J/r. FOX AS A HORSEMAN AND COACHMAN. 21 1 



'used to ride hard, and if tliey knew but little of hunting, 

 'they generally knew when hounds were on scent and 

 ' when not. At present everybody rides hard, and out of 

 ' three hundred, not three have the slightest notion whether 

 ' they are on or off scent. Although probably there are not 

 'three horses which could live with them through a clipping 

 ' run, there are an ample number good enough to ride over 

 'them, and prevent their settling to a scent. When hounds 

 'are up to the mark they are apt to have a little fling 

 'and fly in them, and to go over it, and if they have room 

 ' will come back again and catch hold of it ; but how is 

 ' it possible with three hundred red-coats close to their 

 ' sterns ? When there is a lack of sport one man abuses 

 'the hounds, another the huntsman. A few days ago I 

 ' overheard one man, speaking of Derry, say, " He is a slow 

 ' " fellow, and does not know what to do with his hounds 

 ' " when he comes to a check." The next week I was out 

 ' with Mr. Drake I heard another sportsman say, " There's 

 '"no chance of sport with these hounds; that fellow 

 ' " Wingfield will never let his hounds alone, and is always 

 '"lifting them, so that they will never put their heads 

 '"down." If they had but room neither Derry nor 

 ' Wingfield would be found fault with. It is difficult to 

 'know what to do with an immense ungovernable field. 

 ' If you do not cast your hounds the steam of the horses 

 ' and the noise of the crowd will prevent their hunting 

 ' through it, and if you do cast them too much they are 

 'always looking for the huntsman. If therefore there is 

 'want of sport, let people attribute it to the right cause, 

 ' which is the jealousy and ig/iorancc of the sporisi/ieii, and 

 ' not the badness of the hounds, or want of science in the 

 'huntsman. If hounds were let alone and not ridden upon, 

 ' they would rarely miss a day's sport. I remember a 

 ' flash day at Brooksby Gate. Jack Raven took the best 

 ' pack, eighteen couples, almost without a fault. They were 

 ' so overridden they had not one atom of sport. The same 

 'day old Stephen Goodall went out with the wildest of the 

 ' young hounds who wanted work, and a few old hounds : 



