138 HUNTING DIRECTORY. 



Various Methods of 



chastise them if they deserve it : it is always best to cor- 

 rect them when they cannot help knowing what they are 

 corrected for. When you send out your hounds for 

 this purpose, the later they go out, I think, the better ; 

 as the worse the scent is, the less incUnable will they be 

 to run it, and of course will give less trouble in stopping 

 them. It is a common practice with huntsmen to flog 

 their hounds most unmercifully in the kennel : I have al- 

 ready told you I like it not ; but if many of your hounds 

 are obstinately riotous, you may with less impropriety 

 put a live hare into the kennel to them, flogging them 

 as often as they approach her ; they will then have some 

 notion at least, for what they are beaten : but, let me 

 entreat you, before this chaviari begins, to draft off your 

 steady hounds : an animal to whom we owe so much 

 good diversion, should not be ill used unnecessarily. — 

 When a hare is put into the kennel, the huntsman and 

 both the whippers-in should be present, and the whip- 

 pers-in should flog every hound, calling him by his name, 

 and rating him as often as he is near the hare, and upon 

 this occasion they cannot cut them too hard, or rate them 

 too much ; when they think they have chastised them 

 enough, the hare should be taken away, the huntsman 

 should halloo off his hounds, and the whippers-in should 

 rate them to him. — If any one loves a hare more than 

 the rest, you may tie a dead one round his neck, flogging 

 him and rating him at the same time. 



" I would advise you to hunt your large covers with 

 your young hounds ; it will tire them out ; a necessary 

 step towards making them steady; and will open the 

 cover against the time you begin to hunt in earnest, and 

 by disturbing the large covers early in the year, foxes 



