384 THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



horseman, as nothing requires a much nicer and firmer 

 hand than the act of following and overtaking a hound 

 over open ground, to flog him. A good whipper-in, how- 

 ever, will always hit a hound first, and rate him after- 

 wards, and be able to hit him hard when occasion requires 

 it. I deprecate the very idea of wanton cruelty towards 

 any animal, but a riotous foxhound must not be trifled 

 with, if he is to be cured, without the halter, of his evil 

 ways : let the lash, then, fall heavily when necessary, but 

 at no other times. Above all, a whipper-in must have an 

 eye to skirters ; skirting is the least pardonable fault 

 liounds can possess, because they are then deviating from 

 their nature, and have not the force of impulse to plead, 

 which those which run riot after hares or deer have. 

 Great caution, however, is necessary in the use of the whip 

 to a young hound when on a scent. He may be right, in 

 which case he may never forget the check he receives, and 

 be slack in his work for the rest of his life. As study 

 precedes practice, and fits us for it, let me call your 

 attention to the following essential points, and remember 

 that we should not be content with mediocrity when per- 

 fection can be obtained: 



" You are about to take upon yourself a laborious and 

 difficult task, that of huntsman to your own pack, in a 

 country frequented by many of the first sportsmen of the 

 day. I wish you may acquit yourself well ; but recollect 

 what Smollett says of historians ' that the world has been 

 able to produce but six good ones ! ' and it may be said of 

 a huntsman that, in all his operations, he has not only to 

 exercise his mental faculties at every step he goes, when 

 unravelling the intricacies of the chase, but actually to 

 tread a path nearly unknown to human reason. Your 

 only chance to shine is, by availing yourself of your 

 experience of what you have found to be good in others ; 

 to attend to the suggestions of superior judgment on points 

 on which you are doubtful ; and to abandon all popular 

 but erroneous notions of the old school. By doing this, 

 I doubt not but the disciple will soon get beyond his 

 master. 



" I now call your attention to a few essential points. 

 Your kennel is a sound one ; you need be under no 

 apprehension respecting kennel lameness, about which so 

 much has been said and written, and all to little purpose. 

 The whole secret is this if the subsoil of the ground on 



