CAUSES OF SCENT FAILING. 175 



when it was soft enough to allow the leg to penetrate 

 deep into the soil, the result generally was, that there 

 was little or no scent. Again, in sandy countries, I 

 have frequently observed a burning scent in the spring, 

 when the exhalations were the strongest on liot simmj 

 days. In speaking of Holderness, and the East Riding 

 of Yorkshire, I before remarked (with the exception of 

 the Wolds), how wet a great portion of the country 

 was, particularly after heavy rains. Some years 

 ago, when Lord Middleton hunted the country known 

 as Sir Tatton Sykes's country, old Tom Carter being 

 at that time his Lordship's huntsman, the hounds were 

 brought to cover one morning at the usual hour, when 

 Tom, to relieve the gentlemen already arrived, from 

 the anxiety of waiting, with a low bow thus addressed 

 them. "My Lord's compliments, and he does not 

 intend hunting this morning, as the country is so deluded 

 with water." Natural land which has never been fur- 

 row-drained, is generally allowed to afford better sport 

 from its scenting qualifications, than soil in a very 

 liigh state of cultivation; fresh strewed manure will 

 stop hounds as all huntsmen know, so will soot after it 

 has been spread a month on the young wheat in the 

 spring. Changing from good scenting ground to bad, 

 is undoubtedly more prejudicial to hunting, and has 

 saved the lives of more beaten foxes than any other 

 untoward circumstances to which hounds are liable. 

 The old story of the huntsman and the violets, is too 

 stale for insertion here, but the fact that the wild 

 garlic which abounds in Lord Hotham's cover, Dalton 

 wood, near Beverley, rendering it next to an impossi- 

 bility to hunt a fox through it, is too well known by 



