126 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



farmers at the commencement of my third season, 

 when early in the year we had had some brilUant 

 sport, " that they beheved the Oakley foxes did not 

 know what the devil to make of the tawny coats, and 

 that they would fly the country when they were after 

 them, as already we had run into Lord Fitzwilliam's 

 country, ere the regular fixtures had begun.*' With 

 a scent the foxes were obliged to go somewhere, or 

 be killed, for a strong body of hounds then in the 

 third year of their experience, showed them no mercy, 

 and made the welkin ring again. I soon found reason 

 to be much pleased with George Carter; not only 

 was he quick to hounds, but he had a head on his 

 shoulders, was most observant, and an exceedingly 

 aood-mannered man. No huntsman was better 

 seconded than I was with him; he was a better first 

 whipper-in than Tom Skinner, while the latter was 

 the best second whipper-in I ever saw. As a hunts- 

 man I felt myself in clover, for my men knew my 

 habits, each understood his duty, and when running 

 a fox in Yardley Chase, where the quarters were very 

 large, and the rides wide apart, (there is a circular 

 drive through the continuous woods not far short of 

 seventeen miles long,) each understood the other by a 

 touch of the horn. And now as to the horn. A vast 

 number of gentlemen and professional huntsmen 

 imagine that it is a sort of trumpet to assist only in 

 making a noise ; in fact, 1 have wdth packs of hounds 

 heard two horns going at once. I have seen, not far 

 from Northampton, master and man blowing each 

 other black in the face; and, not far from Gloucester, 

 the huntsman, very properly, with the leading hounds 

 blowing his horn " to get 'em to gather ; " and the 

 master of the hounds, a mile behind, blowing his 



