FOXES FOXHOUNDS & FOX-HUNTING 



seasons, at one time used a small eighteenth 

 century bugle, which had done service for his 

 ancestors before him. As John Peel was born 

 in 1776 his horn was made probably long before 

 that date. At the time of writing Jim Dalton, 

 the Blencathra huntsman, uses a bugle, but it 

 is a comparatively large affair, like the army bugle. 

 Gradually the circular and curved horns gave 

 way to the straight horn. At first the latter was 

 much longer than it is to-day. The foot hunts- 

 man of the Holcombe Harriers, an old Lancashire 

 pack, carries, or at any rate used to carry, a long 

 straight horn. By degrees horns were cut down 

 until to-day ten inches is the average length. 

 Horn-blowing is really more of a natural gift 

 than an acquired art, although constant practice 

 will as a rule enable the novice to become more 

 or less proficient. No two horns are alike, 

 some being difficult to blow, and others easy. 

 If you happen to drop on one of the latter sorts 

 it pays to treasure it. Frank Gillard, the 

 famous huntsman to the Belvoir, tells in his 

 " Reminiscences" how he picked up a horn of 

 this sort from an old man who at one time hunted 

 hounds in the North of England. He says, 

 " It was a longish copper horn, easy to blow, 

 and full of music." Presentation horns are 

 usually made of silver, but neither the latter nor 

 German silver gives as good a note as copper. 

 To blow a horn properly lips and teeth should be 

 perfectly sound. Many people, amongst them 

 some huntsmen, cannot blow an ordinary horn. 

 In their case the best substitute is a reed-horn, 

 which can be sounded with a breath. It pro- 

 duces a slightly tinny note, but this is infinitely 

 preferable to listening to a series of horrible sounds 

 which many amateur huntsmen produce. Noth- 



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