200 FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES 



boldness of his earlier days, faced a big fence from 

 Waterloo gorse in order to be with the hounds. 

 " Osbaldeston rode Pilot and I shall never forget 

 the beautiful manner in which he put him to a leap 

 just at starting, taking him back several yards into 

 the field and going at it as hard as ever he could 

 drive, indeed nothing but the impetus could have 

 carried him through. For it was a stiff fence with 

 a wide brook on the other side and very indifferent 

 landing. Still I should not say Osbaldeston was 

 fond of rasping." No, but his hounds were just 

 starting and he knew they might want his assistance, 

 as hounds often do, especially when coming out of a 

 covert with a scent and fairly close to their fox. Their 

 over eagerness in such a case will sometimes carry 

 them over the line, and their huntsman being at 

 hand to put them right will make all the difference 

 between a good and a bad run, or even between a 

 good run and none at all. The times when hounds 

 are most likely to lose their fox are at the very moment 

 of starting and when running for blood at the close. 



How, then, are we to gain this knowledge of hounds ? 

 To some men it comes almost unconsciously. Early 

 associations, the Eton, Christ Church or Trinity 

 Beagles, running with harriers or with otter-hounds, 

 or following the home pack on a pony, all these are 

 ways of learning what it is of the first importance 

 for us to know. 



Many of us can never remember the time when we 

 did not look on the hounds and their working as a 

 subject for thought and conversation. But still 

 much may be acquired in later life and much can be 

 learned by reading and close observation of a pack at 

 work. In the latter case we soon begin to distinguish 

 some hound that often puts the pack right, we are 



