BREEDING AND HUNTING OF FOXHOUNDS. 87 



speed, and waiting to be killed. Such results as 

 these cannot be accomplished with hounds made 

 slack by overwork, nor by a want of consideration 

 from their master. The huntsman mitst persevere 

 when once his fox is on foot, be that fox inclined to 

 hang in cover or not. Hounds should, like the 

 British soldier, '^ never know when they are 

 beaten," and from never having been trifled with, 

 neglected, nor deceived, they should have, and 

 they will have, the fullest confidence in and love 

 for their huntsman, under all the circumstances of 

 weather, scent, or over-riding. 



It has fallen to my lot to see a fox killed after 

 a run long enough and fast enough to satisfy 

 any man who rode it; and then, instead of the 

 hounds being taken home on blood from a well- 

 deserved fox, I have known them made to draw 

 again in some very uncertain covers, and when 

 there was not more than an hour's daylight left 

 to run a fox, if found. I have seen some of 

 the young hounds out on such occasions run riot, 

 and instead of leaving off triumpliantly on the 

 blood of a fox, as they might have done, they 

 then had to be rated and struck, and in the 

 end taken home with a hare in their minds, 



