THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



' There are a few difficult points in hunting hounds, to 

 which it may not be amiss to call your attention. In drawing 

 covers, for example, you should observe the parts most likely 

 to hold a fox ; in fact, you should study your country, as well 

 as the science of hunting it. Foxes do not generally prefer 

 the most thick and dense part of a wood for their kennel ; on 

 the contrary, they often lie near to the outside, and facing the 

 morning or evening sun, under the rays of which they much 

 like to bask. The art of distinguishing a fresh from a beaten 

 fox, as well as having a good eye to a heavy vixen, are requi- 

 sites in huntsmen, and to be acquired only by experience. 

 The being able to distinguish what is called a moving 

 scent — that is, the scent of a disturbed fox — from a drag, is 

 also to be acquired by the same means — that said thing, called 

 " experience." 



' I like to see a huntsman alive and stirring, as well as his 

 liounds, when he enters a cover to draw for his fox. Homer 

 compares hounds cheered by their huntsman, to troops en- 

 couraged by a general. There certainly is something very 

 cheering to the field in the " cheering halloo " of a huntsman, 

 and it is usefvil as well. Should a hound get wide of the 

 pack, or hang behind in the cover ; or should any of the field 

 be at a loss, which often happens in woodlands, " the pipe " of 

 the huntsman is an unerring guide to all. How necessary is 

 it, then — at all events, how desirable — that, like Ajax, he 

 should be ^orjv djado'i, renowned for strength of voice, and, we 

 may add, for the melodiousness of it. He should likewise 

 blow a horn well ; and if he varies the blast, to make himself 

 more intelligible to his hounds, he will find his account in it. 

 I wonder why tliis is not more practised than it is. Inde- 

 pendently of the common recheat, why not have the " view- 

 horn, " as well as the " view-halloo " ? Too much horn, how- 

 ever, is to be condemned, having a tendency to make hounds 

 disregard it ; still a huntsman would be sadly at a loss 

 without it, not onlj^ in getting hounds away from cover and 

 in chase, but in bringing them over to him, when drawing- 

 large covers. 



'As regards the use of the voice, the following hints may 

 be useful to you : — Never halloo unless you have a good 

 reason for doing so. A constant and indiscriminate use of 

 the voice is blamoable in a huntsman, inasmuch as his 



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