290 HORSES AND HOUNDS. 



tolerably fresh and sweet, so that he may deceive all except the 

 old hounds, master, huntsman, wliips, and the whole field. Upon 

 these occasions the keeper or his assistants will be the first, per- 

 haps, to halloo the fox. They sometimes overshoot the mark 

 in their eagerness. I suspect a fox found by a keeper, and not 

 hy the hounds, having been played these tricks myself, but I 

 always found them out. 



I was once drawing a ticklish place of this sort, where I knew 

 foxes were trapped regularly, when in the middle of a large 

 covert, the keeper began hallooing and screaming in a bye 

 drive. We were down with him in a twinkling. " Well," I 

 said, " what's all that clatter about ?" " Fox just crossed over 

 the ride, sir, where you are standing." The hounds were on the 

 spot, but they would not own the scent ; the old ones looked up 

 instead of putting their noses down. "Very odd," said the 

 man, " the hounds wont hunt the fox, Mdien I seed him only a 

 few minutes ago in that very place." " My hounds," I replied, 

 " tell me that the fox you just now saw came out of your pocket, 

 or a bag which is now hid under a stoul in that high wood, and 

 I believe them ; no tricks upon travellers will do with us." 



The man bundled off as soon as he could. The fox was again 

 hallooed over another drive, where several horsemen were 

 stationed with the master of the coverts himself; still the 

 hounds would not settle to the scent. I at once blew my horn, 

 and took the hounds away. An old sportsman rode directly 

 up, and asked what I was going to do. " Do," I replied, " my 

 hounds don't hunt bagmen. I shall draw elsewhere for a wild 

 fox." This announcement created, as may be supposed, quite a 

 sensation ; but turning a deaf ear to remonstrances and en- 

 treaties alike, I left the coverts directly. I, of course, got a 

 tolerable sprinkling of abuse, which I cared about as little for 

 as a duck tor cold water. But I had one good stanch fox- 

 hunting friend, who took my part behind my back. He said 

 aloud for all to hear, " He is quite right ; I applaud him for his 

 firmness. It was an insult to a master of fox-hounds to turn a 

 hagman down before his hounds." I was never again treated to 

 a bagman in those coverts, but we always found wUd foxes there 

 afterwards — not a fux only. 



