HUNTING THE FOX 85 



always be put down at once. Some Huntsmen 

 are apt to get too fond of old Hounds, or to spoil 

 certain Hounds who have made a lucky hit and 

 so got them out of a difficulty. A certain dog 

 Hound once puzzled out the line of a Fox down 

 the middle of a road and put everybody right. 

 The Huntsman was so pleased at this that, whenever 

 his Fox had run down a road, he relied exclusively 

 on this dog, who soon found this out and from 

 that moment had the poor man completely at his 

 mercy. He would put his nose down whenever 

 he got on a road, travel down the road with or 

 without a line, and even look back from time to 

 time as if to invite the Huntsman to follow him, 

 and so caused the loss of Fox after Fox by drawing 

 the whole establishment after him long past the 

 place where the Fox had turned out of the road. 

 No. A pack of Hounds should be hunted collect- 

 ively and not individually ; the love of Hounds 

 should never degenerate into favouritism. 



