266 Cross Country with Horse and Hound 



usually is to reach security in the nearest earth or covert, 

 and therefore in changing his course down-wind he runs 

 at a distance determined by the extreme limit of his hearing 

 powers. Then when hounds check he can generally stop 

 running, and if not pressed turn at last to make the point 

 he had in mind when he left covert. It is for this reason 

 knowing riders when they arrive at covert take up a posi- 

 tion, if possible, on the down-wind side, especially if Ren- 

 ard went away at all across the wind ; all of which goes 

 to show that a huntsman must form quickly an idea of the 

 plans working in the mind of his hunted fox. The con- 

 clusions to be drawn from the way he left covert ; from the 

 scent in the first few fields ; from his age, sex, and condi- 

 tion for running ; from a hundred and one things a novice 

 would never think of looking for, must be to him an 

 open book. 



A keen huntsman, from the characteristics of every 

 hound in the pack, learns in the first half-hour much as to 

 the special tactics he will have to deal with in his fox. 

 Perhaps the fox is a " ringer," one the huntsman thinks 

 he has chased before, since his plan is identical with the 

 last one they chased from this same covert and lost ; and 

 he is ready, from experience, with his counter-plot. Thomas 

 Smith gives an account of a huntsman who, on finding he 

 was for a second or third time after a ringer, stopped the 

 hounds, went the other way around, and met Mr. Renard 

 face to face. They viewed him away, and in due time he 

 was sent to the land of his fathers. An experienced hunts- 

 man seems to know instinctively when the hounds are at 

 fault. 



