224 HUNTING DIRECTORY. 



Of Casting Harriers. 



she makes to. All these observations will be of use, 

 should a long fault make his assistance necessary ; and 

 if the hare has headed back, he will carefully observe 

 whether she met any thing in her course to turn her, or 

 turned of her own accord. When he casts his hounds, 

 let him begin by making a small circle : if that will not 

 do, then let him try a larger : he afterwards may be at 

 liberty to persevere in any cast he may judge most likely. 

 As a hare generally revisits her old haunts, and returns 

 to the place where she was first found, if the scent is 

 quite gone, and the hounds can no longer hunt, that is 

 as likely a cast as any to recover her. Let him remember 

 this in all his casts, that the hounds are not to follow his 

 horse's heels ; nor are they to carry their heads high, 

 and noses in the air. At these times they must try for 

 the scent, or they will never find it ; and he is either to 

 make his cast slow or quick, as he perceives his hounds 

 try, and as the scent is either good or bad. 



" Give particular directions to your huntsman to 

 prevent his hounds, as much as he can, from chopping 

 hares. Huntsmen like to get blood at any rate ; and 

 when hounds are used to it, it would surprise you to see 

 how attentive they are to find opportunities. A hare 

 must be very wild, or very nimble, to escape them. I 

 remember, in a furzy country, that my hounds chopped 

 three hares in one morning ; for it is the nature of those 

 animals either to leap up before the hounds come near 

 them, and steal away, as it is called ; or else to lie close, 

 till they put their very noses upon them. Hedges also 

 are very dangerous : if the huntsman beats the hedge 

 himself, which is the usual practice, the hounds are 



