LETTER VI

After the young hounds have been rounded and are well reconciled to the kennel, know the huntsman, and begin to know their names, they should be put into couples, and walked out amongst sheep.

If any be particularly snappish and troublesome, you should leave the couples loose about their necks in the kennel, till you find they are more reconciled to them. If any be more stubborn than the rest, you should couple them to old hounds rather than to young ones; and you should not couple two dogs together, when you can avoid it. Young hounds are awkward at first; I should therefore advise you to send out a few only at a time, with your people on foot; they will soon afterwards become handy enough to follow a horse; and care should be taken that the couples be not too loose, lest they should slip their necks out of the collar, and give trouble in catching them again.

When they have been walked often in this manner amongst the sheep, you may then uncouple a few at a time, and begin to chastise such as offer to run after them; but you will soon find that the cry of ware sheep, will stop them sufficiently without the whip; and the less this is used the better. With proper care and attention, you will soon make them ashamed of it; but if once suffered to taste blood, you may find it difficult to reclaim them. Various are the methods used to break such dogs from sheep: some will couple them to a ram, but that is breaking them with a vengeance: you had better hang them. A late lord of my acquaintance, who had heard of this method, and whose whole pack had been often guilty of killing sheep, determined to punish them, and to that intent put the largest ram he could find into his kennel. The men with their whips and voices, and the ram with his horns, soon put the whole kennel into confusion and dismay; and the hounds and the ram were then left together. Meeting a friend soon after, “Come,” says he, “come with me to the kennel, and see what rare sport the ram makes among the hounds: the old fellow lays about him stoutly, I assure you. Egad he trims them: there is not a dog dares look him in the face.” His friend, who is a compassionate man, pitied the hounds exceedingly, and asked, if he was not afraid that some of them might be spoiled? “No; d—n them,” said he, “they deserve it, and let them suffer.” On they went: all was quiet: they opened the kennel door, but saw neither ram nor hound. The ram by this time was entirely eaten up, and the hounds, having filled their bellies, were retired to rest.

Without doubt it is best, when you air your hounds, to take them out separately; the old ones one day, another day the young:¹ but as I find your hounds are to have their whey at a distant dairy, on those days both old and young may be taken out together, observing only to take the young hounds in couples when the old ones are along with them. Young hounds are always ready for any kind of mischief, and idleness might make even old ones too apt to join them in it. Besides, should they break off from the huntsman, the whipper-in is generally too ill-mounted at this season of the year, easily to head and bring them back. Run no such risk. My hounds were near being spoiled by the mere accident of a horse’s falling: the whipper-in was thrown from his horse; the horse ran away, and the whole pack followed: a flock of sheep, which were at a little distance, took fright, began to run, and the hounds pursued them: the most vicious set on the rest, and several sheep were soon pulled down and killed. I mention this, to show you what caution is necessary while hounds are idle; for though the fall of the horse was not to be attributed to any fault of the man, yet had the old hounds been taken out by themselves, or had all the young ones been in couples, it is probable that so common an accident would not have produced so extraordinary an effect.

It is now time to stoop them to a scent. You had better enter them at their own game; it will save you much trouble afterwards. Many dogs, I believe, like that scent best which they were first blooded to; but be that as it may, it is certainly most reasonable to use them to that which it is intended they should hunt. It may not be amiss, when they first begin to hunt, to put light collars on them. Young hounds may easily get out of their knowledge; and shy ones, after they have been much beaten, may not choose to return home: collars in that case, may prevent their being lost.

You say, you should like to see your young hounds run a trail-scent. I have no doubt that you would be glad to see them run over an open down, where you could so easily observe their action and their speed. I cannot think the doing of it once or twice could hurt your hounds; and yet, as a sportsman, I dare not recommend it to you. All that I shall say of it is, that it would be less bad than entering them at hare. A cat is as good a trail as any; but on no account should any trail be used after your hounds are stooped to a scent.

I know an old sportsman who enters his young hounds first at a cat, which he drags along the ground for a mile or two, at the end of which he turns out a badger, first taking care to break his teeth: he takes out about two couple of old hounds along with the young ones, to hold them on. He never enters his young hounds but at vermin; for he says, “train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Summer hunting, though useful to young hounds, is prejudicial to old ones; I think, therefore, you will do well to reserve some of the best of your draft-hounds to enter your young hounds with, selecting such as are most likely to set them a good example. It is needless to tell you they should not be skirters, but, on the contrary, should be fair-hunting hounds; such as love a scent, and that hunt closest on the line of it: it will be necessary that some of them should be good finders, and all must be steady. Thus you procure for your young hounds the best instructors, and at the same time prevent two evils which would necessarily ensue, were they taught by the whole pack— one, that of corrupting, and getting into scrapes, such as are not much wiser than themselves; and the other, that of occasioning much flogging and rating, which always shies and interrupts the hunting of an old hound. An old hound is a sagacious animal, and is not fond of trusting himself in the way of an enraged whipper-in, who, as experience has taught him, can flog severely, and can flog unjustly. By attending to this advice, you will improve one part of your pack, without prejudice to the other; while such as never separate their young hounds from the old, are not likely to have any of them steady.

