THE WHIPPER-IN 75 



Tom Ball, formerly Whipper-in to Lord Tavistock, 

 without feeling that he must have been born a 

 Whipper-in. George Mountford would readily admit 

 that, but for Tom, many and many a fox might have 

 escaped his skill, which fell a victim to Old Ball's 

 sagacity, his knowlege of the animal and his line. 

 Patiently he would sit by a covert side, where, by 

 his own li?ie, he had arrived about as soon as the 

 sinking fox ; there would he view, perhaps, a brace 

 or more away, without the motion of a muscle, till his 

 practised eye would recognise the hunted fox, and 

 then would blithe Echo and other wood nymphs be 

 startled by the scream which would resound his knell, 

 and, like the war-cry of the ancients, would reanimate 

 his pursuers with certainty of conquest." 



Another very able writer — indeed we think about 

 the best we know on the real essence of hunting, 

 scent and trusting to hounds — who used to write in 

 the " New Sporting Magazine " under the signature 

 of " Thistlewhipper," also bears testimony to the 

 importance of a good Whipper-in, and to the 

 superiority of Tom Ball in that line : — 



"I am decidedly of opinion,'' writes he, "that the 

 success of a pack of foxhounds is more dependant 

 on the exertions of a good Whipper-in than on the 

 Huntsman, and that a North American Indian would 

 be excellent 7?iatenel to form one. How often have 

 I witnessed Wells, the Oakley Huntsman, when his 

 hounds were approaching a cover in which they were 

 likely to change, take off his cap, and turn his ear to 

 catch Tom Ball's holloa on the other side, and when 

 he heard it, dash to the head of his hounds, catch 

 hold of them, and gallop round to it." 



This gentleman " Thistlewhipper," if we mistake 

 not, was the author of the " Life of a Foxhound," 

 published in the " Old Sporting Magazine." 



No one can read his papers without feeling that 

 they are the productions of a real sportsman, a real 



