THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 139 



silence. Too much noise must create confusion, and 

 render hounds wild. A noisy, over-vociferous hunts- 

 man* sets a fatal example to his field, and is only 

 preferable to one who, in the other extreme, may be 

 silent and sulky to a degree of slackness. He must 

 neither attempt to find a fox with his horn, and frighten 

 him to death with his tongue ; nor must he talk to 

 his hounds with apathy and indifference. When I say 

 that fox-hunters do not err in silence, I mean that the 

 proportion of mischief far exceeds the benefit resulting 

 from halloos. The human eye is supposed to have a 

 wonderful efiect upon the brute creation. 



" It is said that a lion will turn and flee 

 From a maid in the pride of her purity." 



But I doubt whether the "human voice divine" is not 

 far more powerful in its operation. How often does the 

 partridge shooter inwardly consign the tongues of his 

 attendants to * * *, where they might want cooling ? 

 How many instances could I recount of foxes having 

 been rescued from the jaws of death, from the very 

 middle of the pack, by the tally-ho, here, — halloo, there, 

 which gets their heads up, and prevents their running, 

 infallibly, from a burning scent, into view of the devoted 

 carcass, within a very short distance of their noses. 



The view halloo (a something approaching to a 

 screaming intonation of " waugh," nearer than anything 



* Virgil, in his Georgics says, "Ingentem clamore premes ad retia 

 cervum," speaking of stag-hunting — but this clamour was only to drive 

 the stag to the nets. 



