132 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



As to the charge of " alivays drawing his covers down wind," it is not 

 true. I saw him draw several up wind, or with a side wind, although I 

 beUeve the first is his general practice, and was that of his first master, 

 Mr. Baird. It is, however, by no means a settled point amongst sports- 

 men that covers should be always drawn up wind ; but two things are 

 quite certain.— Many good foxes won't vi'ait to be found if drawn upon 

 down wind, and therefore have an advantage over hounds; and mnny are 

 chopped in their kennel asleep, or killed by jumping up in the middle of 

 the pack, by drawing up wind. What did I witness the very last time 

 Mr. Osbaldeston's hounds drew Parson's-gorse, in the (Quorn) Widmer- 

 pool country, when drawing up vrind ? A fine bitch fox killed with six 

 whelps in her belly, having suffered every hound to pass over her, when 

 asleep. When she did get out of her kennel she could not break view ; 

 but this proves that the advantage of encouraging hounds to draw gorse 

 by the drag was here sought for in vain. Neither fox nor hare emit a 

 scent of much avail to hounds, when either in kennel or on the seat. 



It appeared to me that Williamson was very fair to his foxes — no mob- 

 ber of them for the sake of the noses on the door. The very act of his 

 so often drawinpf down wind confirms this, as it is evidently in favour of 

 his fox. Beckford gives two reasons for drawing up wind, one of w^hich 

 is good ; the other, good for nothing. " If you draw up wind," says he, 

 " the fox does not hear you coming, and your hounds, by this means, are 

 never out of your hearing; besides, if he turns down wind, as most pro- 

 bably he will, it lets them all in." His first position, of the pack being 

 within hearing, is a correct one ; his second, of the chances in favour of 

 the line the fox takes, is not so. A fox found by hounds never consults 

 the wind till he is more or less pressed ; his first object is his point, 

 which he will make if he can. 



