20 HUNTING DIRECTORY* 



Draper, the Fox-hunterj - 



chases, and so you may engage them in too many at one 

 time. Let such as you cast off first, be old staunch 

 hounds, which are sure ; and if you hear such a hound 

 call on merrily, you may cast off some other to him; and 

 when they run it on the full cry, cast off the rest, and 

 thus you shall complete your pastime. The words of 

 comfort are the same which are used in the other chases, 

 attended with the same hoUowings and other ceremonies. 

 Let the hounds kill the fox themselves, and worry and 

 tear him as much as they please : many hounds will eat 

 him with eagerness. When he is dead, hang him at the 

 end of a pike-stafF, and hollow in your hounds to bay 

 him : but reward them not with any thing belonging to 

 the fox, for it is not good." 



The greyhovmds employed in the pursuit of the fox 

 were strong, wire-haired animals, placed in situations 

 where it was expected the fox would make his appear- 

 ance, and they were slipped at him as he passed. Thus, 

 when the fox had been driven from his kennel by the 

 hounds, he had to encounter a succession of greyhounds 

 which were placed in relays for the purpose. 



It is difficult to trace the progress of hunting, and of 

 fox-hunting in particular; but yet, I am inclined to think, 

 what may be called its next stage may be tolerably well 

 conceived from the following : — " In the old, but now 

 ruinous, mansion of Berwick Hall, in the East Riding 

 of Yorkshire, once lived the well-known William Draper, 

 Esq. who bred, fed, and hunted the staunchest pack of 

 fox-hounds in Europe. Upon an income of only 700/. 

 per annum he brought up^ creditably, eleven sons and 

 daughters; kept a stable of excellent hunters, a kennel 



