THE ART ITSELF 165 



not advise it on the first occasion, but to do 

 it the second time is unfair on covert-owners, 

 keepers, and the members of your hunt. By 

 the first or second week in October you will 

 probably have completed the round, and you 

 may then look forward to some fun ; but con- 

 tinue to meet at an early hour — say not later than 

 8.30. The morning is the time when you have 

 the greatest advantage over a fox, for then he 

 has not had many hours to digest his food, and, 

 like other animals, he is not in the best of wind 

 with a full stomach. 



Still confine your attention to cubs, and go 

 away with the last. Your field will be growing 

 larger every day, and of course they want to 

 have a gallop, so that you cannot always trust 

 their opinion as to what is or what is not an 

 old fox. You would also like a good gallop 

 quite as much as they would, but they are 

 responsible only for their own pleasure of the 

 moment, and on you rests the future prospects 

 of the season, 



I have thus far been addressing myself to a 

 young man who has just taken a country, and 

 who is hunting hounds himself, in which strain 



