252 HOW A HUNTSMAN 



have been well taught will cast forward to a 

 hedge of their own accord : but you may assure 

 yourself this excellence is never acquired by 

 such as are left entirely to themselves. To 

 suffer a pack of fox-hounds to hunt through 

 a flock of sheep, when it is so easy to make 

 a regular cast round them, is, in my judg- 

 ment, the height of absurdity : it is wilfully 

 losing time to no purpose. I have indeed 

 been told, that hounds at no time should be 

 taken off their noses : I shall only say, in an- 

 swer to this, that a fox-hound who will not bear 

 lifting is not worth the keeping ; and I will 

 venture to say, it should be made part of his 

 education. 



Though I like to see fox-hounds cast wide 

 and forward, and dislike to see them pick a 

 cold scent through flocks of sheep to no pur- 

 pose, yet I must beg leave to observe, that I 

 dislike still more to see that unaccountable 

 hurry which huntsmen will sometimes put 

 themselves into the moment their hounds are 

 at a fault. Time ought always to be allowed 

 them to make their own cast ; and if a hunts- 

 man is judicious, he will take that opportunity 



slack, too little will make them tie on the scent, and hunt 

 back the heel. 



