HUNTING DIRECTORY. 223 



Ofa Check and Fault 



bility she will soon do, as she now flatters herself she is 

 secure. When the scent hes bad in cover, she will 

 sometimes hunt the hounds. 



The covert's utmost bound 



Slily she skirts ; behind them cautious creeps, 

 And in that very track, so lately stain'd 

 By all the steaming crowd, seems to pursue 

 The foe she flies." — Sojis-rvilf.. 



Allien the hounds are at a check, make your huntsman 

 stand still, nor suffer him to move his horse one way or 

 the other : hounds lean naturally towards the scent, and 

 if he does not say a word to them, will soon recover it. 

 If you speak to a hound at such a time, calling him by 

 his name, which is too much the practice, he seldom 

 fails to look up in your face, as much as to say, what the 

 deuce do you want ? When he stoops to the scent 

 again, is it not probable he means to say, you fool you, 

 let me alone! 



" When your hounds are at fault, let not a word be 

 said. In a good day, good hounds seldom give up the 

 scent at head ; if they do, there is generally an obvious 

 reason for it : this observation a huntsman should always 

 make : it will direct his cast. If he is a good one, he 

 will be attentive as he goes, not only to his hounds, nicely 

 observing which have the lead, and the degree of scent 

 they carry, but also to the various circumstances that 

 are continually happening from change of weather, and 

 difference of ground. He will also be mindful of the 

 distance which the hare keeps before the hounds, and 

 of her former doubles, and he will remark what point 



