Cub-hunting and After 



try ? If there be, ne'er shall he hunt again. There 

 Trueman is on the scent ; he feathers, yet is doubt- 

 ful still. How readily they join him ! See those 

 wide-casting hounds ; they fly forward to recover 

 lost ground! Mind Lightning, how she dashes; 

 and Mungo, how he works ! Frantic now pushes 

 forward ; she knows as well as we the fox is sink- 

 ing. . . . Huntsman ! at fault at last ! How far 

 did you bring the scent ? Have the hounds made 

 their own cast ? Now make yours. You see 

 that sheep-dog has coursed the fox : get forward 

 with hounds, and make a wide cast. Scent begins 

 to fail ; you must not let them hunt ; with the 

 scent so cold you can do no good — they must do 

 it all themselves. 



'^ Let them now, and not a hound will stoop again. 

 Ha ! a highroad at such a time as this, when the 

 tenderest-nosed hound can hardly own the scent ! 

 Another fault ! That man at work, then, has 

 headed back the fox. Huntsman ! cast not thy 

 hounds now ; they have overrun the scent ; have 

 a little patience, and let them, for once, try back. 

 See where they bend towards yonder furze brake ! 

 I wish he may have stopped there ! Mind that 

 old hound, how he dashes o'er the furze ; I think 

 he winds him ! Aye, there he goes ! Now he 

 cannot escape us he is in the very strongest part 

 of the cover. How short he runs ! He is now in 

 the thickest of the covert ; every hound is running 



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