140 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



that he only saved himself by occasionally lying down in the 

 thick brambles under the trees, whenever they came up to him. 

 At the instant that I was listening for a kill, Jack heard a holloa 

 at least a mile off; " too-too-too-too," went his horn, "hark, 

 holloa ! " was the word, and away he flew, calling the hounds, 

 all he could get, after him; "crack, crack, crack," went the 

 whipper-ins 1 whips, with a "get away! get away!" and off 

 went master and man, with the field at their tails, and a lot of 

 hounds, about to be misled, after them. I sat still, thunder- 

 struck that any set of men could have so little thought, particu- 

 larly Jack, who was the first in fault, as to believe that a weary 

 animal, viewed by the huntsman not two seconds before, could 

 have left the plantation, and by taking a semicircle, which he 

 must have done, placed himself a mile in his rear. The hubbub 

 caused by the " too-tooing " row having subsided in the distance, 

 and observing that several hounds still feathered around some 

 brambles, refusing to be put away, I watched the result, and it 

 was just what I expected ; the remaining hounds killed their 

 fox before Jack Stephens could have reached the vicinity of the 

 supposed holloa. I got off my horse to cut off the brush and 

 the nose for the kennel door, but my knife had made an exit 

 for itself in my pocket, and had chosen to depart, so I let the 

 five or six couple of hounds worry the fox, taking from them a 

 hinder-leg, the brush which was attached to it, and the head, 

 which I hung up in a tree, called the hounds away, and set off 

 after the rest. I had not gone far before I met them all return- 

 ing, the holloa having come from a man scaring rooks. " Where 

 have you been ? " said Mr. Wilkins ; " we have been to a wrong 

 holloa which we went to, being quite sure our fox had slipped 

 us." " I have been watching the fox slip away," I replied, " but 

 it was ' the way ' into the stomachs of Countess and some others ; 

 for when you slipped away after the crow-keeper, your hounds 

 killed their fox." " Nonsense," said Mr. Wilkins, " you're cutting 

 it too fat." " Get down from your horse," I said, " if you don't 

 believe me ; " and pointing to several of the hounds who were 

 bloody, I bade him at least make use of his nose and smell their 



