114 MANAGEMENT OF HOUNDS. 



to take the nearest ride leading to the point where the 

 fox has gone away. 



The first consideration with a pack of foxhounds is to 

 draw well and steadily, but there are days and occasions 

 when the best hounds may show slackness ; in wet and 

 bad scenting days, and where game is scarce they will 

 become more indifferent. It is then the huntsman's 

 place to be with them, and encourage them in trying the 

 thickest parts of the covert. Hounds also out of blood 

 soon become out of heart as well. A famous master of 

 hounds, who hunted a part of Wiltshire for many years, 

 used to say he could always tell, by drawing his hounds 

 round a gorse covert, if there was a fox in it, and when 

 the hounds showed little disposition to dash in, he con- 

 cluded there was no fox there. In the early part of a 

 good scenting day I think in nine cases out often hounds 

 will generally show whether a fox is at home or not, but 

 I should not depend upon their opinions after two o'clock, 

 or in bad weather. 



I had once a famous hound for drawing, who had a 

 peculiar instinct in pointing out where foxes lay. I 

 never saw it so developed in any other, except his two 

 daughters, which were as good as their father. He was 

 a rapid dashing drawer, seldom putting his nose to the 

 ground, but you would see him examining the twigs or 

 reeds as he passed, and going straight to the fox's kennel. 

 It seldom required more than ten minutes for his survey 

 of a covert of a hundred acres, and when satisfied there 

 was no fox at home, he quickly re-appeared outside the 

 covert. During several years he never deceived me, and 

 was considered by the whipper-in as infallible. He would 

 also tell if a fox had been in the covert, or had passed 



