xvi INTRODUCTION 



hounds out of covert with the old-fashioned curved horn. That instrument 

 gave a more tuneful note than the straight horn, as" we learn from Beckford's 

 assurance that it is ' not as a musician ' he prefers the latter ; but it is 

 equally evident that the curved horn emitted a note less carrying or less 

 penetrating than the straight, whence the superiority of the latter for use 

 in large coverts. 



Beckford's advice as to the feeding of hounds holds good to the present 

 day ; but in one respect he had an advantage. He used to send his hounds 

 (Letter IV) twice a week in summer to get whey ; the practice of giving 

 whey has perforce been abandoned, but experienced huntsmen regret 

 the change of conditions which prevents them from giving whey or butter- 

 milk to their hounds. The late Mr. Robert Watson, Master of the Carlow, 

 1845-1904, used it as long as he could obtain supplies. Will Dale (Bad- 

 minton) describes it as an old-fashioned thing but good ; he would use 

 it if he could get the whey. Ben Capel (Belvoir) ' would be only too 

 glad to get hold of butter-milk or dairy offal, if he could get enough ; it is 

 a rare good thing for hounds, makes their coats shine.' Capel has used 

 it at times. On the other hand, some huntsmen have never heard of whey 

 being used in the kennels ; dairy methods in recent years have undergone 



chahges and the ' offal ' finds a ready market for other purposes. 



***** 



Beckford's introductory remarks about hare-hunting are at variance 

 with all that follows. Although he kept harriers for many years, he was 

 ' by inclination never a hare-hunter ' ; he ' followed the diversion more 

 for air and exercise than amusement,' and if he could have persuaded 

 himself to hack three miles out and home on the turnpike road he should 

 have thought he had no need of a pack of harriers. He proceeds to qualify 

 this sweeping assertion before he begins his course of instruction on hare- 

 hunting. These pages are as full of good counsel as those on fox-hunting ; 

 his advice betrays the same spirit of thoroughness, the same close observa- 

 tion, in a word the same sportsmanlike keenness as that on fox-hunting ; 

 no man who had hunted harriers ' for air and exercise ' could possibly 

 have acquired such knowledge as he possessed. The simple explanation 

 of those disparaging remarks is that they are written by the convert. It 

 is the fox-hunter asserting his superiority over the hare-hunter ; now he 

 knows what fox-hunting is he would as soon hack three miles along the 

 road and back again as hunt harriers ! Hare-hunting is all very well as a 

 means of getting up an appetite for dinner ; but compared with fox-hunt- 

 ing - ! Had the correspondent to whom the Letters were addressed been 

 real instead of imaginary, we can picture him writing back to inquire why, 

 if Beckford held hare-hunting in such poor esteem, he still maintained 

 that thirty-acre warren in which he kept a stock of hares ; being a figment 

 he was not allowed to ask inconvenient questions. 



