A frenchman's idea of a huntsman. 157 



and Jack Cheerly's system of working his hounds 

 hrough woodlands, without their dividing or changingt 

 their fox, was the admiration of all sportsmen far and 

 near. But the modern performer seldom kills his fox 

 after a run, to be sure he mops up a good many weak 

 stupid brutes, that have no knowledge of hounds, 

 and, in fact, have not been introduced to the pack 

 since their arrival in a perforated box from the 

 "Foret de Guines," or '' the large woods in the vici- 

 nity of Amiens," whence poor things they were cruelly 

 forced from the tender embraces of their anxious 

 mothers. The old huntsman, although a shade slow, 

 " knew hunting and hounds well," he was not only a 

 huntsman in the modern acceptation of the word, but 

 a sort of " maitre de chasse." When he did not 

 hunt, he shot for his master, and when he did not 

 shoot, he either fished, or was vermin catching, not by 

 trap, but by hunting them with terriers, and digging 

 them. In reading a very old French book on hunting, 

 some few months since, I was much struck with the 

 following passages, which I shall quote, and which 

 shows that the Frenchman's ideas of what a good 

 sportsman should be, were not very far from the 

 mark. In describing a good sportsman, he says : — 

 " Un bon cognoisseur ; c'est un veneur qui a toutes 

 les cognoissances des bestes dont il traitte. Un bon 

 piqueur, c'est quand un veneur, et un bon cognoisseur, 

 homme de jugement, et experimente, a faire chasser 

 les chiens courans."* 



And again, in describing the qualifications of a 

 good huntsman, or as he terms it, " un bon piqueur." 



* Venerie Roy ale, I6tjj. 



