CHAPTER VI 



HORNS, HOLLOAS, AND DOG LANGUAGE 



" The horn of the huntsman is heard on the hill," 

 exclaims the impassioned lover in the Irish ballad to 

 his sleeping mistress ; and it is to be hoped that the 

 appeal was successful, and that the fair Kathleen 

 awoke from her slumbers, got dressed, and mounted 

 in time to see the fox found. 



Much mention has been made of horns whenever it 

 has pleased poets to sing of the chase, and not even 

 Anstruther Thomson's penchant for the whistle has 

 been the means of introducing that instrument to the 

 favour of huntsmen, who still stick to the time- 

 honoured " foot of tin," copper, or silver, and use it 

 more or less sparingly, each according to his idea as 

 to the utility of the sounds he produces. Unlike our 

 Gallic and other Continental friends, we have no 

 hard-and-fast rules for the use of the horn. No Moot, 

 Recheat, Prise, or Menee as in olden time to mark 

 with musical honours the different episodes of the 

 chase. In our hunting-fields the noises made by the 

 huntsman's horn are often discordant enough, and I 

 do not think as much attention is given to this art 



78 



