284 THE SPORT OF KINGS 



run to ground, or lost. It is rare, indeed, it 

 would not be incorrect to say that never is a 

 huntsman able to gallop down a woodland fox. 

 Of course with a woodland fox it is as indispens- 

 able to get a good start as it is with a fox from a 

 gorse covert, but the woodland fox is on the alert 

 sooner, he gets away quietly, at times he gets 

 away without being seen, even by the lynx-eyed 

 whipper-in who is sent on to view him away. 

 Then if there should be a scent you have a run 

 indeed. 



There are, I may remark, amongst the gentle- 

 men who despise woodland hunting, some who 

 believe, or who affect to believe, that when you 

 go into a big wood with hounds you are never out 

 of it all day, and that hunting in a woodland 

 country is one prolonged season of cubbing. 

 Nothing can be wider of the mark, and if you 

 don't keep your " eyes skinned," as our American 

 cousins say, you are pretty sure to be well left 

 when hounds are in the woods. Indeed, woodland 

 hunting may be said to teach a man to ride to 

 hounds quite as much as it teaches a huntsman his 

 craft. For in a woodland country above all things 

 it is necessary for a man to keep close to hounds 

 all the time. He must learn to discriminate when 

 hounds turn in covert ; he must be able to distin- 

 guish when they are running out of covert ; and 

 he must be able also to make up his mind quickly 

 as to how he will get to them. A good horseman 

 is as much needed in a country of this sort as he 

 is amidst the oxers of Leicestershire and the doubles 

 of Meath. Frequently, if he means to be with 

 hounds, he will have to leave the beaten tracks and 

 rides in the woods and ride his hardest through 



