126 WM. SIIAW'S OPINION. 



in a pretty good place, he exclaimed, by G-— , sir, 

 they are running hare ; and yet, said he, pausing for a 

 few moments, they cannot be, for old Bashful* is 

 leading ; he was right in his second supposition, for the 

 hare finding herself distressed, turned short across the 

 field, and this gallant pack kept straight forward upon 

 the line of their fox, without one single hound deigning 

 to look for one moment in which direction she had 

 taken herself off out of their way. Forty-three minutes 

 completed this excellent run up to Itchington-heath, 

 and in four more minutes the fate of the fox was sealed, 

 and his death proclaimed by a thrilling who-whoop. 

 This incident, to the common run of hard riders, might 

 appear to be without interest, and unworthy to be 

 remarked; but to me, to whom the behaviour of the 

 hounds, and the manner in which they perform their 

 work, is ever of the first consideration in a day's sport, 

 it was particularly striking. 



I once had a long conversation with Wm. Shaw, 

 who was many years huntsman to his Grace the Duke 

 of Rutland, upon the system of entering the puppies 

 to hare in the spring, when they first come up from 

 their quarters,^ he was a great advocate for this plan, 

 and he told me he always practised it, and taking them 

 out with two or three couples of old harriers, declared 

 that he was convinced that when they were thus 

 entered, they turned out invariably better hunters 

 afterwards, and that they were by no means more 



• By the Duke of Beaufort's Boxer, out of Virulent, who was by the Pytchley 

 Ottoman, out of their Vengeance. This most excellent hound could run up to 

 the very head when in her tenth season. 



t The best excuse for trying young hounds with hare at that season, is to dis- 

 cover which are noisy, that they may be drafted witliout further trouble and 

 expense. 



