HINTS TO THE HUNTSMAN 121 



A perfect knowledge of his country, certainly, is a great help to a 

 huntsman : if yours, as yet, should have it not, great allowance ought to 

 be made. The trotting away with hounds, to make a long and knowing 

 cast, is a privilege which a new huntsman cannot pretend to : an experienced 

 one may safely say, A fox has made for such a cover when he has known, 

 perhaps, that nine out of ten, with the wind in the same quarter, have 

 constantly gone thither. 



In a country where there are large earths, a fox that knows the coun- 

 try, and tries any of them, seldom fails to try the rest. A huntsman may 

 take advantage of this : they are certain casts, and may help him to get 

 nearer to his fox. 



Great caution is necessary when a fox runs into a village : if he be 

 halloo'd there, get forward as fast as you can. Foxes, when tired, will 

 lie down anywhere, and are often lost by it. A wide cast is not the best 

 to recover a tired fox with tired hounds : they should hunt him out, inch 

 by inch, though they are ever so long about it, for the reason I have just 

 given, that he will lie down anywhere. 



In chases and forests, where high fences are made to preserve the 

 coppices, I like to see a huntsman put only a few hounds over, enough to 

 carry on the scent, and get forward with the rest : it is a proof that he 

 knows his business. 



A huntsman must take care, where foxes are in plenty, lest he should 

 run the heel ; for it frequently happens, that hounds can run the wrong 

 way of the scent better than they can the right, when one is up the wind, 

 and the other down. 



Fox-hunters, I think, are never guilty of the fault of trying up the 

 wind before they have tried down : I have known them lose foxes, rather 

 than condescend to try up the wind at all. 



When a huntsman hears a halloo, and has five or six couple of hounds 

 along with him, the pack not running, let him get forward with those which 

 he has : when they are on the scent, the others will soon join them. 



Let him lift his tail hounds, and get them forward after the rest ; it 

 can do no hurt : but let him be cautious in lifting any hounds, to get them 

 forward before the rest ; it always is dangerous, and foxes are sometimes 

 lost by it. 



When a fox runs his foil in cover, if you suffer all your hounds to hunt 

 on the line of him, they will foil the ground, and tire themselves to little 

 purpose. I have before told you that your huntsman, at such a time, may 

 stop the tail hounds, and throw them in at head : I am almost inclined 



think, to send them to be exercised on the turnpike-road ; it will do them less harm than 

 hunting with them might do ; and more good than if they were to remain confined in their 

 kennel ; for though nothing makes hounds so handy as taking them out often, nothing inclines 

 them to so much riot, as taking them out to hunt when there is little or no scent, and particu- 

 larly on windy days, when they cannot hear one another. 



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