THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING, 235 



the foxes Ihy, and when the covers become thin, 

 there will be but little chance of finding foxes in 

 them : furze covers are then tlie moft likely 

 places. Though I like not to fee a huntfman to a 

 pack of fox-hounds ever off his horfe, yet, at a 

 late hour, he Ihould draw a furze cover as ilosvly 

 as he were himfelf on foot. I am well convinced 

 that huntfmen, by drawing in too great a hurry, 

 leave foxes fometimes behind them. I once faw 

 a remarkable inftance of it with my own hounds: 

 we had drawn (as we thought) a cover^ which in 

 the whole, confifled of about ten acres ; yet, 

 whilft the huntfman was blowing his horn, to get 

 his hounds off, one young fox was hallooed, and 

 another was feen immediately after: it was a 

 cover on the fide of a hill, and the foxes had ken- 

 nelled clofe together at an extremity of it, where 

 no hound had been. Some huntfmen draw too 

 c[uick, fome too flow ; — the time of day, the be- 

 haviour of his hounds, and the covers they are 

 <lrawing, will uiredl an obferving huntfman in the 

 pace which he ought to go. When you try a 

 furze brake, let me give you one caution ; — never 

 halloo a fox till you fee that he is quite clear of it. 

 When a fox is found in fuch places, hounds are 

 fure to go off well with him ; and it mufl be 

 ov/ing cither to bad fcent, bad hounds, bad 

 management, or bad luck, if they fail to kill him 

 afterwards. 



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