Part 51

A huntsman must take care, where foxes are in plenty, that he does not run the heel; for it frequently happens that hounds can run the wrong way of the scent better than they can the right, when one is up the wind, and the other down.

When a huntsman hears a halloo, and has five or six couple of hounds along with him, the pack not running, let him get forward with those which he has: when they are on the scent, the others will soon join them.

Let him lift his tail hounds, and get them forward after the rest: it can do no hurt. But let him be cautious how he lifts any hounds to get them forward before the rest: it always is dangerous, and foxes are sometimes lost by it.

When hounds are hunting a cold scent, and point towards a cover, let a whipper-in get forward to the opposite side of it. Should the fox break before the hounds reach the cover, stop them, and get them nearer to him.

When a fox persists in running in a strong cover, lies down often behind the hounds, and they are slack in hunting him, let the huntsman get into the cover to them: it may make the fox break; it may keep him off his toil; or may prevent the hounds from giving him up.

It is not often that slow huntsmen kill many foxes: they are a check upon their hounds, which seldom kill a fox but with a high scent, when it is out of their power to prevent it. Activity is the first requisite in a huntsman to a pack of fox-hounds: a want of it no judgment can make amends for; but the most difficult of all his undertakings is the distinguishing betwixt different scents, and knowing with any certainty the scent of his hunted fox. Much speculation is here required; the length of time hounds remain at fault; difference of ground; change of weather; all these contribute to increase the difficulty, and require a nicety of judgment, and a precision, much above the comprehension of most huntsmen.

When hounds are at fault, and cannot make it out of themselves, let the first cast be quick; the scent is then good, nor are the hounds likely to go over it: as the scent gets worse, the cast should be slower, and be more cautiously made. This is an essential part of hunting, and which, I am sorry to say, few huntsmen attend to. 1 wish they would remember the following rules, viz.: that, with a good scent, their cast should be quick; with a bad scent, slow; and that, when the hounds are picking along a cold scent, they are not to cast them at all.

When hounds are making a good and regular cast, trying for the scent as they go, suffer not your huntsman to say a word to them: it cannot do any good, and probably may make them go over the scent.

When hounds come to a check, a huntsman should observe the tail hounds: they are least likely to over-run the scent, and he may see by them how far they brought it. In most packs there are some hounds that will show the point of the fox, and, if attended to, will direct his cast. When such hounds follow unwillingly, he may be certain the rest of the pack are running without a scent.

Different countries require different casts: such huntsmen as have been used to a woodland and inclosed country, I have seen lose time in an open country, where wide casts are always necessary.

When you want to cast round a flock of sheep, the whipper-in ought to drive them the other way, lest they should keep running on before you.

Most huntsmen like to have all their hounds turned after them, when they make a cast: I wonder not at them for it, but I am always sorry when I see it done; for till I find a huntsman that is infallible, I shall continue to think the more my hounds spread the better: as long as they are within sight or hearing, it is sufficient. Many a time have I seen an obstinate hound hit off the scent, when an obstinate huntsman, by casting the wrong way, has done all in his power to prevent it. Two foxes I remember to have seen killed in one day by skirting hounds, whilst the huntsman was making his cast the contrary way.

When your hounds are divided into many parts, you had better go off with the first fox that breaks. The ground will soon get tainted, nor will hounds like a cover where they are often changing.

The heading a fox back at first, if the cover be not a large one, is oftentimes of service to hounds, as he will not stop, and cannot go off unseen. When a fox has been hard run, I have known it turn out otherwise; and hounds that would easily have killed him out of the cover, have left him in it.

When a fox has been often headed back on one side of a cover, and a huntsman knows there is not any body on the other side to halloo him, the first fault his hounds come to, let him cast that way, lest the fox should be gone off; and if he is in the cover, he may still recover him.

Suffer not your huntsman to take out a lame hound. If any are tender-footed, he will tell you, perhaps, that they will not mind it when they are out: probably they may not; but how will they be on the next day? A hound, not in condition to run, cannot be of much service to the pack; and taking him out at that time may occasion him a long confinement afterwards. Put it not to the trial.

