380 THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



done, either by horn or halloo, if hounds are under good 

 command, and the convenient opportunity is seized upon, 

 and a whipper-in is in his right place. Keep near your 

 hounds in chase, with your eye on the body of the pack, 

 as well as on such as may be leading ; the body are more 

 certain to be right. Next to knowing where a fox is gone, 

 is knowing where he is not gone ; therefore in your casts 

 always make good the head. This you will do for your 

 satisfaction ; but hounds are seldom at fault for the scent 

 ahead, when the chase has been at all warm, that is, on a 

 fair scenting day ; for if the fox be gone forward wherefore 

 the fault 1 Good hounds will seldom or never leave a 

 scent ahead unless the ground be stained by sheep or 

 cattle, or when the chase leads over dry ploughed land, 

 hard and dry roads, and so forth. It is high odds that 

 your fox has turned to the right or to the left ; but, 

 although his point may be back, he cannot well run his 

 foil from the number of horsemen that are generally in 

 the rear of hounds. Recollect your first check is generally 

 the most fatal to sport, and for these reasons : your hounds 

 are fresh, and perhaps a little too eager ; they may have 

 overrun the scent for some distance, owing to having been 

 pressed upon by the horses, which are also at this time 

 fresh ; nor will they always get their heads down so soon 

 as they should do, from the same exciting causes. Again, 

 your check now generally arises from a short turn, the 

 fox having been previously forced from a point which he 

 now resolves to make ; and he will make it at all hazard 

 at certain times. When your hounds first throw up, leave 

 them alone if they can hunt ; but, disregarding what 

 some of the ' old ones' say on this subject, as inapplicable 

 to these faster times, don't be long before you take hold 

 of them, and assist them, if they cannot. I would not go 

 from scent to view ; yet hounds that will not bear lifting 

 are not worth having, for lifted they must be over stain 

 of sheep or cattle ; for, as Beckford observes, ' it is the 

 judicious encouraging of hounds to hunt, when they 

 cannot run, and the preventing their losing time by 

 hunting too much, that distinguish a good huntsman from 

 a bad one.' But do all this quietly as well as quickly. 

 Turn your horse's head towards the line you think your 

 fox is gone ; and the first moment you see all their heads 

 up, that is, if they do not hit him off, put your horn to 

 your mouth for one blast or two, and trot away to still 



