LETTER XIX 



FINDING, by your last letter, that an early hour does not suit you, I 

 will mention some particulars which may be of use to you when you 

 hunt late : An early hour is only necessary where covers are large and foxes 

 scarce : where they are in plenty, you may hunt at any hour you please. 

 When foxes are weak, by hunting late you have better chases : when they 

 are strong, give me leave to tell you, you must hunt early, or you will not 

 always kill them. I think, however, when you go out late, you should go 

 immediately to the place where you are most likely to find, which, generally 

 speaking, is the cover that hounds have been least in. If the cover be large, 

 you should draw only such parts of it as a fox is likely to kennel in : it is 

 useless to draw any other at a late hour : besides, though it be always right 

 to find as soon as you can, yet it can never be so necessary as when the day 

 is far advanced. If you do not find soon, a long and tiresome day is gener- 

 ally the consequence. Where the cover is thick, you should draw it as 

 exactly as if you were trying for a hare, particularly if it be furzy ; for 

 when there is no drag, a fox, at a late hour, will lie till the hounds come close 

 upon him. Having drawn one cover, let your huntsman stay for his hounds, 

 and take them along with him to another : I have known hounds find a 

 fox after the huntsman had left the cover. The whippers-in are not to be 

 sparing of their whips or voices on this occasion, and are to come through 

 the middle of the cover, to be certain that they leave no hounds behind, j 



A huntsman will complain of hounds, for staying behind in cover : it 

 is a great fault, and makes the hound addicted to it of but little value ; yet 

 this fault frequently is occasioned by the huntsman's own mismanagement. 

 Having drawn one cover, he hurries away to another, and leaves the whipper- 

 in to bring on the hounds after him ; but the whipper-in is seldom less desir- 

 ous of getting forward than the huntsman ; and, unless they come off easily 

 it is not often that he will give himself much concern about them. Hounds 

 also that are left too long at their walks, will acquire this trick from hunting 

 by themselves, and are not easily broken of it. Having said all that I can 

 at present recollect of the duty of a whipper-in, I shall now proceed to give 

 you a further account of that of a huntsman. What has already been said 

 on the subject of drawing and casting, related to the fox-chase described in 

 a former Letter. Much, without doubt, is still left to say : and I will 

 endeavour, as well as I am able, to supply the deficiency, by considering, 



