WILL TODD's opinion OF A FINE MORNING. 159 



to hold on his hounds in a contrary direction, to which 

 it was evident when the old hounds first threw up, the 

 fox had in all probability gone. *' Ware cast arid ware 

 holloa f quietness, with well-timed cheerhiess, should 

 be the order of the day. Let 'em work it themselves 

 as long as they can, and when they can't let 'em 

 fancy they are doing all the work while you are hold- 

 ing 'em on the line without taking off their noses, or 

 casting them. When you do make a cast, let it be a 

 good large one, and not across the middle of fields 

 but under the line of hedges, or in an open country 

 along the green balks, or unploughed ridges. Hang to 

 your hounds, and they will in difficulties hang to you ; 

 never deceive them or disappoint them of their well- 

 earned blood. Keeping a pack in blood is the grand 

 secret, and next to this, luck in weather is of the 

 greatest consequence. Hounds which have been unfor- 

 tunate for weeks, owing to adverse weather, have, by 

 one genial and good-scenting day, been restored to 

 their accustomed efficiency — I mean the sort of hunt- 

 ing morning on which Will Todd* used to look so 

 delighted in Oxfordshire, when after his first saluta- 

 tion he was wont to observe in his broad Yorkshire 

 lingo : — " This is a naice morning, sir ; he mun either 

 fly or die to day." No doubt it is the duty of both 

 master and huntsman to show all the sport they can 

 in the open, but the pack, upon the goodness of which 

 all depends, should never be sacrificed to suit the 

 caprice of a set of foolish school-boys, and steeple- 

 chase dandies. Nothing is so vexatious as being beat 



• VVill Todd, tlie varmint, was second whipper-in to His Grace the Duke of 

 Beaufort, when Philip Payne was huntsman, and Will Long was first whipper-in. 

 He is now huntsman to the Old Berkeley. 



