THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



under good command, and the convenient opportunity is seized 

 upon, and a whipper-in is in his riglit place. Keep near your 

 hounds in chase, with your eye on the body ot" the pack, as 

 well as on such as may be leading ; the body are more certain 

 to be riglit. Next to knowing wdiere a fox is gone, is knowing 

 where he is not gone ; therefore in your casts always make 

 good the head. This you will do for your satisfaction ; but 

 hounds are seldom at fault for the scent ahead, when the 

 chase has been at all warm, that is, on a fair scenting day ; 

 for if the fox be gone forward wherefore the fault ? Good 

 hounds will seldom or never leave a scent ahead unless the 

 ground be stained by sheep or cattle, or when the chase leads 

 over dry ploughed land, hard and dry roads, and so forth. It 

 is high odds that your fox has turned to the right or to the 

 left ; but, although his point may be back, he cannot well run 

 his foil from the number of horsemen that are generally in the 

 rear of hounds. Recollect j'our first check is generally the 

 most fatal to sport, and for these reasons : your hounds are 

 fresh, and perhaps a little too eager ; they may have overrun 

 the scent for some distance, owing to having been pressed upon 

 by the horses, which are also at this time fresh ; nor will they 

 always get their heads down so soon as they should do, from 

 the same exciting causes. Again, your check now generally 

 arises from a short turn, the fox having been previously forced 

 from a point which he now resolves to make ; and he will 

 make it at all hazard at certain times. When your hounds 

 first throw up, leave them alone if they can hunt ; but, disre- 

 garding what some of the " old ones " say on this subject, as 

 inapplicable to these faster times, don't be long before you 

 take hold of them, and assist them, if they cannot. I w^ould 

 not go from scent to view ; yet hounds that will not bear 

 lifting are not worth having, for lifted they must be over stain 

 of sheep or cattle ; for, as Beckford observes, " it is the judi- 

 cious encouraging of hounds to hunt, when they cannot run, 

 and the preventing their losing time by hunting too much, 

 that distinguish a good huntsman from a bad one." But do 

 all this quietly as well as quickly. Turn your horse's head 

 towards the line you think your fox is gone ; and the first 

 moment you see all their heads up, that is, if they do not hit 

 him ofi", put 3^our horn to your mouth for one blast or two, and 

 trot away to still more likely points. If your pack will divide 



385 2b 



