THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



' Without entering into the wide range of hunting, the 

 following maxims may be observed with advantage by a 

 huntsman : — 



' In drawing for your fox don't be persuaded always to draw 

 up wind. In the first place you are in danger of chopping 

 your fox ; secondly, he is almost sure then to go down wind at 

 starting; and thirdly, you may drive him into the worst part 

 of your country, or from his point. (I am, of course, sup- 

 posing your pack to be quite steady, otherwise drawing up 

 wind is more desirable, as, should any riot be going on down 

 wind, the voice of the huntsman will better reach the oflenders.) 

 When found, get after him as quickly as possible, if you have 

 a body of hounds with you, if not, you will have a better 

 chance of a run if you wait a little until the body come up. 

 This is easily done, either by horn or halloo, if hounds are 



He should let his hounds alone when they can hunt, and he should have genius 

 to assist them -when they cannot." Perhaps more than this cannot be expected 

 from humanity. Can we give a man higher qualifications than a clear head, 

 nice observation, undaunted courage, an accurate ear, and a lynx's eye, together 

 with a quick perception, endowed with ready impulses for acting so necessary to 

 each ? That he should be fond of his profession and indefatigable in tiie pursuit 

 of it ; sober and exact, sensible and good-tempered. It is not necessary that 

 either a huntsman or a soldier should be a man of letters ; some of the former 

 have been scarcely able to read, and there iiave been but few Ca?sars who coiild 

 both fight and w-rite ; but a good and sound understanding is put to the test both 

 by the one and the other ; and each requires, in addition to such an undertaking, 

 a manly exertion of talent. With respect to gentlenien-liuntsmen, there cannot 

 be a doubt that no man enjoys hunting to perfection equally with him who hunts 

 his own hounds ; nor can there be any reason assigned why an educated gentle- 

 man should not excel in any ardent and highly scientific pursuit, which hunting 

 is allowed to be, an uneducated servant. Nevertheless it does admit of a doubt 

 whether, throughout the fox-hunting world in general, gentlemen-huntsmen have 

 been so popular as might have been expected ; and in a few countries that have 

 been hunted by subscription an exception has been taken against the master of 

 the pack being the huntsman. That it is a laborious oflice when efficiently per- 

 formed, both in the kennel and the field, is well known to those who have hlled 

 it, but, labor ipse voluntas, a painstaking zeal is often disjjlayed by the master, 

 which has been wanting in the servant ; and it was the remark of a certain noble- 

 man that, after the first fox, his huntsman was more disposed to find his dinner 

 than a second. In a well-known ' ' diary " lately published, a perfect huntsman is 

 thusdescribed : " He should possess the following qualifications : health, memory, 

 decision, temper, and patience, voice and sight, courage and spirits, perseverance 

 and activity," which requisites a still later writer on the " noble science " seems 

 to think are oftener found in the gentleman than the servant. The first -named 

 writer pithily observes, that, with the attributes he awards to him, a huntsman 

 will soon make a bad pack a good one. If quick, he will make a slow pack 

 quick ; if slow, he will make a quick pack slow.' 



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