188 HUNTING DIRECTORY. 



01 Riding to Hounds. 



by the side of them, or will place themselves for a mo- 

 ment, though it be to halloo a fox ; it is true, they will 

 not fail to halloo if he comes in their way, and they will 

 do the same to as many foxes as they see. Some will 

 encourage hounds which they do not know ; it is a great 

 fault : were every gentleman who follows hounds to fancy 

 himself a huntsman, what noise, what confusion, would 

 ensue ! I consider many of them as gentlemen riding out, 

 knd I am never so well pleased as when I see them riding 

 home again. You may perhaps have thought that I 

 wished them all to be huntsmen. Most certainly not ; 

 but the more assistance a huntsman has, the better, in 

 all probability, his hounds will be. Good sense, and a 

 little observation, will soon prevent such people from 

 doing amiss ; and I hold it as almost an invariable rule in 

 hunting, that those who do not know how to do good, 

 are always liable to do harm : there is scarcely an instant 

 during the whole chase, when a sportsman ought not to 

 be in one particular place : and I will venture to say, that 

 if he is not tliere^ he might as well be in his bed." Not- 

 withstanding the above assertion that the more assistance 

 a huntsman receives the better, I am of opinion that the 

 huntsman should be as little interfered with as possible. 

 I have generally observed, that those gentlemen who are 

 the most busy and forward in giving advice seldom un- 

 derstand the business sufficiently, to render it acceptable 

 or pleasing. Nothing can be more obvious than the 

 situation in which gentlemen should place themselves 

 during the run, as no person but the huntsman and his 

 assistants should be within a certain space of the hounds : 

 it is true, when the scent is good, those who are not well 



