124 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



advantage, next to that of knowing whither the fox is gone, is that of 

 knowing with certainty whither he is not. 



Most huntsmen like to have all their hounds turned after them when 

 they make a cast : I wonder not at them for it, but I am always sorry 

 when I see it done ; for, till I find a huntsman that is infallible, I shall 

 continue to think the more my hounds spread the better : as long as they 

 are within sight or hearing, it is sufficient. Many a time have I seen an 

 obstinate hound hit off the scent, when an obstinate huntsman, by casting 

 the wrong way, has done all in his power to prevent it. Two foxes I 

 remember to have seen killed in one day by skirting hounds, while the 

 huntsman was making his cast the contrary way. 



When hounds, running* in cover, come into a road, and horses are on 

 before, let the huntsman hold them quickly on beyond where the horses 

 have been, trying the opposite side as he goes along : should the horsemen 

 have been long enough there to have headed back the fox, let them then try 

 back. Condemn me not for suffering hounds to try back when the fox has 

 been headed back : I recommend it at no other time. 



When your hounds divide into many parts, you had better go off with 

 the first fox that breaks. The ground will soon get tainted ; nor will 

 hounds like a cover where they are often changing. 



If a cover be very large, and you have many scents, be not in a hurry 

 to get your hounds together ; if your pack be numerous, let them run 

 separate, only taking care that none get away entirely from the rest : 

 by this means many foxes will be equally distressed ; the hounds will get 

 together at last ; and one for, at the least, you may expect to kill. 



The heading a fox back at first, if the cover be not a large one, is often- 

 times of service to hounds, as he will not stop, and cannot go off unseen. 

 When a fox has been hard-run, I have known it turn out otherwise ; and 

 hounds that would easily have killed him out of the cover, have left him 

 in it. 



If it be not your intention that a fox should break, you should prevent 

 him, I think, as much as you can, from coming at all out of the cover ; for, 

 though you should head him back afterwards, it most probably would 

 put the hounds to a fault. When a pack of fox-hounds once leave a cover 

 after their game, they do not readily return to it again. 



When a fox has been often headed back on one side of a cover, and 

 a huntsman knows there is not anybody on the other side to halloo him, 

 the first fault his hounds come to, let him cast that way, lest the fox should 

 be gone off ; and, if he be still in the cover, he may still recover him. 



Suffer not your huntsman to take out a lame hound. If any be tender- 

 footed, he will tell you, perhaps, that they will not mind it when they are 

 out : probably they may not ; but how will they^be on the next day ? 

 A hound not in condition to run, cannot be of ] much service to the pack ; 



