'292 HUNTING DIRECTORY. 



French Method of 



they have learned this perfectly, they are stopped from 

 time to time, by the cry of back, tally-ho, as in the 

 chase: a flourish is then sounded, and they are made to 

 set off again with come along, softly, or a recheat. 



The dogs being as perfect in all these lessons as is re- 

 quired, they are uncoupled, and exercised on horseback, 

 at a foot pace and short trot, with the same number of 

 men, and in the same situations, in all they have been 

 daily taught on foot. Above all things, care is taken 

 not to give them ardour, to check them at every object 

 capable of taking off their attention, and even to ahght, 

 to correct, immediately, such as begin to chatter. 



When the dogs are complete masters of all that has 

 before been taught them, both on horseback and on foot, 

 a still more difficult task succeeds — that is, to walk them 

 out in the plains, in the midst of hares, without mani- 

 festing any ardour. For this purpose, they are coupled 

 in troops of six or eight at most, and led by valets on 

 foot, who take them to the plain best stocked with hares, 

 through which the men proceed, at the distance of one 

 hundred yards from each other. The young hounds 

 are all eager to pursue the first hare that is started ; each 

 valet takes notice of those dogs who prick their ears 

 most, falls upon them with his whip, crying, ha hey, les 

 vilains, ha hey, derriere, and continues his way. At 

 each new fault he repeats the same correction, till the 

 dogs draw back, instead of advancing, when they per- 

 ceive a hare. This lesson being repeated two days suc- 

 cessively, the dogs are then taken out, simply coupled. 

 The person who is at their head keeps attentively on the 

 look out for all the hares that may be started : as soon 



