146 REMINISCEJJCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



they put their fox out of the " haha," and killed him. 

 It was a fine run, and a satisfactory thing altogether. 

 George Carter, to whom I have before referred, 

 came to me froin a slow state of thmgs which then 

 existed in the hunting establishment of the Duke of 

 Grafton: — a slack huntsman and slack hounds, the 

 hounds bred without much judgment, and faults in 

 respective natures overlooked, till breeding in and in 

 had confirmed them as a part of the hound's capacity. 

 I have seen the Duke of Grafton's hounds, old and 

 long established as they were, tie on the scent, and 

 hang to hares, and that, too, with the line of a fox be- 

 fore them. There are peculiar days in March when 

 I have seen the steadiest hound speak when crossing 

 the line of a hare, although he would not have run 

 her at a view; and at times it is difficult for a hound, 

 in some states of the atmosphere, to distinguish one 

 scent from another. I give an instance of this, known 

 to George Carter as well as myself. My famous hound, 

 Harrogate, one of the best and steadiest and most 

 sensible hounds that ever existed, was heard by us, in 

 a wood called Lousacre, to speak, and to double his 

 tongue. No other hound spoke ; and the tongue 

 approached towards Carter, when down a hare's run 

 came a cock pheasant : the pheasant saw Carter, and 

 rose ; Harrogate came after him, and, when he came to 

 the spot where the pheasant had risen, threw up, and 

 began drawing again. I am also convinced that in 

 March, when hares are clicketino:, their scent is 

 stronger than that of a fox. Among the many things 

 that are worthy of remark, as beautiful facts in the 

 arrangement of nature, to save the mother and her 

 oftspring, are those as to the vixen fox when heavy with 

 cubs, and the brooding hen-pheasant when on her eggs. 