All hounds go fast enough with a good scent; but it is the particular excellence of a fox-hound, when rightly managed, to get on faster with an indifferent scent than any other hound, and it is the business of a huntsman to encourage this. Every minute you lose is precious, and increases your difficulties; and while you are standing still the fox is running miles.

When hounds flag from frequent changes and a long day, it is necessary for a huntsman to animate them as much as he can: he must keep them forward, and press them on; for it is not likely, in this case, that they should over-run the scent: at these times the whole work is generally done by a few hounds, and he should keep close to them.

The many chances that are against you in fox-hunting; the changing frequently; the heading of the foxes; their being coursed by sheep-dogs; long faults; cold hunting, and the dying away of the scent; make it necessary to keep always as near to the fox as you can; which should be the first and invariable principle of fox-hunting. Long days do great hurt to a pack of fox-hounds. I set out one day last winter from the kennel at half-past seven, and returned home a quarter before eight at night, the hounds running hard the greatest part of the time. The huntsman killed one horse and tired another, and the hounds did not recover it for more than a week.

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The whole system of hunting is so revolutionised that the preparation which a horse now requires is very different to what it was in former times. The hour of meeting is seldom before eleven: the find generally quick and certain; and horses are often not more than five or six hours from their stables after the best day’s sport; and the ground they go over is frequently not so much as a plating race horse performs in contending three or four-mile heats. Having said this, I see no reason to doubt the propriety of feeding, sweating, and muzzling the hunter much in the same manner as the race horse, only making due and proper allowance for the relative nature of their work; particularly as to not stripping the hunter too much of his flesh; or losing sight of the natural difference between the thorough-bred horse and the cock-tail.

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There is certainly no country in the world where the sport of hunting on horseback is carried to such a height as in Great Britain at the present day, and where the pleasures of a fox-chase are so well understood, and conducted on such purely scientific principles. It is considered the _beau ideal_ of hunting by those who pursue it. There can be no doubt that it is infinitely superior to stag-hunting, for the real sportsman can only enjoy that chase when the deer is sought for, and found like other game which are pursued with hounds. In the case of finding an outlying fallow-deer, which is unharboured in this manner, great sport is frequently afforded; but this is rarely to be met with in Britain. So that fox-hunting is now the chief amusement of the true British sportsman; and a noble one it is: the artifices and dexterity employed by this lively, crafty animal, to avoid the dogs, are worthy of our admiration, as he exhibits more devices for self-preservation than any other beast of the chase.

In many parts of this and the sister island, hare-hunting is much followed, but fox-hunters consider it as a sport only fit for women and old men. But although it is less arduous than that of the fox-chase, there are charms attached to it which compensate for the hard riding of the other.

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The hunting match given by the Prince Esterhazy, Regent of Hungary, upon the signing the treaty of peace with France, was a day’s sport, that bids fair to vie in point of blood (if the King of Naples’ slaughter be excepted) with any of those recorded in modern history, as there were killed, 160 deer, 100 wild boars, 300 hares, and 80 foxes. The king had a larger extent and a longer period for the exercise of his talents, and it is proved that during his journey to Vienna, in Austria, Bohemia, and Moravia, he killed five bears, 1820 boars, 1950 deer, 1145 does, 1625 roebucks, 1121 rabbits, 13 wolves, 17 badgers, 16,354 hares, and 354 foxes; the monarch had likewise the pleasure of doing a little in the bird way, by killing upon the same expedition, 15,350 pheasants, and 12,335 partridges.

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_Anecdotes of Hunting._—The late Duke of Grafton, when hunting, was thrown into a ditch; at the same time a young curate, calling out “Lie still, my lord,” leaped over him, and pursued his sport. Such an apparent want of feeling, we may presume, was properly resented. No such thing: on being helped out by his attendant, his grace said, “That man shall have the first good living that falls to my disposal; had he stopped to have taken care of me, I never would have given him any thing;” being delighted with an ardour similar to his own, or with a spirit that would not stoop to flatter.

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“In this pursuit I (Colonel Thornton) sunk more than once, into a quagmire, where the prince’s whipper-in some years since, was hesitating whether he should go to the assistance of some hounds which had got an old stag at bay, but on his master’s asking if he were afraid, he immediately dashed in and sunk to rise no more.” It is indeed reported, that neither himself nor his horse were ever found.

