64 THE SPORT OF KINGS 



huntsman's whoo-whoop ! Then if the huntsman 

 is an old hand he will let the young ones have 

 their own way with their fox, and never attempt 

 to take him from them, and the sun now being 

 well up and hounds having killed a brace, he 

 will wisely go home, every one having seen some- 

 thing that has added to his knowledge of hunting 

 if he has looked on with an appreciative eye. 

 And it is astonishing how the knowledge thus 

 gained in the early summer mornings comes in 

 useful later in the season, and how much know- 

 ledge is gained by the man who spends as much 

 of his time as he can afford in rattling the cubs 

 about. 



Cub-hunting is by no means to be entered upon 

 lightly and as of little consequence, for on the 

 way in which it is conducted will the sport of the 

 season in a great measure depend. It means some- 

 thing more than the mere getting hounds plenty 

 of blood. That is a detail, an important one it is 

 true, but still a detail, as the mere learning to read 

 is a detail in the education of the scholar. It is 

 the hound's natural instinct to hunt, and I believe 

 he would rather hunt a fox than anything else, in 

 which his instinct is very nearly allied to that 

 common sense of which we so frequently boast. 

 But he has to be taught to hunt the fox properly ; 

 to be self-reliant and at the same time not inde- 

 pendent and jealous ; to score to cry instead of 

 attempting a little hunting on his own initiative, 

 and to hunt truly without skirting or babbling. 

 The natural qualifications of the foxhound, the 

 drive and dash by which he is distinguished above 

 all hounds, fortunately make him an apt pupil if 

 he has an able master, and given plenty of foxes 



