70 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



no matter liow tliey get tlierc, and by running wide, 

 cutting off corners, • and other cunning and dis- 

 honest tricks, they take up the attention of the pack, 

 and more often lead away from the fox than at him, 

 and they cannot be trusted out of sight. It is 

 very curious, but in all my practice the false skirt- 

 ing hounds were by speed of foot always very fast, 

 and the jealous silent ones the same, though the 

 latter were not always skirters. 



A hound may be too free with his tongue, to an 

 extent only that he cannot always be relied on; 

 l)ut a liound may also be ho free as to ''• babble," 

 that is, to fling his tongue on no scent at all, and 

 then this ^' liar" should at once be scouted. 



It is curious to see how soon the pack detects a 

 liar ; and if a babbler is permitted to remain among 

 them, they Avill be down on him, and treat his 

 tongue with the most ineffable contempt. Tims, if 

 by chance the false hound sliould find a fox, and 

 for once by accident tell the truth, not a liound 

 will make up to his assistance, because they cannot 

 l^elieve what their comrade says. 



When commencing my first season in the 

 ^' Oakley country" (Bedfordshire), I l)egan with, I 

 think, under twenty couples of foxhounds from the 



