CUB-HUNTING 139 



may be of any colour. Black and white, with tanned 

 muzzles, and badger-pied, were my favourites ; but 

 lighter-coloured hounds look more brilliant in the field, 

 although I do not think they are so hardy in their 

 constitutions. 



It was my practice to commence cub-himting about 

 the first week in August, at early dawn, which enabled 

 us to finish our morning's work by eight or nine o'clock. 

 Dressing by candle-hght is not an over-agreeable occupa- 

 tion ; yet, as huntsman to my own pack, I was perforce 

 obliged to take the rough and the smooth together. 



Early to bed and early to rise, 



Is the way to be healthy, wealthy, and wise. 



But getting up in the middle of the night was not much 

 to my taste, although, when the weather is hot, it is a 

 necessary duty in a huntsman at the beginning of cub- 

 hunting. After the first week, however, there is no 

 necessity for going out so very early, although the scent 

 lies better when the dew is on the ground, and the hounds 

 suffer less from heat. 



Hunting in the evening is no recent discovery ; for we 

 find, in the reigns of Charles and James the Second, the 

 time of meeting to hunt the buck commenced at four 

 o'clock in the afternoon ; and the custom then was for 

 the sportsmen to take a light repast at two o'clock, and 

 have their dinner at the most fashionable hour of the 

 present day. 



It has been said, perhaps with more truth than we 

 are generally incUned to beheve in this enlightened era, 

 that " there is nothing new under the sun." We plume 

 ourselves on being in advance of every age or generation 

 of mankind which has preceded us in scientific knowledge ; 



