OBSERVATIONS ON FOX-HUNTING 77 



of meeting with such men, it would not be so 

 indispensable for you to hunt your own hounds ; 

 but huntsmen, generally speaking, are conceited, 

 headstrong, and ignorant, — and fancy they know 

 better where the fox is gone than the hounds 

 do ; although a very clever man, and an admirable 

 judge of hunting, assures us, 



" That foxhound never yet could tell, 

 Unless he took the pains to smell, 

 Where Reynard went ! " 



Many servants think lifting hounds, hallooing, 

 and blowing the horn, are the only qualities 

 requisite for a huntsman. 



A system once followed by a huntsman (now 

 gone to ground), is so very bad a one, that I 

 anticipate it will not for a moment meet your 

 approbation ; it was always condemned by me, 

 and quite different to the one I practised. The 

 hounds were never permitted to hunt through 

 difficulties ; the moment they came to a check 

 they were galloped away to some earth or covert, 

 either with the false notion of " giving him a 

 meeting " (as they termed it,) or else to take 

 the chance of his having gone into the wood, or 

 finding a fresh fox, which of course was always 

 claimed as the hunted one. I was informed the 

 pack were so accustomed to it, that the moment 



