HORSES AND HOUNDS. 255 



other. The nnmber of foxes killed (of which huntsmen are so 

 fond of boasting) proves nothing as to the merits of the hounds, 

 or the cleverness of the huntsman. Foxes which lie idle, and 

 do not hear the cry of the hounds for perhaps two consecutive 

 months in the year, are as quickly disposed of as cubs in Sep- 

 tember. A good country even, ill-managed, will fail to afford 

 sport ; Avhilst a bad country, under active and able manage- 

 ment, will obtain notoriety. We cannot level hills, or change 

 flints into sandstone; but this I maintain, that a thorough 

 good sportsman will make foxes run and show sport in any 

 country. 



Year after year we hear the constantly-repeated cry of — bad 

 season — no sport — too much rain for one, or too little for an- 

 other country — no scent. Somehow or other, the weather has 

 always to bear the blame, and fortunately the weather has very 

 w^ide shoulders, and cannot complain, A pretty state of things 

 we should have, could every man choose the day best suited to 

 his own jjeculiar fancy. As, however, we cannot alter the 

 weather, we must try to meet it in the best way we can. Not 

 having the choice of making the weather for the hounds, the 

 next best thing to do is to make the hounds for the weather ; 

 and were this matter a little more carefully attended to, we 

 should not hear quite so many complaints about the weatlier. 

 Where good sport forms the exception, and not the rule, in any 

 professedly good establishment, the fault lies not in the weather, 

 but in one of these two things — the hounds or the management. 

 For the last few years the winter season has certainly been in 

 favour of hunting, yet the accounts of good sport are scanty. 

 The fault, I am inclined to think, lies in the present wild 

 steeple-chasing system of trying to ride a fox to death the 

 moment he is found, without giving him a fair start for his 

 life. 



It being admitted that woodland foxes afford always the best 

 runs, why not treat all foxes as woodland foxes 1 Give them a 

 fair start, and let the hounds settle quietly down to the scent, 

 without that extraordinary and unsportsmanlike hurry-scurry- 

 ing, which is the general practice in these fast days. So long as 

 the present system is pursued, really good sport will never be 

 obtained. It is too much the fashion to cry down gentlemen 

 huntsmen, for what reason I never could understand, unless the 

 opinion is, that the " noble science " is so very simple that the 

 most ignorant can become perfect masters of it. If that be the 

 case, it is the only science to which a good education, with 

 corresponding talents, is not a recommendation. If a thorough- 

 bred horse can beat a half-bred one, why is it that a gentleman, 



