COUNTRY PRACTICE.

BY GELERT.

"Hunting is the soul of a country life; it gives health to the body and content to the mind; and is one of the few pleasures we can enjoy in society without prejudice either to ourselves or our friends."

BECKFORD.

Hurrah for the scre and yellow leaf! thrice welcome are the woodlands when clad in their sombre suit! their appearance may betoken the decay and dissolution of nature to one portion of mankind, but the other will regard it as the dawning of an auspicious day," big with joys tumultuous." About the first of November the woodlands strip for business; and by the end of that month their condition is such as to tempt even a hermit to take his pastime therein-Hurrah for the sere and yellow leaf! By the first of November hounds become stripped of superfluous flesh, and a stock of muscle is laid on that carries them triumphantly through a winter's campaign: foxes too, no longer cubs— curled up in their kennel of fresh-fallen leaves, prick up their ears with an anxious look as they listen to the distant tramp of the coming steed; and the first blast of the horn, already too well known to be disregarded, is the signal for a hasty and precipitous flight.

First impressions are as important to hounds as they are to men; and it is of the utmost consequence to young entries that their first efforts should be crowned with success. Every huntsman is alive to this; and he knows that in proportion to the blood they have had in cub-hunting, so, generally, will their sport be determined during a great part of the season: hounds after blood are like troops after conquest; the prestige of victory induces a belief that they are unconquerable. Cub-hunting, in all countries where it is practicable, and there are few where it is not, should commence early in August, instead of September as is now generally the case. A month makes a vast difference in the strength and running of a cub; and it is far more important a young hound should get his first blood easily and quickly, than have too long a fight for the mastership, torn and bruised as he will be by stubs and thorns, if he have taken to his work kindly.

Another grand object to be attained is the preparation of the country for November's sport, which cannot be done satisfactorily unless the covers have been well rattled. Many a good scenting day in November is thrown away, to the mortification of the "field," by the neglect or too tardy fulfilment of this duty. Foxes, it should be remembered, have their manners to learn as well as hounds; and the first months should be the schooling time for both. Besides, as Mr. Tom Smith very sensibly remarks, when young foxes have been once rattled, "they are not so easily found by fox-takers afterwards, or by keepers;" which is another very important point in every district, especially in a doubtful one, and, of course, the sooner they are rattled the better. During the cub-hunting season, as long as there is a fox in cover, so long should

the hounds be kept from breaking. Nine times out of ten the old fox is the first to quit. He has no tender compunction for his progeny ; but, like the leaders in a Chartist row, as soon as danger draws near he is the first to fly: "No. 1 is the first law of Nature," and "the Devil take the hindmost,' are the maxims which in emergency both adopt-fox and man. But, on the other hand, if the season have commenced, the one that breaks first is the fox for sport; if he hang not in cover, it is at once a proof he has confidence in himself and a point in view, to gain which he fears not to face the open, though at such fearful odds. A weak fox, or one that has not been rattled, will not do this, he will invariably run short and crooked; but let him be "seasoned" with a few lessons, and he, too, will make himself scarce at the first summons. Old foxes, however, are very apt to run short in covers much frequented by spaniels; they soon learn from experience that no great harm is intended by their language. They don't "swear hard oaths" like foxhounds, nor crash through the cover like a set of demons; they merely bustle and quest, and if they do disturb an old fox, he knows them to be but harmless invaders, and will scarcely quit his kennel to get out of their way. I allude now, be it observed, to foxes which are not found in a wild and moorland country; there cock-shooters and their teams of spaniels are a great annoyance to a pack of foxhounds; and during the beginning of November, when the first flights of woodcocks arrive, cover after cover may be drawn, and no fox foundHe goes where he can get quiet--either to ground, or to some boggy unapproachable spot, and does not take to his old quarters again till the scent of dog has evaporated and ceased to alarm him.

The fox in such a country is a much wilder animal than those bred in cultivated districts. Remote from the haunts of man, and dependant upon hard work for a scanty subsistence, he lives like a freebooternever off his guard; the slightest innovation alarms him, and with the first whimper he is gone. "And where does he go?" the bold reader may chance to say. He is found, my friend, in Over Brent wood, goes for ten miles on end, straight as the cormorant flies; and, with twenty couple screeching in his rear, never quails till he reaches the Holne Covers, on the north side of a fine grassy moor. The land of refuge is just a-head; but his strength fails him, he drops his brush, and dies in the desert! Well done, 66 Nemesis," good bitch; blood and bone will be served, and you have acted brilliantly, like a prima donna, throughout the piece.