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One of the sons of Gosden, whose father was celebrated as the bold rider of Datchett, was out upon his favourite poney with the king’s stag hounds; he came to a part where the present D—— of C—r—d, was refusing a leap, when the bolder son of Nimrod, without thinking of the importance and rank of the person he was addressing, exclaimed, “Stand away, and let me take it, a pretty sort of a duke you are.”

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He (the huntsman) died, some time since, at Duffry-hall, the seat of Cæsar Colclough, Esq. at the advanced age of ninety-six, near sixty years of which he passed in the Colclough family. He acted in the triple capacity of huntsman, steward, and master of the family. During the rebellion in 1798, he and his family acted with uncommon fidelity to their employers, as one of his sons, when Mr. C. was obliged to fly, came down to protect the house and property, and he never quitted his post. Another of his sons brought off horses and clothes to his master, at the risk of his life, when he was informed where to find him, and during that period the old man buried a large quantity of the family plate, which he afterwards conveyed to a place of safety.

Until the last year of his life he regularly went out with the hounds, and his voice retained its clearness and sweetness. He was well known to all sportsmen in that part of Ireland.

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The celebrated Saunderson, professor of mathematics, at Cambridge, who was entirely destitute of sight, continued to hunt until a very advanced stage of life; his horse was accustomed to follow that of his servant, and the satisfaction of Saunderson was extreme when he heard the cry of hounds and the huntsmen, and which he used to express with all the eagerness of those who, possessing their eye-sight, could consequently be more gratified by the incidents of the chase.—_Strutt_—_Beckford_—_Brown_—_Thornton_—_&c. &c._

HUNT, _s._ A pack of hounds; a chase; pursuit.

HUNTER, _s._ One who chases animals for pastime; a dog that scents game or beasts of prey; a horse employed in hunting.

To obtain a useful hunter, let the person purchase a well-bred mare, not so much regarding her size as her points of action—particularly requiring that she have a sound constitution and good legs. Let him send her to a horse of good form, _with freedom of action_ and a sound constitution; also being particular as to the state of his legs and feet. Never let him breed from a naturally infirm horse, whose legs have shown more than ordinary weakness; and, above all, let him fix upon one which has what the veterinary profession call a short canon; that is, the bone extending from the knee to the fetlock, commonly called the shank bone. Let him begin to breed from his mare before she is much injured by work; as in that case, if she does not breed to please him with her first and second foal, he can dispose of her and purchase another.

A very celebrated fox-hunter has observed, that “the goodness of the horse generally goes in at the mouth.” Let the breeder, then, bear this in mind, and take care that the foal be dropped early, and the dam well fed for the first two months with bran mashes, carrots, &c., till the spring grass arrives. If the mare should prove a good nurse, the colt will not require corn till he is weaned, which on no account should be delayed beyond the first or second week in September. Here the grand mistake has arisen, to which we are indebted for such numbers of mis-shapen horses as this country abounds in. Farmers, in general, never think of weaning their colts till after Michaelmas, long before which period there is little or no virtue in grass, but, on the contrary, it is sour and unwholesome.

From weaning time to the following May, the colt should be well kept on a full allowance of sweet hay, with at least two good feeds of oats per day, and _he should be kept warm_. He should have a head collar on, with a small strap hanging down to his knees, which will admit of his being handled every day; and every two months his toes should be rasped, and his heels opened a little with the drawing knife. In March or April he should have two mild doses of physic, which will cause him to grow; and when the weather is warm he should be turned out into a good upland pasture for the summer, with plenty of shade and water, but taken up every month to have his legs examined and his toes rasped. The second week in September he should be housed again for the winter, when his belly should be the measure for his corn. When docked, his tail should be left eight inches in length, which will preclude the disagreeable necessity of having the operation repeated.

