SCKNT AND SMELL CONTKASTED. 307 



There is an old song, that old men, when I 

 began life, used to sing, and in which ^^ catch" 

 I have joined wlien singing round the table was 

 in fashion, in tlie truth of which my seniors 

 seemed to believe ; but, though there may be 

 ^^ truth in wine," I very soon found that ^' the 

 southerly wind and cloudy sky" was as fallacious 

 as a good many more of their antiquated notions. 

 In later days the practice of my liuntsman's life 

 has taught me that the probability of there being 

 a scent lies in the wind having something 

 northerly in it, — and at one of the best runs known 

 in Leicestershire 'Hhe wind was at north-east, 

 forbiddingly keen," — and, take my hunting life 

 through, I have seen, as a rule, worse scents in a 

 southerly wind than when the wind was in any 

 other point of the compass. 



A partial frost in the night, or early in tlie 



morning, which had thawed before noon, and 



rendered the surface of the fields ^^ greasy," soapy, 



or in a clinging state, to be picked up by the 



feet of fox or hare, and carried on, that is 



decidedly opposed to the chance of scent. But in 



a dry, cold afternoon, with a frost in the air 



about to set in that night, then I have often 



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