Officers and Hunt Assistants 267 



After the manner of chess-players, Renard and the 

 huntsman first try the ordinary moves of the game, such as, 

 on Renard's part, running in rings, or trying for some 

 open earth he knows. In this case the earth-stopper also 

 knows about them, and, directed by the huntsman, has been 

 there during the night while Renard prowled the country 

 and stopped them. Again, if Renard runs to and finds 

 an open earth, especially in the beginning of a run, he may 

 not really enter it to stay : he would like, of all things, to 

 have the hunt stop and dig him out when he is miles away. 

 In this case the huntsman's move is a wide, careful cast 

 about the earth till the hounds discover the line again and 

 are off. These are preliminary moves. Later in the game 

 he will break straight away for some distant covert where 

 he knows for a certainty a particular fox, a friend of his, 

 always kennels in the day. With a wink of " the other eye," 

 he flourishes his brush at the hounds and sails straight for 

 that particular covert. Awaking his friend from a sound 

 sleep, he gives him an account of a thousand hounds that 

 are coming after, says he just dropped in to give a timely 

 warning to run for life, and away also goes his friend, the 

 first hunted fox slipping quietly to one side and lying down 

 to rest. It is an old move and has worked beautifully on 

 many occasions. But the huntsman also knows a thing or 

 two ; he has noted that the older hounds hesitated at a certain 

 point, while the younger ones took up the line. This can 

 have only one interpretation. "Toot-toot!" he goes on 

 his horn, and the whippers-in are off like shot out of a gun 

 to head off the pack and turn them back to where the 

 huntsman calls them. 



