HUNTSMAN 153 



anything to make him lose the cry of the pack, but 

 keep within hearing at all hazards ; for, although 

 it sometimes appears that all is going so well, that 

 he may stand still and let them come round, and 

 that he will meet them. But if he does this he will 

 surely repent it, nine times out of ten ; something 

 is certain to happen, when least expected; the 

 merest trifle may bring them to a check, which he 

 would have seen and got over, had he been there ; 

 therefore, never leave them. If no other means, he 

 should keep down wind enough ; for if they divide 

 when he does not hear the leading hounds, he is just 

 as likely to go away with a fresh fox as not, and 

 leave his beaten one in the cover, which is the 

 cause of so many foxes escaping. But if he does 

 stick to them, and never lose the cry of the leading 

 hound, even if only one, when they divide, he gets 

 on with the right, and, by cheering and the use of 

 the horn, he may keep to his right fox. Although 

 the crash with the other lot is much greater, this 

 hound will not leave the hunted one ; and if a 

 whipper-in is active, he will soon stop the others, 

 even if there be eighteen couple out of twenty 

 running the fresh fox. When an old fox has come 

 some distance, and is a little beaten, he turns so 

 short in cover, that, unless a huntsman is within 



