64 A HUNTING CATECHISM 



Q. Is any particular care required in drawing 

 turnip-fields and such-like places ? 



A. The following are the opinions of two very 

 keen observers on this subject and cannot be more 

 clearly stated. Mr. J. G. Elsey remarks : — 



" In countries where foxes lie out a great deal, 

 where there is more or less plough, I have noticed 

 many a time hounds taken into a 20- or perhaps 

 40-acre field of high turnips, and a fox get up 

 and be caught by view before it has gone 100, 

 or say 200 yards, after two or three turns, and 

 with the hounds bobbing and jumping up to 

 get a better sight of it. Foxes, especially young 

 foxes, will lie very close in high turnips, and 

 have precious little chance of escape. After this 

 has been done a few times, and, as they will tell 

 you, hounds have been blooded, see how they will 

 work for the rest of the season, half the pack 

 spending most of their time during a run looking 

 out for a view ; and throwing up their heads 

 very quickly on a cold scent, and looking up 

 in the huntsman's face. If you want to know 

 the harm it does for the rest of the season, think 

 how it upsets a young setter or pointer if it sees 

 a winged partridge jump and show itself and 

 disappear, and repeat this several times in front 

 of it. It takes a long time before you can get 

 the dog not to try and catch another for itself, 

 and a long time before it is again steady, and 

 trusting to its nose ; and are not hounds the 

 same ? especially these pretty, racing hounds 

 of the present day, which the huntsman is bound 

 to ride close to, to put them right quickly as 

 soon as they look up in his face, instead of 

 hunting for themselves. I think it far better 

 to let one of the whippers-in, and two or three 



