62 MANAGEMENT OF HOUNDS. 



Permission to hunt his coverts was a passport also to 

 others, and at public coursing meetings and other places 

 he always gave me and the hounds a good character. 



Whether hounds are stricly steady or not, in these 

 days, is of little consequence. Fox hunting is now 

 established upon a different footing. Public opinion 

 with some men is everything, and there is many a man, 

 who wishes fox hunters and hounds at the bottom of the 

 sea, obliged to meet them with a smile, and openly give 

 orders to his keepers to preserve foxes. His secret orders 

 are another affair. 



Young hounds cannot have too much exercise ; they 

 should go several miles a day, in every direction round 

 the kennel, to make them acquainted with the country ; 

 through towns and villages which lie in their way, and to 

 all the places of meeting. They may also draw planta- 

 tions and small coverts where hares abound, or be taken 

 through warrens. They should be crossed also over the 

 track of hares, when they are not in view. By such 

 means young hounds may be made handy and tractable 

 before hunting commences, and the better they are in- 

 structed, the less trouble they will give afterwards. Begin 

 cub-hunting as early as you can. Draw off about twelve 

 couples of your old and staunch hounds, more if they can 

 be spared, and put them and the young together, to form 

 a pack. This is far preferable to putting a few couples at 

 a time into the body of the pack. By this arrangement 

 you will prevent the one and two season hunters from 

 being again unsettled, and you will possess two good packs 

 instead of an indifferent one. The old steady hounds 

 will by their example soon teach the young what they 

 are to do, and by Christmas this pack will become as 



