THE SEASON OF THE YEAR. 77 



beMnd liim ? How can liounds, under sucli circum- 

 stances, put their noses down. Many foxes, I am per- 

 suaded, are lost wlien tlie huntsman^s cast has been 

 right, by the hounds having been hurried over the hue 

 without time being allowed them to own it. And I have 

 often seen a sapient whip flog a hound on who showed 

 an inclination to stop and show a line. What his idea 

 (if he had any) was I cannot say. Possibly he thought, 

 if he thought at all, that the place for hounds during a 

 cast was close at the heels of the huntsman^s horse ; or 

 again, he might have had a notion that all hounds^ noses 

 are alike, and that if Concord, Countess, and Caroline 

 have passed over a spot of ground without noticing that 

 the fox had been there, Dorimont or Driver have no 

 right to impugn their decision by seeing for themselves. 

 Yet I, and I presume others as well, have seen every 

 hound but one or two pass a place in a cast, where the 

 one or two have eventually proclaimed a discovery, the 

 profits of which their more hasty comrades were only too 

 glad to share with them. 



If a cast is to be made, the huntsman should make the 

 ground good every yard he goes. And a word to the 

 whip. When the huntsman blows his horn, it is his 

 clear duty to put the hounds to him, and quickly, but 

 yet to exercise a little discretion, and not to nearly " cut 

 in two '^ old Solomon, with a stern request to " get on 

 hangin' about,^^ because that elderly sage has a notion 

 that, with the combination of his nose and brains, he 

 has discovered the line of the fox, opposed though his 

 opinion be to that of the huntsman — who, however, uses 

 the last-named organ alone, and not the first, in the 

 chase. Some men have the talent of making dogs fond 

 of them, others not. I have seen many packs who never 



