OF STEADINESS 107 



inclined to try if I could find any diversion in hunting of fallow deer. I had 

 been told that it would be impossible to do it with those hounds that had 

 been made steady from them ; and, to put it to the trial, I took them into a 

 cover of my own, which has many ridings cut in it, and where are many deer. 

 The first deer that we saw we halloo'd ; and, by great encouragement and 

 constant hallooing, there were but few of these steady hounds but would 

 run the scent. They hunted deer constantly from that day, and never lost 

 one afterwards. Dogs are sensible animals : they soon find out what is 

 required of them, when we do not confuse them by our own heedlessness : 

 when we encourage them to hunt a scent which they have been rated from, 

 and perhaps severely chastised for hunting, they must needs think us cruel, 

 capricious, and inconsistent. 1 



If you know any pack that is very unsteady, depend upon it, either no 

 care has been taken in entering the young hounds, to make them steady, or 

 else the men afterwards, by hallooing them on improperly, and to a wrong 

 scent, have forced them to become so. 



The first day of the season, I advise you to take out your pack where 

 you have least riot, and where you are most sure to find ; for, notwith- 

 standing their steadiness at the end of the last season, long rest may have 

 made them otherwise. If you have any hounds more vicious than the rest, 

 they should be left at home a day or two, till the others are well in blood. 

 Your people, without doubt, will be particularly cautious, at the beginning 

 of the season, what hounds they halloo to : should they be encouraged on a 

 wrong scent, it will be a great hurt to them. 



The first day that you hunt in the forest, be equally cautious what 

 hounds you take out. All should be steady from deer : you may afterwards 

 put others to them, a few at a time. I have seen a pack draw steadily 

 enough, and yet, when running hard, fall on a weak deer, and rest as con- 

 tented as if they had killed their fox. These hounds were not chastised, 

 though caught in the fact, but were suffered to draw on for a fresh fox : I 

 would rather they had undergone severe discipline. The finding of another 

 fox with them afterwards, might then have been of service ; otherwise, in 

 my opinion, it could only serve to encourage them in the vice, and make 

 them worse and worse. 



I must mention an instance of extraordinary sagacity in a fox-beagle 

 that once belonged to the Duke of Cumberland. I entered him at hare, to 

 which he was immediately so steady, that he would run nothing else. When 



1 Though all hounds ought to be made obedient, none require it so much as fox-hounds, 

 for, without it, they will be totally uncontrollable ; yet not all the chastisement that cruelty 

 can inflict, will render them obedient, unless they be made to understand what is required of 

 them : when that is effected, many hounds will not need chastisement, if you do not suffer 

 them to be corrupted by bad example. Few packs are more obedient than my own, yet none, 

 I believe, are chastised less ; for, as those hounds that are guilty of an offence are never par- 

 doned ; so those that are innocent, being by this means less liable to be corrupted, are never 

 punished. 



