THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 389 



attention to it. Hallooing to hounds is highly useful 

 when done with judgment, but it must be done with 

 caution. Never cap your hounds, with halloas, to a bad 

 scent ; it makes them wild and eager, and never should be 

 done but when the scent is good. Hounds cannot be 

 brought up too quietly to a cold scent. With respect to 

 your field hallooing, I have no objection to a little of that 

 under certain circumstances. No one should halloo if he 

 is behind hounds ; but if a man, who knows what hunting 

 is, happens to be well up with the pack when they are on 

 good terms with their fox, a cheering halloo may do no 

 harm ; the hounds will not attend to it, and it is ex- 

 pressive of the pleasure of the hallooer. The huntsman, 

 however, who is endowed by nature with a clear, sonorous 

 voice, in a well-pitched key, and knows how to use it 

 with effect, contributes to the enthusiasm of fox-hunting, 

 and, consequently, to the success of it. 



" Earth-stopping is best done by at once stopping all 

 main earths, having first stunk them out, as the term is, 

 by brimstone matches, &c., so as to prevent the chance of 

 having foxes stopped in them. It is by the knowledge of 

 main earths to fox-stealers that foxes are taken ; and if 

 all main earths in England and elsewhere were destroyed, 

 there would be more foxes and better runs. 



" If one vixen fox can lay and bring up her litter above 

 ground, why cannot another ? And is it not proverbial 

 that what are called stub-bred foxes are generally stoutest 

 runners ? In the summer, let your whippers-in go about 

 and discover the mouths of drains, and have them staked. 

 Iron gratings will be stolen, and stakes will last two 

 years. 



u Although I am of opinion that foxes do not destroy 

 game nearly to the extent which is laid to their charge, 

 .-till, as the preservation of it is now become so fashionable, 

 you must open your purse to the keepers within your 

 country, and a dinner to them, annually, with your 

 huntsman in the chair, will go a great way in procuring 

 their respect and good-will. It is stated, indeed, on good 

 practical authority, that, by opening the racks in covers, 

 during cub-hunting, and early in the season, a pack of 

 foxhounds help to preserve game, by destroying the 

 facility of its being snared in the unopened racks. A few 

 sovereigns, thrown amongst under-keepers in the course 

 of the season, have a very good effect in preventing blank 



