396 HUXTIXG. 



sixty to a hundred yards of his hounds wlien they 

 first check ; nor can a whipper-in execute his office 

 of turning or stopping a hound at this moment too 

 quietly and discreetly ; but no general line of con- 

 duct for either the one or the other can be laid 

 down. Some hounds, and especially if they have 

 been pressed upon by horsemen, will not turn to 

 either horn or holloo, without a smack of the whip, 

 or at all events a rate : nor will the body of the 

 pack, if a little blown, or excited by a previous 

 holloa, always try for their fox so well and quickly 

 as they should do, if left quite to themselves ; or, 

 as Mr. Hawkes expresses himself, if left to " their 

 own sagacity." That a great noise makes hounds 

 wild, no one doubts, and the system of hollooing is 

 every year on the decrease. As for the division of 

 the pack into three lots when at fault, that perhaps 

 oridnated with Mr. Mevnell ; indeed, we believe it 

 did ; but the practice is now become not uncom- 

 mon, of its being divided into two, namely, one lot 

 with the huntsman, and the other with the first 

 whipper-in. 



'' When hounds are going to cry,"'* writes Mr. 

 Hawkes, " they should be encouraged in a pleasant 

 way ; not driven and rated, as if discord was a 

 necessary ingredient in the sport and music of a 

 fine cry of hounds. Whippers-in are too apt to 

 think their own importance and consequence con- 



* All readers may not know the meaning of the term " going to 

 cry." It implies one part of the pack who may be trying for the 

 scent, but have not found it, in the act of joining those who have, 

 and who are of course giving tongue. 



