LETTER XV 



I LEFT off just as I had found the fox : I now, therefore, with your 

 leave, will suppose that the hounds are running him. You desire 

 that I would be more particular with regard to the men : it was always 

 my intention. To begin, then The huntsman ought certainly to set off 

 with his foremost hounds, and I should wish him to keep as close to them 

 afterwards as he conveniently can ; nor can any harm arise from it, unless 

 he should not have common sense. No hounds then can slip down the 

 wind, and get out of his hearing : he will also see how far they carry the 

 scent ; necessary requisite ; for, without it, he never can make a cast 

 with any certainty. 



You will find it not less necessary for your huntsman to be active in 

 pressing his hounds forward, 1 while the scent is good, than to be prudent 

 in not hurrying them beyond it when it is bad. Yours, you say, is a good 

 horseman : it is of the utmost consequence to your sport ; nor is it possible 

 for a huntsman to be of much use who is not ; for the first thing, and the 

 very sine qua non, of a fox-hunter, is to ride up to his headmost hounds. 

 It is his business to be ready at all times to lend them that assistance which 

 they so frequently need, and which, when they are first at a fault, is then 

 most critical. A fox-hound at that time will exert himself most : he after- 

 wards cools, and becomes more indifferent about his game. Those hunts- 

 men who do not get forward enough to take advantage of this eagerness 

 and impetuosity, and direct it properly, seldom know enough of hunting 

 to be of much use to them afterwards. 



You will perhaps find it more difficult to keep your whipper-in back, 

 than to get your huntsman forward ; at least, I always have found it so.* 

 It is, however, necessary ; nor will a good whipper-in leave a cover while 

 a single hound remains in it : for this reason there should be two ; one of 

 whom should always be forward with the huntsman. You cannot conceive 

 the many ills that may happen to hounds that are left behind. I do not 



1 Pressing hounds on, is perhaps a dangerous expression ; as more harm may be done 

 by pressing them beyond the scent, when it is good, than when it is bad. However, it means 

 no more than to get forward the tail hounds, and to encourage the others to push on as fast 

 as they can while the scent serves them. 



2 Though a huntsman cannot be too fond of hunting, a whipper-in easily may. His 

 business will seldom allow him to be forward enough with the hounds to see much of the- 

 sport. His only thought, therefore, should be to keep the hounds together, and to contri- 

 bute as much as he can to the killing of the fox. 



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