THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. - 26l 



a cover which he does not intend to draw, his whippers-in 

 must be ill their proper places j for if he should ride up to 

 a cover with them unawed, uncontrolled ; a cover where 

 they have been used to find — they must be slack indeed, 

 if they do not dash into it. It is, for that reason, better, 

 not to come into a cover always the same way : hounds, 

 by not knov^ing what is going forward, will be less likely 

 to break off, and will draw more quietly. I have seen hounds 

 so flashy, that they would break away from the huntsman 

 as soon as they saw a cover ; and I have seen the same 

 hounds stop when they got to the cover-side, and not go 

 into it. It is want of proper discipline which occasions 

 faults like these. Hounds that are under such command, 

 as never to leave their huntsman till he encourage them to 

 do it, will then be so confident, that they will not return to 

 him again. 



Were fox -hounds to stop, like stop-hounds, at the 

 smack of a whip, they would not do their business the 

 worse for it, and it would give you many advantages, very 

 essential to your sport; — such as, when they have to wait 

 under a cover-side 3 when they run riot ; when they change 

 scents s when a single hound is on before ^ and when a fox 



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