244 THE SPORT OF KINGS 



the draw a few days afterwards ; that hounds have 

 plenty of blood, and do not require to kill a fox 

 on that day ; that it is too cold, or too hot, or too 

 wet, or too dry to stand about digging. 



Now I once heard a huntsman say that it was 

 his business to kill foxes and other people's to pre- 

 serve them, and with a certain amount of limitation 

 he was right. Nine times out of ten, then, you 

 may be certain that when Master and huntsman con- 

 sider that it is the right thing to dig, it is the right 

 thing. To begin with the objection that it is unfair 

 to the fox. This is a sentimental reason, and 

 sentimentalism has no place in fox-hunting. It is 

 not strictly fair to go to a holloa. I happened 

 once to overhear a lady express her disgust in no 

 measured terms because a certain huntsman would, 

 and did, dig for his fox and kill him on the earth. 

 A few days after, and with another pack of hounds, 

 the lady was equally emphatic in her disapproval 

 of their slackness, a slackness which was mainly 

 caused by an adoption of the policy which she had 

 advocated only a few days previously. 



It may be put down as a general rule that 

 nothing tends so much to discourage hounds, and, 

 consequently, to make them slack, as to leave a 

 fox which they have fairly marked to ground on a 

 bad scenting day. Just see how angry they are 

 for their fox when they are baying at the earth ; 

 how eagerly they watch the engineering operations ; 

 how quick they are to rush in when they think the 

 digging party are near their fox. In the making 

 of a pack of foxhounds it is, I think, of much more 

 importance to kill a fox after a long, dragging, and 

 disappointing day for hounds, than it is when there 

 is a brilliant scent and everything is couleur de rose. 



