120 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



stand still, and say nothing : if he ride on, he must ride over the ccent ; 

 and if he encourage the hounds, they most probably would run beyond it. 



Wide ridings cut through large woods, render them less exceptionable 

 to sportsmen than they otherwise might be ; yet I do not think that they 

 are of service to hounds : they are taught to shuffle ; and, the fox being 

 frequently headed back, they are put to many faults : the roads are foiled 

 by the horses, and the hounds often interrupted by the horsemen ; such 

 ridings only are advantageous, as enable the servants belonging to the 

 hounds to get to them. 



If a fox should run up the wind when first found, and afterwards turn, 

 he will seldom, if ever, turn again. The observation may not only be of 

 use to your huntsman in his cast, but may be of use to yourself, if you should 

 lose the hounds. 



When you are pursuing a fox over a country, the scent being bad, 

 and the fox a long way before, without ever having been pressed ; if his 

 point should be for strong earths that are open, or for large covers where 

 game is in plenty it may be acting wisely to take off the hounds at the 

 first fault ; for the fox will go many miles to your one, and probably will 

 run you out of all scent ; and, if he should not, you will be likely to change 

 at the first cover you come into. When a fox has been hard pressed, you 

 have already my opinion, that he never should be given up. 



When you would recover a hunted fox, and have no longer scent to 

 hunt him by, a long cast to the first cover which he seems to point for, is 

 the only resource that you have left. Get thither as fast as you can, and 

 then let your hounds try as slowly and as quietly as possible. If hunting 

 after him be hopeless, and a long cast do not succeed, you had better give 

 him up. I need not remind you, when the scent lies badly, and you find 

 it impossible for hounds to run, that you had better return home ; since 

 the next day may be more favourable. It surely is a great fault in a hunts- 

 man to persevere in bad weather, when hounds cannot run, and when 

 there is not a probability of killing a fox. 1 Some there are, who, after 

 they have lost one fox, for want of scent to hunt him by, will find another : 

 this makes their hounds slack, and sometimes vicious : it also disturbs the 

 covers to no purpose. Some sportsmen are more lucky in their days than 

 others. If you hunt every other day, it is possible they may be all bad, 

 and the intermediate days all good : an indifferent pack, therefore, by 

 hunting on good days, may kill foxes, without any merit : and a good 

 pack, notwithstanding all their exertion, may lose foxes which they deserve 

 to kill. Had I a sufficiency of hounds, I would hunt on every good day, 

 and never on a bad one. 2 



1 Though I would not go out on a very windy day, yet a bad scenting day is sometimes of 

 service to a pack of fox-hounds : they acquire patience from it, and method of hunting. 



2 On windy days, or such as are not likely to afford any scent for hounds, it is better, I 



