112 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



they do not draw well ; your huntsman, therefore, must be particularly 

 attentive to them after a wet night. The best drawing hounds are shy 

 of searching a cover when it is wet : yours, if care be not taken, will not 

 go into it at all. Your huntsman should ride into the likeliest part of the 

 cover ; and, as it is probable there will be no drag, the closer he draws the 

 better : he must not draw too much an end, but should cross the cover 

 backwards and forwards, taking care, at the same time, to give his hounds 

 as much the wind as possible. 1 



It is not often that you will see a pack perfectly steady where there 

 is much riot, and yet draw well : some hounds will not exert themselves 

 till others challenge, and are encouraged. 2 



I fear the many harriers that you have in your neighbourhood will 

 be hurtful to your sport : by constantly disturbing the covers, they will 

 make the foxes shy, and when the covers become thin, there will be but 

 little chance of finding foxes in them : furze-covers are then the most likely 

 places. Though I like not to see a huntsman to a pack of fox-hounds ever 

 off his horse, yet, at a late hour, he should draw a furze-cover as slowly 

 as if he were himself on foot. I am well convinced that huntsmen, by 

 drawing in too great a hurry, leave foxes sometimes behind them. I once 

 saw a remarkable instance of it with my own hounds : we had drawn 

 (as we thought) a cover, which, in the whole, consisted of about ten acres ; 

 yet, whilst the huntsman was blowing his horn to get his hounds off, one 

 young fox was halloo'd, and another was seen immediately after : it was 

 a cover on the side of a hill, and the foxes had kennelled close together at 

 an extremity of it, where no hound had been. Some huntsmen draw too 

 quick, some too slow. The time of day, the behaviour of his hounds, 

 and the covers that they are drawing, will direct an observing huntsman 

 in the pace which he ought to go. When you try a furze-brake, let me 

 give you one caution never halloo a fox till you see that he is quite clear 

 of it. When a fox is found in such places, hounds are sure to go off well 

 with him ; and it must be owing either to bad scent, bad hounds, bad 

 management, or bad luck, if they fail to kill him afterwards. 



It is usual, in most packs, to rate, as soon as a young hound challenges. 

 Though young hounds are often wrong, yet, since it is not impossible that 

 they may be sometimes right, is it not as well to have a little patience, in 

 order to see whether any of the old ones will join, before anything is said 

 to them ? Have-a-care ! is fully sufficient, till you are more certain that 

 the hound is on a wrong scent. I mention this as a hint only : I am myself 



1 Hounds that are hunted constantly at an early hour, seldom, I think, draw well : they 

 depend too much upon a drag, and it is not in the strongest part of the cover that they are 

 accustomed to try for it. 



2 This relates to making hounds steady only, which always causes confusion, and inter- 

 rupts drawing. When once a pack are become steady, they will be more likely to draw well 

 than if they were not. 



