116 ON BLOODING HOUNDS 



all wrong, you know," I heard a young gentleman 

 explain at the beginning of the present season ; " no 

 one should ever dig a morning fox ! " Whether this 

 extraordinary maxim was hatched in his own callow 

 brain or not I am unable to say, but shortly after 

 on the same day, I heard it gravely repeated, and 

 once with quite a serious air by a lady. 



I have searched my Thoughts on Hunting, by one 

 Peter Beckford, for a confirmation of this opinion 

 without success, nor can I find anything to that effect 

 in Somerville's The Chase, though these two works 

 contain, I think, all the information that most men 

 require on the subject of hunting ; indeed, a friend 

 of mine is wont to declare that no man should pass 

 an opinion on hunting subjects who cannot pass an 

 examination on Beckford. 



But this matter of the digging brings me back to 

 my subject — the necessity for blood and the means 

 of obtaining it ; and for the present at least let us 

 put on one side all silly criticisms and sentimental 

 twaddle. I have inquired lately from a good many 

 efficient huntsmen and masters of hounds their 

 opinions as to the necessary for blooding hounds, 

 and the amount of blood that they require to keep 

 them really up to concert pitch ; and it seems to be 

 agreed that each pack ought to have at least one 

 fox a week to produce the desired results. 



So very few of those who go out hunting in these 

 days take the slightest atom of interest in hounds, 

 that no wonder one hears strange things said in the 

 hunting-field ; but it is a great pity that this should 

 be so, and the folk that are to be pitied are the 



