152 HUNTING DIRECTORY. 



Slow Huntsmen improper for Fox-hounds. 



tunity of observing the motions of Richards : I pro- 

 ceeded to Lord Harewood's hunt, where the operations 

 of George Payne (his lordship's huntsman) formed a 

 striking contrast to those of Richards. The hounds 

 must, in a certain degree, take their tone and manner 

 from the character of the huntsman : — the Badsworth 

 are quick and active ; Lord Harewood's are more slow 

 and more philosophical. There was one hound in par- 

 ticular in Lord Harewood's pack that struck my atten- 

 tion : I remarked to Payne, the huntsman, that I was 

 much pleased with the hound in question : — " That 

 hoxmd, Sir, (said he) would hunt through York Min- 

 ster." 



Slow huntsmen will kill but very few foxes : they are 

 in fact a check upon their hounds ; which, with a high 

 scent only, are able to run up to their game ; when it is 

 indeed out of the huntsman's power to prevent it. " What 

 avails it to be told which way the fox is gone when he 

 is so far before that you cannot hunt him ? A New- 

 market boy, with a good understanding and a good 

 voice, might be preferable perhaps to an indifferent and 

 slack huntsman ; he would press on his hounds while the 

 scent was good, and the foxes he killed, he would kill 

 handsomely. — A perfect knowledge of the intricacies of 

 hunting is chiefly of use to slow huntsmen and bad hounds, 

 since they more often stand in need of it. — Activity is 

 the first requisite in a huntsman to a pack of fox-hounds ; 

 a want of it no judgment can make amends for ; but the 

 most difficult of all his undertakings is the distinguishing 

 of different scents, and knowing, with any certainty, the 

 scent of the hunted fox. Much speculation is here re~ 



