36 In Scarlet and Silk 



bank, asleep, after his nocturnal perambula- 

 tions. Naturally, if you are drawing down 

 wind, instead of up, you serve him with too 

 long a notice to quit. This remark, however, 

 does not apply to the average small covert, 

 which should always be drawn down wind, 

 or hounds will have a great chance of 

 chopping him, a most undesirable thing. In 

 '' Extracts from the Diary of a Huntsman," 

 written by the celebrated " Tom " (not 

 Thomas Assheton) Smith, Master of the 

 Craven, and afterwards of the Pytchley, and 

 published fifty or sixty years ago, occurs 

 this passage : " It is no uncommon thing 

 for a good fox, on his being first found, to 

 go up wind for a mile or two, and then 

 head down wind, and never turn again ; 

 probably instinct tells them that hounds 

 will go such a pace up wind that they will 

 be a little blown, and that the change of 

 scent, down wind, creates a slight check, 

 which gives him the advantage," and this is 

 a thing we should all try to remember in 

 hunting hounds. 



