158 HUNTING DIRECTORY. 



Of Casting 



" When you try a furze brakcy let me give you one 

 caution : never halloo a fox till you see he is got quite 

 clear of it. When a fox is found in such places, hounds 

 are sure to go off" well at him ; and it must be owing 

 either to bad scent, bad hounds, bad management, or 

 bad luck, if they fail to kill him afterwards. Huntsmen, 

 whilst their hounds are drawing, or are at fault, fre- 

 quently make so much noise themselves, that they can 

 hear nothing else ; they should always have an ear to a 

 halloo. 



" Though a huntsman ought to be as silent as possible 

 at going into a cover, he cannot be too noisy at coming 

 out of it again ; and if at any time he should turn back 

 suddenly, let him give as much notice of it as he can to 

 his hounds, or he will leave many of them behind him ; 

 and, should he turn down the wind, he may see no more 

 of them. 



''Though I Uke to see fox hounds cast wide and for- 

 ward, and dislike to see them pick a cold scent through 

 flocks of sheep to no purpose, yet I must beg leave to 

 observe, that I dislike still more to see that unaccount- 

 able hurry, which huntsmen will sometimes put themselves 

 into, the moment their hounds are at fault. Time ought 

 always to be allowed them, to make their own cast ; and 

 if a huntsman is judicious, he will take that opportunity 

 to consider, what part he himself has next to act ; but 

 instead of this, I have seen hounds hurried away the 

 very instant they came to a fault, a wide cast made, and 

 the hounds at last brought back to the very spot whence 

 they were so abruptly taken, and where, if the huntsman 

 had had a minute's patience, they would have hit off the 



