ON BEING THROWN OUT 225 



man ought to observe if he wishes to see the most 

 sport possible. A curious instance of this once 

 occurred when I was hunting with a very famous 

 pack. It was with our afternoon fox, and hounds 

 had run very hard for about ten minutes, when 

 they came to a big wood. The moment they came 

 to the wood the bulk of the field galloped to the 

 top of it, actuated doubtless by the recollection 

 that last time they were there the fox had gone 

 away on the top side. But there was a consider- 

 able wind, and the top side of the wood was up 

 wind. In company with two or three "old hands," 

 I turned down wind, and warned some of the field 

 to do the same, but without avail. We had not 

 ridden a quarter of a mile when the huntsman's 

 horn and the cry of the hounds told that they 

 were coming our way. And a good run we had, 

 hounds racing for another fifteen minutes, and 

 running their fox to ground in view. There were 

 about half a dozen of us, and we waited fully ten 

 minutes before the rest of the field came up. 

 They were very irate, said the huntsman went 

 away without blowing his horn, which was not 

 true, and blamed everything but the right thing, 

 viz. their persistence in going up wind, for their 

 being thrown out. 



A very curious circumstance of the whole field 

 being thrown out occurs to my memory. Hounds 

 found in a gorse covert of about six or eight acres, 

 and ran very hard for about a mile and a half. 

 The country was full of narrow enclosures, it was 

 stiffly fenced, and some of the enclosures were 

 very long. After going a mile and a half the fox 

 was headed, and turned sharply back towards the 

 covert in which he had been found. The field 



