xii OBSERVATIONS ON FOX-HUNTING 



main characteristics of the true Foxhound. Hounds treated 

 in this manner will strive to help each other on those un- 

 avoidable occasions when the huntsman cannot be with them, 

 having regard to the fact that he is generally in his right 

 place. 



If, on the other hand, the huntsman is alwaj's a mile or 

 two behind, the hounds will presently not think it worth 

 while to persevere, and will lose their dash. But a hard- 

 riding huntsman who never allows liis hounds to hunt, may 

 in fact be the slowest in the world, although he may appear 

 to be quick. He will snatch their heads off the ground, 

 gallop them away, and may even cause a lot of diversion 

 and some empty saddles by giving his field a lead over the 

 fences. But in nine cases out of ten, he is bound to get farther 

 away from the line, and in a very short time will ruin his pack. 

 This is the worst kind of slowness. 



But now let us turn to Colonel Cook, whose book, containing 

 as it does the considered opinions of one who, without the 

 aid of environment or the spur of tradition, and with a purse 

 by no means too well filled, devoted his whole life and energies 

 to the calling that he loved, must take a very high place on 

 the shelves of a sporting library. One cannot close it without 

 having conceived something like a real affection for this true 

 Foxhunter whose spirit breathes through every line of it ; 

 and if it were given to us to ring up the curtain of time, we 

 could not ask for the revival of a more interesting scene than 

 that of Colonel Cook and his faithful Jack Cole cheering their 

 pack to victory over the Roothings of Essex. 



