baron Henry Verney Willoughby de Broke

“ When I began hunting, whippers-in did not look to be huntsmen before they were well past thirty. Nowadays it is no uncommon thing to find the huntsman the youngest of the three servants. I do not mean to say that a huntsman should not ride; of course, he should ride up to his hounds and see how far they have carried the scent, but everyone can ride if he only gets a horse good enough; the difficulty is to get a man who knows when to ride, and will do so only to get to his hounds, and not to win the approbation of an ignorant field. But always mount your men well, if only for economy’s sake ”

“ The man who hunts the hounds should always feed them; not because feeding them makes them any fonder of you, but because the huntsman knows, or ought to know, how much each hound requires. Never let them eat to repletion; if you do, what is the result? In every pack there are some slow, shy feeders: while these are playing with their food the greedy ones are fairly gorging themselves. The next day’s hunting will find the light feeders some two or three fields ahead of the gorgers, to the detriment of the looks and sport of the pack. Years ago hounds were always washed after hunting. ”

“ When you have made up your mind to go to a holloa, take your hounds off their noses and travel along. Do not, if you can help it, let them hunt again till you have found out from the man who holloaed exactly which way the fox really went. He very likely turned him, and the hounds may take it heel way: it is poor consolation to be told by a grinning rustic, after the hounds have settled with a good cry, “They be a running back scent.” It is easier to strike the line heel way than people think. Casting you may get on the heel line of another fox which has left the covert since you did. ”

“ The majority of hunting-men seem to think that, if a man or a boy will only jump big places, he must be a good huntsman, and boys get pitchforked into good places as huntsmen before they know how to whip-in or even to behave. ”

“ Remember you are one of the luckiest men in the world, paid for doing what is or what ought to be your greatest pleasure. Do not be down-hearted if you get into a run of bad luck and are tempted to think you will never catch a fox again, and when you hear things said which would try the patience of Job. Luck will change, and you will begin to think you can never lose a fox again. Talk to your hounds and make much of them; never speak angrily or uncivilly to them. Whatever you do, always try and get them to think they are doing it all themselves. ”

“ If you can manage to get half the pack in the road and the other half in two lots on each of it, you are in a capital position; and when those in the road throw up you can press on without fear of overrunning the scent. Do not hurry the hounds in a road, and beware how you encourage one that is always making a hit under these circumstances. If you make too much of him you will turn him into a rogue. Always acknowledge to your master when you have lost the fox, and do not go dragging on, and slip the hounds into a covert and count the fresh fox you find as the one you have been hunting. ”

“ Be careful how you breed your hounds. In forming a pack you will have to be dependent, in a great measure, on sires from other packs. But do not be tempted to run after a hound because he has won at Peterborough, or is very good-looking, or is even said to be very good in his work, if he comes of a strain that you do not like, or if his pedigree contains a lot of soft blood, or if his ancestors come from a kennel that you cannot trust. A chance-bred foxhound is like a chance-bred racehorse: he may be very good at his work, but he is worthless for breeding. ”

“ In a grass country no hound, however big, can jump a stake-and-bound fence with a ditch to him, to say nothing of bullfinches, and small hounds do get through these fences quicker and with less tailing than big ones. In a wall or bank country I do not suppose it matters so much, though I doubt whether big hounds are able to jump better than small ones. Foxes must be bustled to be killed. Mr Jorrocks says: “Full well he knows, to kill their fox they must have nose,” but also he knows “that to kill their fox they must press him at some period or other of the chase.” ”

“ Sport for the field cannot be said to begin till November 1, but it is in the two or three months prior to this that a pack of hounds is made or marred, and these months must be given up to the Master and Huntsman to make the pack. I am fairly astonished to see that some establishments have actually taken to advertising their cub-hunting fixtures. This is the height of folly. There is no greater nuisance than a parcel of men, women, and grooms, the two former most likely smoking, all of them out on fresh horses, and talking in the rides of a covert. ”

“ At your own puppy show, if your master is foolish enough to allow your health to be drunk, simply acknowledge the compliment, and do not follow the present practice of huntsmen in making what you doubtless think is a clever and facetious speech.
When the hunting season is over, and your young hounds will go pretty quietly without couples, get on the hacks and have the old hounds also out. I do not mean to fast exercise, but long walking exercise, keeping under the trees and in the shade as much as possible. Anything is better for hounds than lying all day on the hot flags. ”

“ Of course, you must have plenty of good walks to breed a good pack of hounds, so that you can mercilessly afford to draft mute, noisy, skirting, or lame hounds, without getting your pack too short. A puppy show and a luncheon after it are good things; but do not have your huntsman’s health proposed. Indulgence in post-prandial rhetoric save by the experienced is apt to be dangerous. If you, or your huntsman, or both of you, are new to the country, I should say certainly go cub-hunting yourself every morning, so as to learn the locality yourself, or show it to your huntsman, as the case may be. ”

