FOX-HUNTING TYPES 249 



the game when this conies off ; it sometimes comes 

 off several times in a run, but that is exceptional, 

 quite a victory, for he wins all along the line. 



In a former chapter I ventured to consider the 

 subject of "holloas." Now, the holloa of the ex- 

 perienced road-rider is the one the huntsman loves 

 best of all to hear, and, probably recognising the 

 voice, he will come to it like a shot, knowing it to 

 be " gospel." No one has such an opportunity of 

 judging if the fox he views be the hunted one 

 or fresh as the road-rider who has been long at the 

 game. He is not unduly flurried at the moment, and 

 can take a quiet scrutiny ; if he sees him in the next 

 field to the road, he can tell pretty surely if he is the 

 run fox, while if he crosses the road he is on he can 

 make a certainty of the matter. For my experience 

 has taught me that a hunted fox seldom goes straight 

 across a road, which he looks upon, I fancy, as a help 

 to baffle his foes, and he is pretty sure to run along 

 it for a few yards at least before turning into the 

 fields again, and the view one gets of him on the 

 road, when with drooping brush and arched back 

 he shuffles along, settles all doubt as to whether it 

 is prudent to holloa or not. Of course, as was 

 remarked before, it very often happens, particularly 

 in England, that there are two foxes running in 

 front of hounds, but the line of the chase will 

 direct the observant rider as to the advisability 

 of the holloa. 



Please let me here remark that these observa- 

 tions are written without any idea of disparaging 

 the road-rider and his manner of procedure. At 



