THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



' I have always been partial to a good cry in hounds, and 

 listen to it with feelings not confined to fox-hunting. Sounds, 

 by association, become the signs of ideas, and the great variety 

 in the voice of nature must have been designed to meet the 

 peculiar tastes and purposes of the countless multitudes that 

 dwell on the face of the earth. That the cry of hounds is a 

 voluntary noise, proceeding from a powerful organic impulse, 

 is quite apparent, as is also the purpose for which the impulse 

 is given, namely, to announce their having discovered the 

 scent of an animal, either obnoxious to their notice, or desirable 

 as food ; and also by calling their straggling companions 

 together and uniting their forces, tlie better to enable them to 

 secure their prey. On the other hand, here is mercy shown 

 to the prey they are in pursuit of. The tongue of the hound 

 gives notice of his approach ; and he does not pounce upon his 

 victim as the silent greyhound does, which Gratius, in his poem 

 on coursing, alludes to in the following line : 



"Sic canis ilia suos taciturna snpervenit hostes." 



' But the cry of hounds, melodious and heart-stirring as it 

 even now is, has lost much of its poetical interest from the 

 change man has made in the natural organisation of the 

 animal from which it proceeds ; and we shall never again hear 

 of a master of a pack, after the manner of Addison's knight, 

 returning a hound that had been given to him as an " excellent 

 bass," whereas the note he wanted was a " counter tenor." 

 Beckford, however, was something of the worthy knight's 

 opinion on this point, for he says, " If we attended more than 

 we do to the variety of the notes frequently to be met with in 

 the tongues of hounds, it might add greatly to the harmony of 

 the pack." This is well in theory. The natural organisation 

 of the dog is musical ; he is, in fact, a victim to musical 

 sensibility, and we may reasonably suppose that the notes 

 of his companions in the chase may be as pleasing to himself 

 as to his huntsman ; but I do not think a huntsman of this 

 day would draft a highly-bred and beautiful young bitch, as 

 good too as she looks to be, merely because her light fox- 

 hunting: tono-ue mio;ht be somewhat drowned, and now and 

 then lost, in the general chorus of the pack. He would rather 

 say, " Let every tongue be to a fox, and I leave the rest to 

 chance." But on a good day for hearing it (there is a wide 



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