HUNTING WITH BEAGLES. 37 



scent-holding Shropshire pastures stanch and steady on the 

 line as a sleuth hound ; never wild or flighty, yet full of life, and 

 doing their work to merriest music. They are handled by one 

 who knows when to be patient with them, and how to quicken 

 their zeal with a little of his own enthusiasm, should they loiter 

 too long on a cold scent. That, however, is not one of their 

 faults. Like all good Beagles, they have a tendency to try back 

 in their first cast when at fault, instead of flinging forward. Such 

 a tendency, however, the young amateur who happens to have a 

 pack not quite so good as Mr. Johnson's will do well to be on 

 his guard against, and watch closely without interfering too 

 soon. The worst hounds will run heel, but the best sometimes 

 may not carry on so far as the hare has gone forward. With an 

 instinct matching that of their quarry, they are always looking out 

 for the twists and doubles in which puss is so cunning, and often 

 turn too soon, thus getting on a false scent. Then, as in all 

 other difficulties, the huntsman had better trust to veterans and 

 sages of his pack, who are sure to tell him when anything is 

 amiss, if he has skill to read their language of signs. Sir 

 Marteine Lloyd's Beagles, hunting part of South Wales, and the 

 Royal Rock in Cheshire, are bigger than Mr. Johnson's, but 

 quite as good in their work, and more adapted for a rough, hilly 

 country. There may be better, but if so, they make no show, 

 either in kennel lists or at Peterborough, and one would have to 

 seek their hunting-grounds in some very remote corners of the 

 country. Undergraduates at Oxford, and merry subalterns at 

 Aldershot run with packs that are not Beagles, both the Christ- 

 church and the Divisional Foot being harriers, though no more 

 than sixteen inches high. Field officers who have not forgotten 



