out loves his 

 pet dog ; and that it is pain and grief to him to see 

 any of them injured or deceived ; and it is rather 

 dreadful to reflect that ahnost all inju7'y to hounds by 

 kicking, jumping on them, or overriding them, could 

 he avoided, if people would only learn to be more 

 careful. " 'Ware horse " is a cry that should seldom 

 be uttered except by the members of the hunt estab- 

 lishment — " 'Ware hound " is much oftener necessary. 



Two years' experience in the hunting-field appear 

 to qualify any one to be a critic of the huntsman's 

 art — for what is easier than to criticise ? We all can 

 have a go at that ! Even George Cheek, the school- 

 boy in Soapey Sponge, was ready to declare that Mr. 

 Watchorn was " a shocking huntsman — never saw 

 such a huntsman in all my life," although George's 

 experience "lay between his uncle Jellyboy, who had 