“ Well, I suppose there are hounds more tender-nosed than others, and if these are found out they should, of course, be bred from. But I am not quite sure that dash, intelligence, and perseverance do not ensure what is called a good nose. A hound may have ever such a sensitive organ of smell, but he is no use if he is shy, idle, or slack. Any hound will run hard on a real good-scenting day, but give me one who will try for you on a bad-scenting day; who will jump a gate when casting himself, and will jump it back again if he does not hit the line off ”

“ If you are a good way ahead of the hounds, and the hunted fox comes up to you and lies down, and you hear the pack hunting up to him, let him lie; watch him, but do not say a word. Every minute he lies there is bringing his enemies nearer to him, and making his death more certain. Of course, if the hounds are manifestly at fault, or have changed on to a fresh fox, you must attract the huntsman’s attention somehow. In the open this can generally be done by holding up your cap without moving the fox ”

“ Unless the fox goes straight away up wind, it is almost always better to blow your hounds out at a place where the fox has not gone, and lay them on all together. Always have one way of blowing when the fox is away—one that neither the field nor the hounds can mistake—and unless the latter are running very hard, you will see how they will come tumbling out to it. All hounds hate struggling in thick covert, and are more or less anxious to get away. ”

“ When you come to the first check it is almost a certainty that the fox has turned right or left. Of course, if a good one, he may turn again and make his original point, so do not sit still. Try and keep the field off the hounds, and encourage them to try, up wind at first if possible: the fox has most likely turned down wind, but the hounds will almost swing their own cast unaided up wind; and if the fox has turned in this direction and they hit him off, he is yours; nothing but an open drain can save him. ”

“ Always remember you are the servant of your master, not of the field, and his orders should always be not to get away in the open in the cub-hunting season.
In regular hunting the whole system is reversed. Then you try and get away with the first fox that leaves, presumably the best one. If you cannot get all the hounds, and at all events enough to go on with, because the pack are running another, do not stand blowing, still less move a field or two away and blow, but gallop back as quickly as possible, get up wind of your hounds, and blow them away. ”

“ It is not sufficient to drop the food down before the puppy; you must stay and see that he eats it. Yellows is a much more dangerous disease than distemper, and coming with it, as it often does, is almost always fatal. Calomel in some form or other seems to be the only remedy, and that a very uncertain one. Never let the old and young hounds lodge or feed together till cub-hunting. If rabies breaks out, it almost always comes from some hound having been bitten at quarters. If you have once had rabies in your kennel you will never forget it. ”

“ Keep your hounds moving right up to cub-hunting, and have them on the light side to begin with, or if the weather is hot they will tire before the foxes, get disgusted, do themselves no end of harm, and will very likely leave the foxes instead of breaking them up properly. It is a grand thing for hounds if you can show them some riot just before throwing them into a covert where you are sure to find a litter of cubs. Allow plenty of time to get to the meet; five to six miles an hour is quite fast enough, but when cub-hunting you can travel a bit faster than in regular hunting. ”

“ In a small covert let the best foxes who break covert first go, and stay and kill the worst one, but never be tempted by what anybody says to try and have a run in the open.
It is all very well for those who come out. Their horses are fresh, as they have been standing about, while you and your whippers-in have been working yours hard. They can jump or not as they like, and if they lose the hounds they can go back to breakfast, while you and the whippers-in must stick to the hounds at all costs. ”

“ Some come to hand easily, but there are some that will beat any pack of hounds, unless at some time or other in the run they are hard pressed for half-an-hour at least; indeed, there are some foxes who seem, over grass, in dryish weather, to be able to keep going nearly all day. It is certainly not bone which enables hounds to catch foxes of this sort. They must have good necks and shoulders, and they must be in tiptop condition. That is how the foxes are killed, by care and careful conditioning in the kennel, and by being in good heart and confidence, with plenty of blood. ”

“ Similarly, when your fox is beat, and you see him before hounds, hold your tongue, and by no means take them off their noses unless you are perfectly certain you can give them a view. If the fox pops through a hedge and they do not see him, you will have lost a lot of time, as the hounds will not hunt for a few minutes, but will stand staring about, expecting to see the fox. The only time it is allowable to lift them after a beaten fox is when they are running for a head of open earth or a covert full of fresh foxes. But never, under any circumstances, go and ride the fox, leaving your hounds. ”

“ If they are running with even a moderate scent, the whippers-in will do more good by acting in this way than by galloping on to the end for a view, as they will run no risk of heading the fox and perhaps spoiling the run of the season. If the fox keeps straight on the hounds will run him if there is any scent at all, but he will very likely be lost if the whole establishment goes forward and he lies down and slips back without being seen. ”

“ There is a good deal of nonsense talked about looks in these days, but, depend on it, the best working hounds in a pack are never the worst-looking, though, of course, a real beauty, a Peterborough winner, may turn out useless in the field. ”