78 AN OLD sportsman's METHOD. 



out of their knowledge ; and shy ones, after 

 they have been much beaten, may not choose to 

 return home. Collars, in that case, may prevent 

 their being lost. 



You say you should like to see your young 

 hounds run a trail-scent. I have no doubt that 

 you would be glad to see them run over an open 

 down, where you could so easily observe their 

 action and their speed. I do not think the doing 

 of it once or twice could hurt your hounds; and 

 yet, as a sportsman, I dare not recommend it 

 to you. All that I shall say of it is, that it is 

 less bad than entering them at hare. A cat is 

 as good a trail as any ; but on no account should 

 any trail be used after your hounds are stooped 

 to a scent. 



I know an old sportsman, a clergyman, who 

 enters his young hounds first at a cat, which he 

 drags along the ground for a mile or two, at the 

 end of which he turns out a badger, first taking 

 care to break his teeth : he takes out about two 

 couple of old hounds along with the young ones, 

 to hold them on. He never enters his young 

 hounds but at vermin ; for he says, " Train up 

 a child in the way he should go, and when he is 

 old he will not depart from it.'''' 



Summer hunting, though useful to young 



