THE SEASON OP THE YEAR. 77 



behind him ? How can hounds, under such circum- 

 stances, put their noses down. Many foxes, I am per- 

 suaded, are lost when the huntsman's cast has been 

 right, by the hounds having been hurried over the line 

 without time being allowed them to own it. And I have 

 often seen a sapient whip flog a hound on who showed 

 an inclination to stop and show a line. What his idea 

 (if he had any) was I cannot say. Possibly he thought, 

 if he thought at all, that the place for hounds during a 

 cast was close at the heels of the huntsman's horse ; or 

 again, he might have had a notion that all hounds' noses 

 are alike, and that if Concord, Countess, and Caroline 

 have passed over a spot of ground without noticing that 

 the fox had been there, Dorimont or Driver have no 

 right to impugn their decision by seeing for themselves. 

 Yet I, and I presume others as well, have seen every 

 hound but one or two pass a place in a cast, where the 

 one or two have eventually proclaimed a discovery, the 

 profits of which their more hasty comrades were only too 

 glad to share with them. 



If a cast is to be made, the huntsman should make the 

 ground good every yard he goes. And a word to the 

 whip. When the huntsman blows his horn, it is his 

 clear duty to put the hounds to him, and quickly, but 

 yet to exercise a little discretion, and not to nearly " cut 

 in two " old Solomon, with a stern request to " get on 

 hangin' about/' because that elderly sage has a notion 

 that, with the combination of his nose and brains, he 

 has discovered the line of the fox, opposed though his 

 opinion be to that of the huntsman who, however, uses 

 the last-named organ alone, and not the first, in the 

 chase. Some men have the talent of making dogs fond 

 of them, others not. I have seen many packs who never 



