io2 THE SPORT OF KINGS 



of his nature, and tends to make him wild. Speak- 

 ing from my own experience, I have seen a much 

 greater tendency to run after currant jelly when there 

 has been a long draw, in countries where a huntsman 

 is always holloaing and always "playing on his horn." 

 Then again, a noisy huntsman is apt to be a very 

 excitable one ; he is apt to want to catch his fox 

 himself, to cast his hounds too fast, and to gallop 

 forward on many an occasion and leave his run 

 fox behind him. In a country full of foxes he 

 frequently would leave one fox behind him and get 

 on the line of another, and so have his hounds 

 running all day, and perhaps have to go home 

 without blood at night. On a bad scenting day— 

 and every hunting man knows that bad scenting 

 days prevail — he will give his field plenty of gallop- 

 ing and jumping, but his hounds will seldom be on 

 the line of a fox. This, no doubt, suits some 

 people, but it may well be questioned whether it is 

 of advantage to hounds and sport. 



But there is another and a worse side to the 

 picture than this. As I pointed out, the great 

 thing is that hounds should understand what their 

 huntsman wants them to do and do it. And 

 there are many admirable huntsmen who belong to 

 what for want of a better word I have called the 

 noisy school. But a noisy huntsman invariably 

 makes a wild field, and when there is a wild field 

 on a bad scenting day, a field each individual 

 member of which wants to hunt the fox which he 

 has seen, the result is chaos. 



I will give an instance. A huntsman I knew 

 was deservedly well liked by all with whom he 

 came in contact. He was a good man on the 

 flags, and his pack was a credit to him. He was a 



