NOTITIA VENATICA. 107 



hares, and broug-ht in again time enough to be fed with the lot dra\m 

 for the next day's hunting, of which they may fonu a part. But in 

 small and " scratch" establishments, where, in nine eases out of ten, 

 matters are conducted on a more than economical plan, few hacks are kept, 

 perhaps not more than one for all pm-poses ; and the hunting stable not 

 affording any spare nags, the employes are glad of an excuse to give the 

 cavahy a chance. In these cases, the riotous hounds only get an extra 

 cut or two in going to cover the next morning, instead of three good 

 hours' drilling on the previous day over some neighbom-ing manor, 

 where the proprietor has kindly given pemiission for the foxhounds to 

 be exercised and awed from riot, whenever their himtsman may be dis- 

 posed to take them. Amongst the various descriptions of riot that are 

 met with, none is more vexatious and destructive to good sport than 

 the roe-deer (luckily confined to part of Scotland and the west of Eno-- 

 land). They are animals that seldom show themselves in the open at 

 any season of the year, but abide pei-petually in the most thick and re- 

 mote covers ; conserpiently, it is impossible, when exercising and break- 

 ing young hounds, to show and awe them from them with any effect. 

 Various schemes have been attempted to make hounds familiar with 

 them by bi-inging up the fawns tame, to live about the kennel, (te. : 

 but the plan adopted by Captain Barclay, when he hunted the Turriff" 

 country in Aberdeenshire (where the roe abounds more than in any other 

 county in Scotland), was one of the most extraordinary. He procured 

 a dead roe, which he had stuffed and plaeed epon wheels, and by this 

 means cbagged about the neighbouring fields when the pack were at 

 exercise ; and he declared that the practice rendered his hounds infi- 

 nitely more steady than they had been before this novel experiment had 

 been tried. 



Although in all packs some hounds are to be met with of so impatient 

 a disposition, that, if a fox cannot be found in the first or second cover 

 drawn, they must have a fling at something or other, yet thorouo-h-bred 

 foxhounds will invariably prefer a vermin scent to that of hares or other 

 game ; and I have frequently seen them throw their tongues on a pole- 

 cat or fitchet, as also on the common house cat, when met with in woods 

 at a distance from home. An extraordinary instance of running a pole- 

 cat to groimd occm-red with the Warwickshire hounds, some vears ao-o, 

 when Jack Wood hunted them. I was very yoimg at the time, and had 

 only just begun to take notice of the work of hoimds, but knew pretty 

 well when they turned in a big wood of 300 acx-es, or if thev were nin- 

 ning in two or three bodies. However, to hunt up to mv story, we 

 found a fox in the Kenilworth Woods, and after giving him a devil of a 

 dusting for about two hours, ran him to groimd in a small head of 

 earths in that well-known cover — Long Meadow Wood. I was 

 attending to the cry of the hounds, just before they went to oround, ex- 

 pecting to hear them stop and kill their fox, when suddenly they were 

 divided into two bodies, both of which ran to ground at the same 

 place, and within one minute of each other. Upon o-oino- down to the 

 earth, I remarked to Jack Wood that there were two scents, and I fan- 

 cied a brace of foxes were gone to ground. 



