Lord Spencer s Mastership. 205 



hunting a fox, tlie amateur is not a wliit behind tlie 

 professional. 



The dislike to the gentleman-Huntsman that prevailed 

 so strongly for a while, seems to have yielded to the feel- 

 ing- that in the matter of handling hounds in the field he 

 is little, if at all, inferior to the '*" regular dustman/' 



The main advantage that the Professional has over the 

 Amateur, living as he often does away from the kennels, 

 is his constant presence among the hounds. No skill will 

 compensate for that lack of sympathy between a pack 

 of hounds and their huntsman, which is the inevitable 

 consequence of leaving them over-much to the care 

 and society of some other person. An hour or so spent 

 occasionally in the kennel will scarcely be sufficient to 

 generate that passionate attachment which leads the 

 hound to rejoice in his Master's scent and presence, and 

 causes him to come at once to the sound of his voice or 

 the blast of his horn. A fox is already half killed when 

 his pursuers come quickly out of cover, and this is rarely 

 the case unless the scent be good, and they be pretty 

 close upon his back. The cracking thong and the " ger 

 away to him " of the angry Whip, will have little efiect 

 if the scent be bad, and he who is " blowing away '' out- 

 side the cover has failed to endear himself to his hounds 

 by being constantly with and amongst them. On the 

 other hand, a few words in the customary '^ lingua canina " 

 from their own familiar friend, will cause every rightly- 

 thinking hound to hurry to the well-known voice. In 

 drawing a comparison between the amateur and the pro- 

 fessional Huntsman, it would seem that if the former be 

 willing to make a slave of himself and undertake the 

 carrying out his duties in a similar manner to the 