The quantity of rain that fell during the months of September and October last, though it flooded the country, was yet, on the whole, favourable to hounds and horses. The covers, if heavy, were agreeably cool and airy; and the usual order of peep-o'-day work was quite superseded in consequence. Milton's cock might have strutted a long time before his dames, and waited till he wanted his breakfast, ere he heard

"The hounds and horn

Cheerly rouse the slumb'ring morn;
From the side of some hoar hill,

Through the high wood echoing shrill."

In the beginning of the season I had the pleasure of renewing my acquaintance with Tom Wingfield, and Mr. Drake's hounds, after a lapse of thirteen years, never having seen them since the days of my

under-graduateship at Oxford. They met at the eastern end of Mr. Drake's country in Buckinghamshire; the cover, about fourteen acres, held a litter of foxes, but, unfortunately for the field, it had not been disturbed since last season. As soon as the hounds were thrown in, a general scurry ensued; and as the plot thickened in this small compass, the old fox slipped away, and stood over a fine vale country for Tingewick. The hounds, however, were running hard in cover, and could not be stopped in time to give him a brush, which he certainly would have been treated to, if he had not left his young-'uns in pawn: chopped one, then trotted away to Gawcott and Tingewick, where they soon found again: ran him smartly to and fro through the great covers, but he proved a foil-running, bad fox, and would not break at any price: on one occasion a dark hound bitch-I think they called her "Artful ”cut off the scent, and got away with her fox at least twenty minutes before the body of the pack; but Wingfield clapped on a-head, and threw them all in cleverly this manœuvre proved very successful: the fox broke cover, crossed a few fields, and was then suddenly and unaccountably lost in a road, just as the hounds were settling to their work whether he entered a drain, or vanished into thin air, or what not, the hounds could never own it again; the hounds made their cast, and Wingfield made his, but all to no purpose-instinct and judgment were alike at fault. I never saw a fox headed by an old woman, but it was irretrievably and hopelessly lost. There was a diminutive object, personating a man, at work in the road just where the hounds threw up, and I now have my suspicions that it would have proved an old woman-or, at least, of the epicene gender-if an investigation had been instituted on the spot.

Twenty-six couple of hounds came to the fixture-a mixed pack, dogs and bitches, the latter a remarkably handsome lot, full of bone, and standing level with the dog hounds, the standard of which averages twenty-three inches; the dog hounds, too, were models of bulk and beauty combined, and, barring a few throaty ones, would be deemed perfect at any cover side. But what does Mr. Tom Smith say — a great authority on these subjects-about such an imperfection? He says "that by getting rid of the throat the nose has gone with it; for a throaty hound has invariably a good nose." So thinks Mr. Drake undoubtedly, and so Tom Wingfield. The late Lord Kintore, who was a first-rate houndsman, was wont to say-" If you would have a killing pack, you must have hounds possessing various qualities: some that shine in quick work, and some in slow." And his lordship was right it is not the brilliant hound that kills the fox; the line hunter has quite as much to do with it, if not more; he steadies the pack in its headlong course, like the keel does a good ship when driving before the gale.

The line hunter does not attract much attention in his work, nor is he even known to those of the "field," who think less of the hound's performances than they do of the horse's; yet, if he figures not in front, he is always in a good place, and, what is of the greatest consequence in deep woodlands, when a fresh fox is afoot, to him must the huntsman look as the most likely hound to hold the line of the hunted fox; indeed, he is his sole dependence, if he cannot catch a view in such an emergency; for the flinging hound, and the hound that is wide

of his work, are the culprits that do the mischief when there are two

scents.

Mr. Drake's hounds are famous at once for their close-hunting powers and the pace they go when the scent serves; and though the few days I've had the pleasure of joining them were anything but favourable for hounds, yet they afforded a fair opportunity for testing their nose and perseverance, and were quite enough to convince me they can show a good hunting run in bad weather; and this it is that constitutes the difference in the sport shown by different packs. If hounds have been accustomed to much lifting, and have been taught to trust more to the huntsman's ability than to their own natural powersif, in fact, they won't " down with their noses" when difficulties arise, and are looking out for a clever cast or a professional "nick"-then, indeed, Somerville's advice would be most applicable:

"When ruddy streaks

At eve forebode a blust'ring, stormy day,

Or low'ring clouds blacken the mountain's brow,

....kindly spare

Thy sleeping pack, in their warm beds of straw."

For hounds accustomed to such practices as I have described invariably fail to show sport, and only increase the vexation which every one is disposed too readily to feel in bad weather.

