"HOUNDS, GENTLEiMEN, PLEASE!" 19 



Now, while yielding to no one in admiration for the 

 songs quoted from above, for I know every word of 

 them — " have them off by heart," as the children say — 

 it strikes me that we have been educated by pen and 

 pencil to think of the commencement of a run always 

 as a scrimmage, where pace and jumping powers are 

 the great essentials, whereas in my humble opinion 

 Mr. Briscoe's words, " Never be close to hounds for 

 the first two fields," should be set as a copy for most 

 of us. 



Perhaps it may be thought that the foiling of the 

 surroundings of a fox covert as described above is 

 overdrawn and exaggerated, but instances in proof of 

 what has been written so often recur to my memory 

 that I may perhaps be excused for relating one or two. 

 In the eastern portion of County Kilkenny there is a 

 famous fox covert named Bishop's Lough, planted in 

 the great days of Sir John Power by the baronet 

 himself on his own property. It has often happened 

 that, owing to the exigencies of the draw, the late 

 M.F.H. (Mr. Langrishe) elected to approach the covert 

 from the Bennett's Bridge Road. Between the road 

 and cover lies a mile of sound old grass, divided into 

 large fields, but ungated. Consequently the field had 

 this little " school " across the country before reaching 

 the covert, and the fences being easy, be sure they 

 spread themselves well over the fields and took these 

 obstacles almost in line abreast. On arrival at Bishop's 

 Lough the horsemen were swung round the right-hand 

 corner of the gorse and held in position there. Some 

 seasons ago the Bishop's Lough foxes used invariably 

 to go away straight for the road and over the bit of 



