140 HOESES AND HOUNDS, 



lot. Young hounds whicli are very riotous the first season I 

 have often found turn out tlie best afterwards. We must recol- 

 lect that at their walks they have little attention paid them, 

 and are at liberty to follow any game that comes in their way, 

 but, by quiet and decided treatment, they will soon be broken 

 from these bad habits. 



A very experienced and clever gentleman huntsman told me 

 he never cared about his young hounds running hare ; he said 

 he generally left them alone, and when they had their fun out, 

 as he called it, without encouragement, they very soon found 

 out their mistake, and became steady to fox of their own accord. 

 This latitude is somewhat extensive ; I am not, however, pre- 

 pared to assert but that there is a good deal of reason in it. 

 Dogs are sensible animals, and soon discover what they are 

 required to do. If young hounds would always break them- 

 selves within a given time, we might allow them, as my friend 

 said, to have their fun out, and I have no doubt they would 

 become steadier afterw^ards, by finding out their own mistake : 

 but this would only happen in the event of their not getting 

 the hlood of the hare, for, if allowed to kill their own game and 

 eat it too, I have an idea that on a blank day with fox they 

 would have recourse to their old pastime, particularly as hare 

 is more delicate eating. The steadiest fox-hounds, wdien puss 

 comes in their way (out of sight of the whipper-in) in high 

 cover, will have a sly snap at her, and, as the Irishman said, 

 " small blame to them " wdien as hungry as hawks. Beckford 

 relates an instance of extraordinary discernment in a fox-hound 

 which joined his pack of harriers one day, and hunted and ran 

 with them as if he had always been accustomed to that game, 

 but when he saw this hound with his own pack he was perfectly 

 steady from hare. 



In bygone days my father had a pack of fox-hounds with 

 wdiich he hunted both hare and fox ; they commenced the sea- 

 son with hare, as foxes were then scarce in the country, but after 

 Christmas they began hunting fox, and were from that time to 

 the end of the season steady to a fox scent, often passing 

 through woods where hares abounded without taking any notice 

 of them. These hounds were of Lord Egremont's blood, a 

 famous sort in those days, and could run as well as hunt. 



It is tlie fashion to abuse both the horses and hounds of the 

 old school ; the first are supposed to have been poor, slow, half- 

 bred animals, and the hounds as never having been able to go 

 much faster than turnspits. In answer to this, I can only state 

 I have heard my father say, that in his younger days he never 

 kept a horse which was not quite thorough bred and had been 



