92 NIM ROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



drawing up wind, one of which is good ; the other, good for no- 

 thing. " If you draw up wind," says he, " the fox does not hear 

 you coming, and your hounds, by this means, are never out of 

 your hearing ; besides, if he turns down wind, as most probably 

 he will, it lets them all in." His first position, of the pack being 

 within hearing, is a correct one ; his second, of the chances in 

 favour of the line the fox takes, is not so. A fox found by hounds 

 never consults the wind till he is more or less pressed ; his first 

 object is his point, which he will make if he can. 



Again if a fox gets a little start of hounds, out of cover, the 

 circumstance itself is more in favour of a run than when he is 

 drawn up to in his kennel, and breaks with the pack at his 

 brush. With the present greyhound-like speed of hounds, and 

 with even a tolerable scent, he is soon driven from his point ; 

 runs short or gets into a drain ; or else is run into in the first 

 ten minutes to the great disappointment of the field, particularly 

 where foxes are scarce. But with all my admiration of Beck- 

 ford, he was evidently a mobber of foxes, and such by his own 

 showing. " A fair sportsman," says he, " and a foolish sports- 

 man are synonymous. Sport is but a secondary consideration 

 with a true foxhunter ; the first is, the killing of the fox. I con- 

 fess, I esteem blood, so necessary to a pack of foxhounds, that, 

 with regard to myself, I always return home better pleased with 

 an indifferent chase, with death at the end of it, than with the 

 best chase possible, if it ends with the loss of the fox." My 

 sentiments on the subject of blood have been so often before the 

 public, that it is unnecessary to repeat them here, but they are 

 not in accordance with Mr. Beckford's. 



Although the finding a fox handsomely is no light accomplish- 

 ment in a huntsman, it is in the various difficulties which occur 

 in the chase that his ability is chiefly displayed. In Williamson's 

 country these difficulties abound. It is much stained by sheep, 

 and infested by sheep-dogs ; it contains every variation of soil 

 some very good, some very bad, each perhaps in the space of a 

 mile ; and the frequent strips of plantations cause foxes to run 

 short. From the numerous covers, he is also liable to change. 

 With these difficulties, however, Williamson contends with a 

 master hand. His approach to his hounds, when at fault, 

 pleased me much. He trots up to them with an anxious but 

 scrutinizing eye, and after a rapid glance at what they are doing, 

 pulls up his horse, dead, and with his hand raised in the air, 

 calls to his field to " STAND STILL." He is not at all in a hurry; 

 I never saw him refuse to give his hounds a chance, so long as 

 a chance remained ; but I saw two instances of his taking them 

 to their fox in a very superior manner, when, but for him, he 



