HORSES AND HOUNDS. 179 



Going to halloos is also very prejudicial to them. It encou- 

 rages them to be idle, and to look for assistance, instead of 

 trusting to themselves. It has been said, "that a pack of 

 hounds which will not bear lifting are not worth keeping." I 

 admit this to be the case, but only to a certain extent ; there 

 are times when all hounds require lifting, but if judiciously 

 done, and not often repeated, they will not be injured by it. 

 This is the exception, not the rule ; but I am quite sure that a 

 pack of hounds continually lifted by a harey slavey huntsman 

 are not worth keeping. A huntsman of this description whom 

 I once knew, always up in the stirrups, with his eyes and ears 

 well open upon any emergency, was once nicely caught in 

 going, as he thought, to a halloo. His hounds and self having 

 come to a dead stand, after the exercise of all their ingenuity to 

 little purpose, my friend Joe and his now mute companions 

 were, as usual, looking out literally for squalls. The day was 

 windy, and Joe descried at a distance, as he thought, a man on 

 a wall, with his hat and coat off. This was enough ; in went the 

 spurs, and off started Joe with his darlings, as ready as their 

 master for any such enterprise. Only guess Joe's astonishment 

 and chagrin when, nearing the spot, he discovered an old grey- 

 headed horse, with his white nose poking over the wall. It was 

 a damper, and the laugh of even his most admiring friends could 

 not be repressed. The old grey horse was a standing joke 

 against him for many a long day after, and a horse-laugh was 

 Joe's abomination. 



' At particular seasons of the year, also, sundry little urchins 

 are employed in the " alfresco" amusement of bird-keeping, and 

 having little else to do, they spend their time in trying who can 

 halloo the loudest. At such periods it is a ticklish affair going 

 to halloos. This is but a poor resource, after all that can be said 

 in its favour, and a huntsman had much better trust to his 

 hounds" noses first, his own talents afterwards when the hounds 

 fail, and when all these have been fairly tried, he may try what 

 dependence can be placed on a halloo — or try for a fresh fox, 

 which is his dernier ressort 



When a fox has been pressed at starting, and has given yon a 

 good run, my plan is never to give him up as long as the 

 hounds can own the scent ; ten to one but that he will loiter 

 somewhere, and if you can only once get upon better terms mth 

 him, you may be tolerably sure he will come to hand • and I 

 always derived more satisfaction in witnessing the hounds 

 working through difficulties and gradually improving upon the 

 scent, than in a burst of thirty or forty minutes, with a whoo- 

 whoop at the end. Any lot of curs, with a burning scent, may 



n2 



