120 Recollections of the Vine Htmt. 



men who undertake to hunt a pack of foxhounds will 

 ride hard then ; and, good as Mr. Smith was across a 

 country, I have seen others as good as he ; but I mean 

 when he was casting his hounds. This is a quality 

 required only in a huntsman, but very conducive to 

 his success. Many huntsmen, if they meet with an 

 awkward place when hounds are checked, either 

 change their intended line of cast, or try to coax their 

 hounds to go over the fence without them : thus they 

 fail to make good their point, or, at least, lose much 

 time ; though they would have ridden over the same 

 place as a matter of course if hounds had been 

 running hard.* Now, Mr. Smith was just as ready to 

 take any practicable place when hounds were checked 

 as when they were running, though he might have to 

 come back over the same line of fence immediately 

 afterwards : thus he always made good his grotindy and 

 never had to do the same thing twice. Of course it 

 would often happen that the cast thus made at the 

 expense of two or three large leaps was unsuccessful ; 

 but it was not therefore useless : every huntsman 

 must know the importance of having ascertained, with 

 as little delay as possible, which way the fox has not 

 gone. 



* I once heard of a pack of foxhounds, whose huntsman 

 generally avoided all such difficulties by the simple expedient of 

 making his casts along lanes and roads j where the hounds 

 must have had all the steam and pressure of a crowd of horses 

 to assist them. A very good plan, if it satisfied the master and 

 the field ! for the fox would be sure to approve it ; and so all 

 parties would be pleased except, perhaps, the hounds. 



