BLOODING THEM TO FOX 43 



names, to the huntsman, and to the whipper-in. They are walked out 

 often among sheep, hares, and deer : it uses them to a rate. Sometimes 

 he turns down a cat before them, which they hunt up to, and kill ; and, 

 when the time of hunting approaches, he turns out badgers, or young foxes, 

 taking out some of the steadiest of his old hounds to lead them on : this 

 teaches them to hunt. He draws small covers and furze brakes with them, 

 to use them to a halloo, and to teach them obedience. If they find improper 

 game, and hunt it, they are stopped and brought back'; and as long as 

 they will stop at a rate, they are not chastised. Obedience is all that is 

 required of them, till they have been sufficiently taught the game that 

 they are to pursue : an obstinate deviation from it afterwards is never 

 pardoned. It is an observation of the Marchese Beccaria, that ' La certezza 

 di un castigo, benche moderate, fara sempre una maggiore impressione, 

 che non il timore di un altro piu terribile, unito colla speranza, della 'impu- 

 nita.' 1 



When my young hounds are taken out to air, my huntsman takes 

 them into that country in which they are designed to hunt. It is attended 

 with this advantage : they acquire a knowledge of the country, and, when 

 left behind at any time, cannot fail to find their way home more easily. 



When they begin to hunt, they are first taken into a large cover of 

 my own, which has many ridings cut in it, and where young foxes are turned 

 out every year on purpose for them. Here they are taught the scent that 

 they are to follow, are encouraged to pursue it, and are stopped from every 

 other. Here they are blooded to fox. I must also tell you, that, as foxes 

 are plentiful in this cover, the principal earth is not stopped ; and the 

 foxes are checked back, or some of them let in, as may best suit the purpose 

 of blooding. After they have been hunted a few days in this manner, 

 they are then sent to more distant covers, and more old hounds are added 

 to them : there they continue to hunt, till they are taken into the pack, 

 which is seldom later than the beginning of September ; for by that time 

 they will have learned what is required of them, and they seldom give much 

 trouble afterwards. 2 In September I begin to hunt in earnest ; and after 

 the old hounds have killed a few foxes, the young hounds are put into the 

 pack, two or three couple at a time, till all have hunted. They are then 

 divided ; and as I seldom have occasion to take in more than nine or ten 

 couple, one half are taken out one day, the other half the next, till all are 

 steady. 



Two other methods of entering young hounds I have practised occasion- 

 ally, as the number of hounds have required ; for instance, if that number 



* J The certainty of only moderate chastisement will always be more effectual than the fear 

 of severer punishment combined with hope of total escape. 



2 Sport, in fox-hunting, cannot be said to begin before October ; but, in the two preceding 

 months, a pack is either made or marred. 