All hounds can carry a good scent, and go the pace upon it; for the foxhound has naturally a dash of the hurricane in him, and he revels like a simoom in the desert when he is once set a-going with a fair wind; but it is the part of education and management to temper that spirit, and to direct him, when in difficulty, to stoop to his circumstances, to "pick through the sheep's stain," and to hold on an indifferent scent with fortitude and perseverance; and unless he is so handled, he will be found only headlong in prosperity, and beaten and downcast in adversity.

Except in the "best grass" countries, you get at least ten hunting runs for one "clipper;" therefore, how important and valuable is the quality of "stooping" when necessity requires it! Besides, to the man who delights in seeing hounds do their work, the former affords a treat which he does not get with the latter-a variation in the sport which is most charming to a true houndsman. That Wingfield lets his hounds alone as long as it is prudent to do so, no one who has hunted with Mr. Drake's pack will deny. He has none of "that unaccountable hurry which huntsmen will sometimes put themselves into the moment their hounds are at fault." He seems to have adopted the very words of Beckford as his text, and practised them accordingly-that "time ought always to be allowed hounds to make their own cast; and if a huntsman is judicious, he will take that opportunity to consider what part he himself has next to act." Again: "It is the judicious encouraging of hounds to hunt when they cannot run, and the preventing them from losing time by hunting too much when they might run, that distinguishes a good sportsman from a bad one." Wingfield is neither too quick nor too slow in his casts; and if Beckford were alive, I don't hesitate to say that Wingfield would be a huntsman after his own heart.

E E

TUESDAY, NOV. 7.-Met Mr. Drake's hounds at Charlton village ; found in Newbottle spinnies; had a very fast thing for 18 minutes, and killed in Rosamond's bower. Drew Jufkins' brake blank; but, in a turnip field close by, up he jumped ran him hard over a fine grass country to Farthinghoe, thence by Cockley brake, through the Goosehams, by Cotsford, and straight to Shelswell, where the hounds got very near their fox. Here, however, the pace slackened, gradually became worse and worse, and finally lost him at Newton Morrell. A very capital day's sport.

THURSDAY, Nov. 9, at Edgecot, on the Aylesbury side of Mr. Drake's country. Found in Finemere-hill; went away for Dottershall and Oving, through Titershall, skirted the rush beds, through Chinkwell, and killed him near Chilton. A good hunting run.

TUESDAY, NOV. 14.—Mr. Drake at Shelswell House; 26 couple of hounds at the fixture; found, and had a very sharp scurry for 40 minutes in a ring, when some mistake occurred about two scents. A fox had been viewed away; but whether it was the right or the wrong fox was not at all clear. The scent, certainly, did not improve, and we dropped into steady hunting, wherein the hounds behaved admirably; the horsemen not so well. Killed him in Chetwode Copse; time, from first find, two hours and thirty minutes. This fox makes up sixteen brace killed since the commencement of cub-hunting. In casting my eye over the field during chase, I could not help remarking that many of the old hands not only kept their places, but figured in front, as they were wont to do some fifteen or twenty years ago. They will pardon my using the word old. I know it is only properly applied to one person-the old gentleman; but when you are told, as you constantly are, that after forty years of age men decline from straight work, and ride with an eye to the Penates rather than to hounds, I maintain there are many, very many, striking exceptions in Mr. Drake's hunt; many who can teach their "tall, plump, cumb'rous youth" how to live with hounds, and can show them the way. The Squire himself can go, as he always could like go, 66 a man; upon Smuggler" he is quite at home. But where there are so many good ones among those I refer to, it would be almost invidious to name one as A 1, 66 as insignis inter omnes:" though all who know Mr. Drake's field will at once know to whom I allude. To say that Mr. Webb is a good rider would be to give him but small praise: he is not only a first-rate horseman, but he has an eye to hounds, which, if mounted on a jackass in condition, would enable him to see a hunting run in any country. But Mr. Webb is always well mounted, and consequently always in his place. A stranger cannot follow a better man; but he must have a clever one under him, and his heart must be in the right place, or he will soon lose his landmark. Lord Valencia, too, has been a right-down good performer for years; from the days he hunted with George Templer and Henry Taylor, at Stover, to the present time. Across country, on foot, as I have often heard both of the above gentlemen say, "no keeper in Devonshire was a match for him." Among the yeomen, too, there are some clipping riders, men that will see hounds, whatever the pace or country may be. Mr. Crawford, Mr. Foster, and King, of the Waterloo farm, upon his old mare, are of this "tower stamp.'

Mr. Drake's entry this season consists of about twelve couple, bred