You ask, at what time you should begin to enter your young hounds? that question is easily answered; for you certainly should begin with them as soon as you can. The time must vary in different countries: in corn countries, it may not be possible to hunt till after the corn is cut; in grass countries, you may begin sooner; and, in woodlands, you may hunt as soon as you please. If you have plenty of foxes, and can afford to make a sacrifice of some of them, for the sake of making your young hounds steady, take them first where you have least riot, putting some of the steadiest of your old hounds amongst them. If in such a place you are fortunate enough to find a litter of foxes, you may assure yourself you will have but little trouble with your young hounds afterwards.²

Such young hounds as are most riotous at first, generally speaking, I think, are best in the end. A gentleman in my neighbourhood was so thoroughly convinced of this, that he complained bitterly of a young pointer to the person who gave it him, because he had done no mischief. However, meeting the same person some time after, he told him the dog, he believed, would prove a good one at last. “How so?” demanded his friend; “it was but the other day that you said he was good for nothing.” “True; but he has killed me nineteen turkeys since that.”

If, owing to a scarcity of foxes, you should stoop your hounds at hare, let them by no means have the blood of her; nor, for the sake of consistency, give them any encouragement. Hare-hunting has one advantage: hounds are chiefly in open ground, where you can easily command them; but, notwithstanding that, if foxes be in tolerable plenty, keep them to their own game, and forget not the advice of the old sportsman.

Frequent hallooing is of use with young hounds: it keeps them forward, prevents their being lost, and hinders them from hunting after the rest. The oftener, therefore, a fox is seen and hallooed, the better: it serves to let them in, makes them eager, makes them exert themselves, and teaches them to be handy. I must tell you, at the same time I say this, that I by no means approve of much hallooing to old hounds; and though I frequently am guilty of it myself, it is owing to my spirits, which lead me into an error which my judgment condemns. It is true, there is a time when hallooing is of use, a time when it does hurt, and a time when it is perfectly indifferent; but it is long practice, and great attention to hunting, that must teach you the application.³

Hounds, at their first entering, cannot be encouraged too much. When they are become handy, love a scent, and begin to know what is right, it will be soon enough to chastise them for doing wrong; in which case, one severe beating will save a deal of trouble. You should recommend to your whipper-in, when he flogs a hound, to make use of his voice as well as his whip; and let him remember, that the smack of the whip is often of as much use as the lash, to one that has felt it.⁴ If any be very unsteady, it will not be amiss to send them out by themselves, when the men go out to exercise their horses. If you have hares in plenty, let some be found sitting, and turned out before them; and you will soon find the most riotous will not run after them. If you intend them to be made steady from deer, they should often see deer, and they will not regard them; and if, after a probation of this kind, you turn out a cub before them, with some old hounds to lead them on, you may assure yourself they will not be unsteady long; for, as Somerville rightly observes,

Flogging hounds in the kennel (the frequent practice of most huntsmen) I hold in abhorrence: it is unreasonable, unjust, and cruel; and, carried to the excess we sometimes see it, is a disgrace to humanity. Hounds that are old offenders, that are very riotous, and at the same time very cunning, it may be difficult to catch; such hounds may be excepted; they deserve punishment wherever taken, and you should not fail to give it them when you can. This, you will allow, is a particular case, and necessity may excuse it; but let not the peace and quiet of your kennel be often thus disturbed. When your hounds offend, punish them; when caught in the fact, then let them suffer; and, if you be severe, at least be just.

When your young hounds stoop to a scent, are become handy, know a rate, and stop easily, you may then begin to put them into the pack, a few only at a time: nor do I think it advisable to begin this, till the pack have been out a few times by themselves, and are gotten well in blood. I should also advise you to take them the first day where they are most sure to find; as long rest makes all hounds riotous, and they may do that en gaieté de cœur, which they would not think of at another time. Let your hounds be low in flesh when you begin to hunt: the ground is generally hard at that season, and they are liable to be shaken.

If your covers be large, you will find the straight horn of use; and I am sorry to hear that you do not approve of it. You ask me why I like it?—not as a musician, I can assure you. It signifies little, in our way, what the noise is, as long as it is understood.

¹It would be better still, to take out your hounds every day, the old and young separately, when it can be done without inconvenience; when it cannot, a large grass-court will partly answer the same purpose.

[²The first time you take out the entry at the commencement of the cub-hunting season, go, if possible, to a small covert or spinney where you are certain there is a litter of cubs, and use every means in your power to catch one. Don’t make the young hounds sick by drawing unlikely places first.]

[³There is only one person whose voice should be heard cheering hounds, and that is the huntsman. Different people holloaing confuse both young and old hounds. A whipper-in with a good voice may do a great deal of harm, and he should be told never to speak except a rate or in putting the pack on to their huntsman. The Duke of Beaufort and Lord Lonsdale supply their huntservants with whistles to use instead of holloaing away from a covert, and I am surprised this excellent plan has not become more general.]

[⁴Hounds, like children, should never be unjustly punished, and should never be punished if a rating will serve the purpose. The education and correction of a pack should be done in private, not before a large field.]