NIMROUS NORTHERN TOUR. 91 



should be a Cicero," Williamson's should, for the same reason, be 

 a Williamson. He may have his faults (and where is human 

 nature found perfect ?), but, inasmuch as experience is said to 

 make even a fool wise, it is next to a physical impossibility, that 

 a man possessed of an understanding so naturally clear, a man 

 of such quick apprehension, and so clear-sighted a discerner of 

 circumstances, as one hour's conversation with Williamson plainly 

 shows him to be it is, I repeat, next to a physical impossibility 

 that, at the end of thirty-two years' experience of hunting, he is 

 not a master of his art. There are peculiarities in his system 

 which have been noticed, and to which I may slightly allude. 

 He has been described as a slack drawer of his covers, " not 

 going into them, as he should do, with his hounds ;" and he has 

 also been blamed for always drawing down wind. \Vith respect 

 to the first charge, if hounds will draw without it, it is a cruel 

 practice to ride horses into thick gorse covers, as the appearance 

 of their knees and legs too plainly shows on the morrow. The 

 question then is Does Williamson find his foxes as often as he 

 ought to find them, or does he draw over them ? As far as my 

 experience went, there was no lack of foxes on foot ; and as he 

 seldom kills less than fifty brace of them in the season, and 

 sometimes more, his -country must be well peopled with them in- 

 deed if he draws over many. 



As to the charge of " always drawing his covers down wind," 

 it is not true. I saw him draw several up wind, or with a side 

 wind, although I believe the first is his general practice, and was 

 that of his first master, Mr. Baird. It is, however, by no means a 

 settled point amongst sportsmen that covers should be always 

 drawn up wind ; but two things are quite certain. Many good 

 foxes xvon't wait to be found if drawn upon down wind, and there- 

 fore have an advantage over hounds ; and many are chopped 

 in their kennel asleep, or killed by jumping up in the middle of 

 the pack, by drawing up wind. What did I witness the very 

 last time Mr. Osbalctiston's hounds drew Parson's-gorse, in the 

 (Ouorn) Widmerpool country, when drawing up wind ? A fine 

 bitch fox killed with six whelps in her belly, having suffered 

 every hound to pass over her, when asleep. When she did get 

 out of her kennel she could not break view ; but this proves that 

 the advantage of encouraging hounds to draw gorse by the drag 

 was here sought for in vain. Neither fox nor hare emit a scent 

 of much avail to hounds, when either in kennel or on the seat. 



It appeared to me that Williamson was very fair to his foxes 

 no mobber of them for the sake of the noses on the door. The 

 very act of his so often drawing down wind confirms this, as it is 

 evidently in favour of his fox. Beckford gives two reasons for 



