"HOUNDS, GENTLEMEN, PLEASE!" 15 



us that a moment's delay may be fatal, that a yard 

 lost may never be regained, or, if retrieved, the steed 

 may be unduly pressed in the effort. Every dire 

 casualty that is likely to imperil the pleasure presents 

 itself to our excited fancy, with the result that at the 

 beginning we are all inclined to ride a little harder 

 than we ought to do. Yet if we pause to consider, 

 it will be manifest to all who care about hunting that 

 the first few moments after hounds come away from 

 covert are just the most critical of the pursuit, and 

 if huntsman and hounds are given a chance now all 

 will probably go well if there is a scent. If, on the 

 other hand, they are interfered with and scent is 

 poor the fox obtains every advantage, consequently 

 he is able to put such a long distance between his 

 brush and the nose of the leading hound that without 

 a change of scent in their favour hounds are very 

 unlikely indeed to come up to him. 



Now, it very often happens that scent lies very 

 badly in the immediate neighbourhood of a fox 

 covert on a hunting morning, and it seems to me 

 that this fact is not sufficiently recognised by hunting 

 folk ; but a few instances of what I mean will pos- 

 sibly enable some of my readers to recall occasions 

 when a puzzling want of scent just as hounds came 

 out of covert was followed by a sudden and strange 

 improvement. How often do we hear at the end of 

 a fast gallop, " I thought there wasn't an atom of 

 scent when we first went away," or words to that 

 effect. Yet if we had been anchored overhead in a 

 captive balloon just above the fox-covert for some 

 minutes previous to its being drawn a good deal of 



