132 KOTITIA VENATICA. 



should invariably unstop all liis eartlis before dark, after they have been 

 stopped, unless those which have been blocked-up for the season. Foxes 

 lie very much at earth in the spring of the year, after they have begun 

 to draw the earths out for breeding. 



When a country has been drawn blank for some time, you may very 

 frequently rc-stock the covers by smoking all the large heads of earths ; 

 and in a very dry season, in the autumn, where large stone drains 

 abound, the foxes will lie continually in them, three and four in a drain 

 sometimes ; but as soon as the Avet weather sets in, they will again be 

 found in those covers which before had been drawn blank. It is a good 

 system to let all large drains be either staked up, or guarded by an iron 

 grating ; this, if attended to, would be the cause of ensuring many good 

 runs in the course of the season. If the number of hunting days in each 

 week is four, one of them ought, without fail, to be in the woodlands ; 

 and as fifty couples of hounds, which would be necessary to hunt four 

 days a Aveek, Avould be all the better if they hunted five, Avhen the coun- 

 try is sufliciently extensive, and the " sinews of Avar" Avill allow of it, a 

 fifth day should be invariably devoted to rattling those covers Avliich, 

 from being situated in the Avorst part of the country, are not favourite 

 fixtures : it Avould only be the expense of three more horses for the men. 

 By this means each pack Avould get a Avoodland day every Aveek, Avhich 

 Avould keep them steady, and their condition Avould be much better than 

 if they hunted only four ; the foxes, too, Avould be better preserved 

 by the farmers Avho might reside on that side ; and by driving them so 

 continually out of the large covers, they Avould fiy to the smaller ones, 

 and afibrd much better runs when found afterwards, from their geogra- 

 phical knoAvledge. 



The possession of fifty couples of really good and steady hounds is 

 certainly a desideratum Avhicli is not so easily accomplished as some per- 

 sons may suppose ; a thorough knoAvledge of the individual capabilities 

 of the animal, and a quick discernment in the difference of their consti- 

 tutions and speed, Avill be found absolutely necessary for the arrange- 

 ment of the pack, so that they may run together, and that their labours 

 may be performed Avitli the correctness and regularity of a avoU-cou- 

 structed piece of machinery. 



While hounds are running a fox, especially in cover, they should all 

 Avork as if they Avere trying to get to the head : hanging too much to 

 the line Avill produce a slackness, Avhich is uiuloubtedly a great obstacle 

 to killing a fox handsomely and Avith spirit. I like to see them (as long- 

 as they do not skirt) score a little, as if looking out for him, and Avork 

 abreast when the fox is sinking before them ; 1 love to see them Avith 

 their bristles up, flinging themselves right and left, and looking avcU out 

 for him in his last shifts and artful dodges, like Avhat old Wells (who 

 hunted Mr. Wickstead's hounds so many seasons) used to call " rale 

 (real) fox-killers." In very stormy and bad Aveather all hounds Avill fly 

 about and riot a little, and then it is excusable ; but they ought to stop 

 when the huntsman speaks to them or chides them. A riotous pack arc 

 generally more inclined to be vicious immediately after blood, being then 

 in the highest sjjirits ; consequently they should be Avatched close, and 



