THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 149 



of raising a shout of '' ware hare," and riding after the 

 culprit, however good the motive. The pack hear only 

 a " hollabaloo ;" they can scarcely distinguish the in- 

 tended rating from cheering ; those which would have 

 remained neutral, join the row ; and, " save me from my 

 friends," mentally ejaculates the huntsman. If a man be 

 disposed to be useful with his whip, or his voice (and a 

 good sportsman may be, occasionally, of much assistance 

 with both), he must be under the guidance of one or 

 two practical rules. When he sees young or old hounds 

 persevering upon a scent, which others, notoriously of 

 good character, refuse altogether to acknowledge, he will 

 hardly err in stopping them. He is welcome to ride 

 over any hound of mine actually chasing a hare in view 

 and I will thank him for his pains, whatever he may have 

 inflicted on the hound : but I had rather judgment was 

 suspended upon a hound running the line of a hare ; it 

 is a "non sequitur" that he may not be on the scent of a 

 fox. We had a laughable instance of this about the end 

 of last season : when drawing Batch Wood, with little 

 or no reasonable hope of finding (having recently dis- 

 turbed this good preserve for foxes), one hound chal- 

 lenged near the outside of the northernmost quarter, 

 where there was scarcely covering enough for an earwig ; 

 I chanced to have placed myself there ; while the pack 

 were drawing the opposite side. With one cheer to an 

 old favourite, and one signal from the horn to his com- 

 rades, we had instantly a crash which shook the few 

 remaining leaves from off the oaks. While I was in full 



