86 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



of cliase, according to the supposition of its 

 musician. 



If you cxjDCct to have a first-rate pack of fox- 

 hounds, you must consider the nature of the 

 animal, and every proclivity he possesses. You 

 must not overtax the spirit and power of limb in 

 your hounds, for if you do you will at last make 

 them so slack that they will refuse to ivorh under 

 difficulties^ and always fail to make a fair or goodj 

 day out of what bids fair, from surrounding circum- 

 stances, at starting to he a had one. To make a 

 good day's sjoort, with a fox at the end of it, out 

 of a very indifferent beginning, I hold to be the 

 greatest feather in a huntsman's cap. To find a 

 flying fox with a very bad scent, yet to hold his 

 line till lie heats himself hj his own swift pace and 

 his fears, and gradually makes the scent better by 

 falling hack into greater proximity to his j^ursuers, 

 is to a huntsman, or it ought to be, the greatest 

 possible gratification. I have killed a fox on a day 

 of this sort, when for miles the hounds could only 

 speak to the line at the hedges. On other 

 occasions, I have ^^ guessed a fox to death," by 

 liolding on and hitting him here and there, till I 

 have come up with Inm wearied out with his own 



