34 A PLEA FOR INTEREST IN HOUNDS 



understand the game ; even the beginners set to work 

 to learn all about it ; and very seldom do we see the 

 field do anything to interfere in any way with the 

 working of the hounds. An ill-advised holloa may 

 sometimes be heard from an over-excited individual, 

 but, being sternly rebuked, he restrains his ardour 

 and his lungs the next time. No one ever cackles 

 when beagles come to a fault, because every one 

 wants to help the hounds, and knows that the best 

 way to help them is to keep still and silent. "Why 

 should not fox-hunters display the same interest in 

 the hounds they follow?" It is many years since I 

 followed a pack of beagles on foot, and am of opinion 

 that I am unlikely to do so again ; therefore I must 

 leave it to my readers to decide whether the above 

 most desirable picture of the conduct of the field 

 when " beagling " is accurate or not. 



If correct, it is certainly a thousand pities that it 

 is not within the range of practical politics to 

 compel all fox-hunters to begin their hunting career 

 by a course of foot-beagling. And yet I do not know 

 — for, as my friend who advocates the study of Beck- 

 ford remarks, " there are vast numbers whose obser- 

 vation is not sufficient to guide them," and I am 

 afraid I know at least a couple of malefactors — as 

 a certain M.F.H. would call them — who, I believe, 

 go out constantly with beagles, yet whose tongues 

 are never silent at a check with foxhounds. And, 

 apropos of the "cackling" at a check, I am abso- 

 lutely convinced that much of the chatter that goes 

 on is caused by a desire on the part of the chat- 

 terers to let all the world know that they are " up 



