THOUGHTS UPON HUKTIXG. 287 



The heading a fox back at first^ if the cover be not a 

 large one, is oftentimes of service to hounds, as he will not 

 ttop, and cannot go off unseen. When a fox has been 

 hard-run, I have known it turn out otherwise; and hounds 

 that would easily have killed him out of the cover, have left 

 him in it. 



If it be not your intention that a fox should break, 

 you should prevent him, 1 think, as much as you can, 

 from coming at all out of the cover ; for, though you should 

 head him back afterwards, it most probably would put 

 the hounds to a fault. When a pack of fox-hounds once 

 leave a cover after their game, they do not readilv re- 

 turn to it again. 



When a fox has been often headed back on one side of 

 a cover, and a huntsman knows there is not any body on 

 the other side to halloo him, the first fault his hounds 

 come to, let him cast that .away, lest the fox should be 

 gone offi and, if he be still in the cover, he may still re- 

 cover him. 



Suffer not your huntsman to take out a lame hound. 



