CUB-HUNTING. 237 



with a silent reproof that should be more cutting than the 

 whipper-in's stern "ware riot," to a young hound of proper feeling. 

 As the hounds know each other — which to put faith in implicitly, 

 which to mistrust as a forward youth who speaks before he is 

 perfectly sure of being right, and which must be watched closely 

 lest he steal away in jealous silence without giving a signal 

 by so much as one low whimper — so the huntsman gets to 

 know them and all their peculiarities in the months of intimate 

 association between August and November. Thus, and thus 

 only, can a pack be raised to such all-round perfection as the 

 Badminton has long been celebrated for. 



Most hunts have to be content with a more rapid and much less 

 complete process of training for the work of each season. They 

 may be divided broadly into two classes, one having such vast 

 extent of woodlands that a run in the open is of rare occurrence, 

 and the other coverts so small and far apart that, even in the early 

 days of Cub-hunting, hounds rarely kill without having some sort 

 of scurry across country. Woodland hunting pure and simple 

 does not suit the taste of everybody. It demands special 

 qualities both in the hounds and huntsman, while for full 

 enjoyment of it, followers need be deeply versed in all the 

 mysteries of woodcraft. The best huntsman in woodlands that 

 I ever knew seemed to trouble himself very little whether his 

 hounds stuck to one cub or changed to a fresh one, so long as 

 they kept well together ; but tendency to riot he would check 

 with a note Hke a thunderclap, and that was more effective than 

 any amount of thong the whipper-in could apply. If they kept 

 changing, so much the worse for them. Their reward was all the 

 longer in being earned, though perhaps the sweeter on that 



