CHAPTER III 



A PLEA FOR INTEREST IN HOUNDS 



" If,"' writes a friend who is a Master of Hounds, 

 " we could only get the people who come out really 

 to care about hounds and their work, half our 

 troubles would be at an end. There would be no 

 over-riding, no heading of foxes through jealousy to 

 get a start, no following about of a huntsman when 

 he is making his cast. People would stand still 

 the moment they see hounds are at fault, and 

 would keep silent. No hounds would be kicked or 

 trampled on, and with the disappearance of jealous 

 riding would come a great reduction of the damage 

 that is done in hot haste to grass-seeds and wheat, 

 and by leaving gates open." 



Another correspondent, writing on the same sub- 

 ject, agrees very thoroughly with some remarks of 

 mine (still more strongly put by Mr. Otho Paget) on 

 the necessity of a course of Beckford for the beginner, 

 and would supplement that by a careful reading of 

 Mr. Thomas Smith's Life of a Fox. " A course of 

 beagling " is recommended by another before the 

 aspiring fox-hunter is allowed to take the field. He 

 writes : " With foot-beagles all who go out seem to 



Sounds Gentlemen, Please. 4 33 



