356 THE SPORT OF KINGS 



in not coming to his holloa. Sir Tatton over- 

 heard him, and crushed him with the rejoinder, 

 " My hounds never take any notice of what foolish 

 people say." 



Certainly those who have nothing to do with 

 the hounds should be chary of their voices, and a 

 novice should never speak to hounds under any 

 circumstances. He cannot do any good, and he 

 may do a great deal of harm by attracting their 

 attention. When a fox breaks covert one clear 

 holloa is as good, nay better, than a hundred. 

 The huntsman is on the look-out for it, and in 

 nine cases out of ten he will hear the first holloa. 

 But it is entirely within his discretion whether he 

 goes to the holloa or not — a matter which those 

 who holloa so lustily seem to forget, for they keep 

 on holloaing as if the fox they had seen was the 

 only one in the county, whilst probably the hounds 

 have slipped away with another fox at the other 

 end of the covert, and they are in the happy 

 position of being " left." It is curious that ex- 

 perience does not always teach wisdom in these 

 matters, and that men do not endeavour to watch 

 the whole of the game more than they do. 



It cannot be too clearly impressed upon hunt- 

 ing men that during a run they should be especially 

 careful of holloaing, as in a well-stocked country 

 it is very easy to holloa hounds on to a fresh fox. 

 Only long experience and the habit of reckoning 

 up every circumstance which takes place in a run 

 can enable a man to tell a beaten fox with any 

 degree of certainty. Only those who have seen 

 him do it can be made to believe how a good fox 

 will " straighten himself up " when he knows that 

 he is seen. A few seasons ago I had a curious 



