84 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



than the enjoyment. In this case, reality itself warrants the idea, and 

 your present success is almost a sure forerunner of future sport. 



I remember to have heard an odd anecdote of the late Duke of R ,* 



who was very popular in his neighbourhood : A butcher at Lyndhurst, a 

 lover of the sport, as often as he heard the hounds return from hunting, 

 came out to meet them, and never failed to ask the duke, ' What sport he 

 had ? ' ' Very good, I thank you, honest friend.' ' Has your grace 

 killed a fox ? ' ' No ; we have had a good run, but we have not killed.' 

 ' Pshaw ! ' cried the butcher, looking archly, and pointing at him with 

 his finger. This was so constantly repeated, that the duke, when he had 

 not killed a fox, was used to say, that he was afraid to meet the butcher. 



You ask, Why the huntsman is to draw so quietly ? and, Why up the 

 wind ? With regard to his drawing quietly, that may depend on the kind 

 of cover before him, and also on the season of the year. If your covers be 

 small, or such from which a fox cannot break unseen, then noise can do no 

 hurt ; if you draw at a late hour, and when there is no drag, then the more 

 the cover is disturbed the better the more likely you are to find. Late 

 in the Season, foxes are wild, particularly in covers that are often hunted. 

 If you do not draw quietly, he will sometimes get too much the start of 

 you. When you have any suspicion of this, send on a whipper-in to the 

 opposite side of the cover, before you throw in your hounds. With regard to 

 the drawing up the wind that is much more material. You never fail to 

 give the wind to a pointer and setter why not to a hound ? Besides, the 

 fox, if you draw up the wind, does not hear you coming ; and your hounds, 

 by this means, are never out of your hearing : besides, should he turn down 

 the wind, as most probably he will, it lets them all in. Suppose yourself 

 acting directly contrary to this, and then see what is likely to be the con- 

 sequence. 



You think I am too severe on my brother-sportsmen : if more so than 

 they deserve, I am sorry for it. I know many gentlemen who are excellent 

 sportsmen ; yet I am sorry to say, the greater number of those who ride 

 after hounds are not : and it is those only to whom I allude. Pew gentle- 

 men will take any pains ; few of them will stop a hound, though he should 

 run riot close beside them ; or will stand quiet a moment, though it be to 

 halloo a fox. It is true, they will not fail to halloo if he should come in 

 their way ; and they will do the same to as many foxes as they see. Some 

 will encourage hounds which they do not know : this is a great fault. Were 

 every gentleman who follows hounds to fancy himself a huntsman, what 

 noise, what confusion, would ensue ! I consider many of them as gentle- 

 men riding out ; and I am never so well pleased, as when I see them ride 

 home again. You may perhaps have thought that I wished them all to be 



* l Richmond. 



