48 HUNTING THE FOX 



hanging on a tree, after having vainly performed 

 numerous antics to entice the Hounds to eat him. 

 The best way to avoid this depressing anti-chmax 

 is to stand aside when they kill him, and feed 

 their frenzy by sounding in their ears the right 

 tocsin of the chase. A puppy has been known 

 to fight for the head and win it on the very first 

 morning of Cub-hunting. Let him keep it. The 

 late Lord Henry Bentinck wrote that " a puppy 

 that has once fought for the head and carried it 

 home in triumph, trotting in front of the hounds, 

 will never look at a hare again ; he is made from 

 that day, and marks himself for a stalUon hound." 



