A BAD HUNTSMAN MAKES BAD HOUNDS 141 



heads. One of the men did so, and said, "It's a fox, sure 

 enough/' So nettled at even a doubt, though in joke, being 

 cast on any information of mine, I insisted good-hum ouredly 

 that he would let one of his men go with me for the head and 

 brush ; he did so, which placed the matter in its right light. 



There is another position I have ever taken, as firmly 

 as the one that a hound takes his character from his huntsman, 

 and it is this : If a huntsman begins to fight with his hounds, 

 let them be ever so steady, they will fight with him, and by his 

 unsteadiness they will become unsettled. If you pull at a horse, 

 he will pull at you, on the same principle. Before I had my 

 hounds in Bedfordshire three years, Bob Oldaker, who then 

 hunted the Salisbury or Hartfield hounds, came over to my 

 kennel for a mount. I put him on Jack-o'-Lantern, who was 

 then too old to carry me any longer, and we met at Cowper's 

 Oak. It was quite at the close of the season, and Yardley 

 Chase had been used up, and we were a long time finding a fox. 

 We found at last, and had a very quick thing. I overheard 

 Bob Oldaker say to one of the gentlemen who was out, so it was 

 no idle compliment, " that he had seen my hounds draw all day 

 long in those wide woodlands, among hares just enough to 

 tempt a riot, and had not heard a hound speak till the fox was 

 found." Pretty well that, for their steadiness under me. The 

 following occurrence, three years afterwards, took place with 

 these hounds in the Pytchley country. We had been drawing 

 small spinnies and little gorses, on the plan of " Old fellow, 

 don't take us to a big wood," all day blank, and, at last, in a 

 spinny full of hares some of the young hounds, grown impatient, 

 had a lark, and amused themselves with riot. Jack sat near 

 the cover with Mr. Wilkins, and the whippers-in went to the 

 cover to quell the mutiny; but the saddle being easier than 

 thorns, they did not dismount ; and the spinny being too small 

 for a ride, of course they did not get at the mischief-makers. 

 The riot continued, and some of the ears of the entered hounds 

 began to cock at the continued cry, and like the wild beasts 

 that Van Amburgh's rival used to exhibit in a cage at the 



