104 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



ride over some of the best of them, and put the whole pack into confusion : 

 this is a manoeuvre that I cannot bear to see. 



Have-a-care ! are words which seldom do any harm ; since hounds, 

 when they are on a right scent, will not mind them. Let your whipper-in 

 be careful how he encourage the hounds ; that, improperly done, may spoil 

 your pack. 



A whipper-in will rate a hound, and then endeavour to flog him. A 

 dog, after having been rated, will naturally avoid the whip. Tell your 

 whipper-in whenever a hound shall deserve the lash, to hit him first, and 

 rate him afterwards. 



When there are two whippers-in, one ought alwaj^s to be forward ; when 

 there is only one, he, to be perfect, should be a very Mungo, here, there, and 

 everywhere. 



You will find it difficult to keep your people in their proper places : 

 I have been obliged to stop back myself, to bring on hounds which my ser- 

 vants had left behind. I cannot give you a greater proof how necessary it 

 is that a whipper-in should bring home all his hounds, than by telling you 

 that I had lost an old hound for ten days, and sent all the country over to 

 inquire after him ; and at last, when I thought no more about him, in draw- 

 ing a large cover in the country where he had been lost, he joined the pack : 

 he was exceedingly emaciated, and it was a long time before he recovered. 

 How he subsisted all that time, I cannot imagine. When any of your 

 hounds may be missing, you should send the whipper-in back immediately 

 to look for them : it will teach him to keep them more together. 



The getting forward the tail hounds is a necessary part of fox-hunting, 

 in which you will find a good whipper-in of the greatest use. He must also 

 get forward himself at times, when the huntsman is not with the hounds ; 

 but the second whipper-in (who frequently is a young lad, ignorant of his 

 business) on no account ought to encourage or rate a hound, but when he is 

 quite certain that it is right to do it ; nor is he ever to get forward, so long as 

 a single hound remains behind. 



Halloo forward, is certainly a necessary and a good halloo, but is it 

 not used too indiscriminately ? it is forever in the mouth of a whipper-in. 

 If your hounds be never used to that halloo till after a fox be found, you will 

 see them fly to it. At other times, other halloos will answer the purpose of 

 getting them on as well. Halloo forward being used as soon as the game is 

 on foot, it seems as if another halloo were necessary, to denote the breaking 

 cover. Away ! Away ! might answer that purpose. Gentlemen who are 

 kind enough to stop back to assist hounds, should have notice given them 

 when the hounds leave the cover. 



Most huntsmen, I believe, are jealous of the whipper-in : they frequently 

 look on him as a successor, and therefore do not very readily admit him into 

 the kennel ; yet, in my opinion, it is necessary that he should go thither ; 



