158 SYSTEM OF KENNEL AND 



attendance on the huntsman. There is another 

 practice adopted by huntsmen, which we cannot 

 approve, although by it sometimes time may be 

 gained in making a cast to allow the whipper-in to 

 assist him, by holding half the pack in one direction 

 whilst he is trying in another. This has been 

 called a quick scientific way of doing business, but 

 in our opinion, loose and unsportsmanlike. We 

 like to see men and things in their right places, and 

 the first whipper-in is certainlj^ out of his place 

 when he is assisting to hunt the pack in covert, or 

 dividina: them to recover the line of a hunted fox 

 in the open. When hounds are running for a par- 

 ticular covert, and there can be no doubt as to the 

 point the fox is making, the place of the first 

 whipper-in is to get forward to the other side of 

 that covert, there patiently to remain until the 

 hounds enter it. There he will sit quietly on his 

 horse awaiting the issue of events. One or two 

 foxes may perhaps be seen by him stealing away 

 from the wood-hedge, yet he moves not in his 

 saddle, or appears by his indifferent look to have 

 even noticed their departure. They are gone, and a 

 smile only plays about his mouth. Presently there 

 is some object upon which his eye becomes riveted, 

 and his attention fixed, as if engrossing all his 

 thoughts. He knows it at a glance to be the 

 hunted fox, slowly leaving the wood-hedge, and 

 casting one furtive lingering look behind : still not 

 a muscle of his features moves, until the fox is lost to 

 view beyond the next fence. Then the nature of 



