HORNS, HOLLOAS, DOG LANGUAGE 83 



ance sounds it when he views a fox across a ride. 

 I cannot think this unusual call desirable and 

 have myself seen it bring hounds out of covert, 

 while the field, not understanding it, catch up their 

 reins and gallop along the covert sides, creating 

 sometimes a certain amount of confusion. The 

 huntsman who uses it, however, believes that hounds 

 are thereby stimulated to get together and press 

 their fox. He, moreover, believes in the horn as an 

 inspiriting adjunct of the chase, and uses the instru- 

 ment more freely than many of his fraternity, both in 

 and out of covert ; yet his capability as a huntsman 

 is undeniable. 



Then there is that long-drawn, melancholy note (of 

 which I have written before), when the covert is 

 blank — melancholy, but necessary, and, of necessity, 

 melancholy. That, too, should not be varied ; all 

 huntsmen should blow it in the same way, if only 

 for the information of the field, all the world over 

 or " where'er the English tongue is spoke," which is 

 pretty much the same thing ; and, as a matter of 

 fact, there are few parts of the world where the 

 sound of the English hunting-horn has not been 

 heard. The sharp " twit, twit," telling that hounds 

 are all on, is another of the general calls that admit 

 of no variation, and are known to all hunt servants 

 and, I imagine, to all fox-hunters. 



But I have heard considerable variety in the 

 sounds given forth when the fox goes to ground, or 

 lies dead surrounded by the baying pack. Yet it 

 seems to me that there also there should be no 

 uncertainty, but that all should know the sound of a 



