80 HUNTING THE FOX 



immense sensation in the world of servitude." 

 But although we will not follow Mr. Jorrocks' 

 inimitable counsel of perfection, there are at least 

 two mental qualities that are indispensable to a 

 successful Huntsman. These are without doubt 

 Patience and a Love of Foxhounds. 



Now to hunt down a very wild animal with a 

 pack of Foxhounds in the shortest possible time 

 requires a good deal of what some people call dash, 

 and others would call varmint or devil. It is 

 perhaps not too much to say that no Huntsman will 

 be really brilliant unless he has a certain excit- 

 ability somewhere in his temperament, at least a 

 latent capacity for getting his blood up. If he is 

 wholly deficient in this regard, he may indeed be 

 patient, but he will be so patient that he will get 

 farther and farther behind his Fox every day he 

 goes out, and never kill one at all above ground 

 except by accident. But the power to combine 

 patience with other elements of a somewhat 

 opposite character is not given to every man. 

 Yet it should be assiduously cultivated by the 

 Huntsman. He certainly has every chance to 

 learn it, because there is no school for patience 

 more severe than that of hunting the Fox. The 

 blanks are many and the prizes are few. If on 

 coming home without his Fox he will fairly examine 

 the causes of his failure, he will generally find he 

 has lost more Foxes by being in a bad hurry than 



