170 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



to which points the hounds will run, and no further; but 

 it does not absolutely follow that he is not progressing ; 

 he may not have taken sanctuary, you may have a whip- 

 per-in to see that he does not steal away, but still you 

 should make a cast all round the premises before com- 

 mencing a search. Hounds will bay, as a matter of course, 

 at a drain, especially if they are in the habit of running 

 to ground, and the fox has tried it ; but many a recovery 

 has ultimately been made forward, after a most useless 

 waste of time and labour, in the upturning of faggots, 

 routing the gardens, poking under the laurels, &c., &c., 

 every one swearing he can be nowhere else but there, 

 because they remember a similar finish to some particular 

 run ; probably, under totally different circumstances. 

 It is laying a flattering unction to one's soul to account 

 for a fox in any way, but that of being beaten by him, 

 and we readily snatch at the idea of having done the 

 next thing to killing ; but a huntsman must not only 

 avoid dece|)tion towards others, he must guard against 

 deceiving himself I knew an instance last year, where 

 the master and huntsman were at issue, as to the fact of 

 a fox having gone to ground. The former, Tvith not 

 more than six couples, recovered and killed him, some 

 way beyond the spot where the latter, with the majority 

 of the field, were pottering at a rabbit-hole ; — the mas- 

 ter, of course, having waived absolute opinion on the 

 subject, leaving the huntsman to his discretion ; indulg- 

 ing, at the same time, the exercise of his own. If, by 

 the evidence of a terrier, in addition to that of the 



