164 THE DIARY OF A HUNTSMAN 



satisfied, and go home without being disgusted. 

 This seldom happens with men who hunt their own 

 hounds, and it makes up for many deficiencies when 

 men know that if sport is to be got, he will try, at 

 all events ; but every huntsman who has any head 

 knows pretty weU by the middle of the season where 

 to put his hand on a fox (if there is one in the 

 country), unless by accident it has been moved. If 

 not, he is not half a huntsman. 



Huntsmen, and men who keep hounds, are very 

 apt to express themselves warmly on discovering 

 that a fox has been injured, or if they think there 

 has been an attempt to poison one, owing to his 

 being mangy. But, if possible, they had better not 

 express their thoughts, unless they can prove it and 

 bring it home to the man, for nothing provokes a 

 gentleman so much who does not hunt as to have 

 it even hinted that his servants destroy foxes. It is 

 a sort of reflection on a man's dignity to suppose 

 that his servants would commit an act of this sort 

 contrary to the master's wish. If there are grounds 

 for suspicion, they had better not be stated openly, 

 but represented by the master of the hounds, or 

 some intimate friend of the gentleman, to whom 

 every act of courtesy is due. Depend upon it, it is 

 a mistaken notion that any man can be bullied into 



