216 T^E NOBLE SCIENCE. 



reeling him. Too often, as soon as he is seen skirting 

 from the main body, as it seems to the whipper-in, off he 

 dashes through the stuff to cut the culprit in two, with a 

 "Garraway, would yer? heij ! would ye?" enough to 

 frighten him out of his skin. All the while the hound has 

 been on the scent of a fox, and says to himself — " Oh, ho ! 

 very well, if this is the fun, hang me if ever I try for an- 

 other." Do not condemn a hound too soon, if he be slack 

 at entering ; many very good hounds are, what is called, 

 very backward in coming forward, and are very tardy in 

 exhibiting any signs of the future excellence they are des- 

 tined ultimately to display. I remember one particularly 

 good bitch, in Mr. Sebright's pack. Whisper (by the War- 

 wickshire Champion, out of their Welcome), that never 

 left the huntsman's heels for the whole of one season, and 

 part of the next. Mr. Sebright properly forebore to draft 

 her, on account of her blood ; her errors being solely of 

 omission ; and she proved one of the best of her year. 

 A young hound that cannot run up with the pack at 

 first, will not improve in pace : unless you have reason 

 to suppose that his condition can be amended, let him 

 go to those who do not mind being troubled with the 

 slows. Determined skirters, and those over-free with 

 their tongues, termed babblers, are irreclaimable. Draft 

 freely for all vices which cannot be palliated. A hound 

 may improve in beauty, and you cannot always afford 

 to draft for colour, or for any very trifling imperfections 



