134 HUNTING DIRECTORY. 



Of the Hunting of 



" When my young hounds are taken out to air, my 

 huntsman takes them into the country in which they are 

 to begin to hunt. It is attended with this advantage : 

 they acquire a knowledge of the country, and when left 

 behind at any time, cannot fail to find their way home 

 more easily. 



"When they begin to hunt, they are first taken into 

 a large cover of my own, which has many ridings cut in 

 it ; and where young foxes are turned out every year for 

 them. Here it is they are taught the scent they are to 

 hunt, are encouraged to pursue it, and are stopped from 

 every other. Here they are blooded to fox. I must 

 also tell you, that as foxes are plentiful in this cover, the 

 principal earth is not stopped, and the foxes are checked 

 back, or some of them let in, as may best suit the purpose 

 of blooding. After they have been hunted a few days 

 in this manner, they are then sent to distant covers, 

 and more old hounds are added to them ; there they 

 continue hunting till they are taken into the pack, which 

 is seldom later than the beginning of September ; for by 

 that time they will have learned what is required of them, 

 and they seldom give much trouble afterwards. In Sep- 

 tember, I begin to hunt in earnest, and after the old 

 hounds have killed a few foxes, the young hounds are 

 put into the pack, two or three couple at a time, till all 

 have hunted. They are then divided ; and as I seldom 

 have occasion to take in more than nine or ten couple, 

 one half are taken out one day, the other half the next, 

 till all are steady. 



" Two other methods of entering young hounds I have 

 practised occasionally, as the number of hounds has 



