The Process of Wild STAC-HUATmc. 419 



It must be remembered that the hounds only meet twice a week, and every meet is not 

 within reach or worth reaching, therefore a family party require some other resources. 



THE ORDER OF THE HUNT. 



In going to the meet obtain if possible some experienced sportsman or mounted shepherd 

 to guide you. Then, instead of sticking to the roads, which are generally good if steep, you 

 may enjoy short cuts across moors, sheep walks, and dells. On arriving at the meet (the usual 

 hour is eleven), the harbourer has first to make his report to the huntsman. The harbourer 

 is a more important person than the earth-stopper to fox-hunters. It is his business to track 

 a stag {slotted is the term) to a covert convenient for the meet, and learn whether he has 

 stayed there. For this purpose, where the paths would receive no mark of foot, he places 

 wisps of straw or brambles in any gaps out of the wood. 



If the report is satisfactory, the huntsman proceeds to shut up the body of the pack in 

 some outhouse or barn, having first drawn out two, three, or, at most, five couple of old 

 sagacious hounds, to act as tufters — that is, to find and drive the game out. The coverts are 

 generally plantations of no great age, but of great extent, situated in valleys or dells ; some- 

 times a deer is found on the open moor, but that is a great stroke of luck, a hunting day to 

 be marked with a white stone. 



The field of horsemen spreads over the hills that command a view of the covert, into which 

 the huntsman and one of his whips only enter. To follow him would be a gross breach of 

 etiquette. The distance from the hounds is often great, they don't give tongue in a very re- 

 sounding manner, nothing like what I have heard with fox-hounds when hunting with the 

 Ruff"ord in Nottinghamshire. From time to time a few white spots may cross an open space, 

 a faint sound of a hound giving tongue rises to the top of the hill, and the occasional cheer of 

 the huntsman, these are the only signs that anything is going on. This delay may last an 

 hour, two hours, three hours, for it is not enough to drive a deer out of cover, it must be 

 the deer the Master decides to hunt, so there may be two or three moments of agreeable 

 excitement when out bursts a hind, or unwarrantable deer, not considered fit to be hunted on 

 that day. In truth, it is often dull work, for blank days or days without a run are not 

 uncommon. 



At length the joyful moment arrives^ a grand dun antlcred fellow, nearly as big as a Jersey 

 bull, bounds up the side of the combe (Devonian for gorge), and gallops away for the moors — 

 that is, if it is a lucky day. If it is not, he takes to the enclosed country, with its deep lanes, 

 and, until he is killed, you see neither deer nor hounds, nothing but the tail of the pony 

 ridden by your pilot. 



Now comes an awful pause, most trying to those not accustomed to the sport. Only the 

 tufters follow the stag, and these are stopped as soon as possible. You don't take hold of your 

 horse, sit down and ride — at least, you only ride to the top of the hill, and " mark the course 

 the antlered monarch takes." Arthur gallops off to the barn, where the pack are impatiently 

 baying, and you must wait for them exactly as in the Vale of Aylesbury you have to 

 wait until the hounds are laid on the " carted calf" They come at last, are laid on the line, 

 give tongue to the scent if there is any, and away they go in a long straggling line, eager but com- 

 paratively silent, going too fast, it is said, to make much music, quite unlike the sonorous stag- 

 hounds heard in French and German forests, and not nearly so exciting. In a season you may 

 get one gallop right across the moors for five or even ten miles on end ; and if you are well 