Early in the following spring, when turned two years old, he should be broken, but not backed; and physicked as before directed. In the first or second week in June he should be cut; and when recovered he should be turned out for the summer. When taken up again for the winter, he should have two mild doses of physic, and be very well kept, giving him a few carrots, or a large bran mash once a week. Very early in the spring he should have a little more very mild physic; and in a fortnight afterwards he should be backed, and taught his paces by a person who understands his business. Idleness, from this time forth, will be an enemy to him; and as soon as he is perfect in his paces, he should do what in the training stables is called “a little work.” Exercise will strengthen his legs, enlarge his muscles, improve his form, and make him grow. From this time forth he should be treated as a horse in every respect but in his work, which should be moderate till the fifth year; but previously to that time a customer will always be ready for him, and if his owner is disposed to part with him, his average price will be from one to two hundred sovereigns.

When I say a colt should be treated as a horse after the third year, I mean, of course, that he should be treated after the system I have laid down for hunters, and not allowed his summer’s run at grass. Hard meat will make him powerful and handsome: grass will render him, comparatively speaking, heavy, pot-bellied, and shapeless.

I omitted to mention one very essential part of the education of a colt designed for a hunter. His action—particularly that of his shoulders—will be greatly benefited by riding him up and down hill, and trotting him gently in deep ground. He should also be taught to leap at three years old. If there should be the least appearance of a curb, the iron should at once be applied.

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The hunter should be taken up certainly not later than the twentieth of July. Soon after this period the nights begin to get chilly, and his coat would receive a check if exposed to them. It would lose that soft, silky feel, which it generally has if the horse is in perfect health previously to that time. When first taken to house he should be kept as cool as possible, and, if it can be avoided, there should not be more than one horse in every other stall, be the stable ever so large. As his bowels will be relaxed by the grass he has been eating, his physic should be milder than usual; but that must depend upon previous knowledge of the constitution of the horse. Generally speaking, five drachms and a half would be sufficient, if well prepared by bran mashes beforehand. I do not approve of strong physic; because it is useless to give it, when mild, with proper preparation, will do what is required of it; but it is not in the power of a drachm or two of _good_ aloes to destroy a horse.

By the time he is ready for his second dose, he will be in some measure reconciled to the change of temperature—from the open air to that of a confined stable—and a little more caution is necessary during the operation of it. Unless the weather happens to be very warm, he should have a hood on him if he goes out early in the morning, and, at all events, one warm body cloth, or his coat may receive a check which it will not recover for some time. If he has had his first dose, a day or two after he was taken up—say the 20th of July—allowing seven clear days between the _setting_ of each dose, he will be through it all by about the 17th of August, up to which time, and for a week afterwards, he should have nothing but gentle walking and trotting exercise, of about an hour and a half at a time, before heat of the day; and by no means should a brush be laid upon him, as it opens the pores of his skin, and renders him more susceptible of cold. Indeed, all the grooming he requires at this time is to have his legs well rubbed—particularly with the hand—three or four times a day, and oftener if the circulation be languid, and his body well wisped with a good solid _hay_ wisp, a little damped. Should a horse have had some physic at grass in the summer, or _late_ in the spring, before he was turned out, and not appear foul, it may be better to stop a fortnight or three weeks between his second and third dose: and, if a bit of soft ground can be found, to give him a little work in the time. If his two other doses did not work him hard, it will be advisable to add half a drachm of aloes to the third dose, as it will take more to move his bowels now than it did before he got the hard meat into him, and had a little work.

The condition of a horse must proceed by slow degrees: it is the work of time; and it is in vain to expect it on any other terms than as the result of a long course of preparation, followed by severe work. In a clear fortnight after he has had his last dose of physic, he should begin to do some work; for without it no progress can be made. This, however, should be gradual; and for the first month should consist of long protracted exercise, rather than what is called “good work.” He should be kept out of his stable for three or four hours in the course of the day; and if ridden gently across a country, and now and then with a pack of harriers (weather permitting), it will greatly promote his condition, by hardening his flesh, increasing his strength, and improving his wind. At this time the use of alteratives is indispensable. By their mild and gradual impression a healthy action of the bowels is obtained, and thereby what in stable language is called “fog,” (but which might more properly be termed debility, or depression of strength,) is got rid of, and the general appearance and condition of the animal much improved. Indeed, without the use of alterative medicines—exclusively of physic—no hunter can be got into blooming condition; that is to say, to look well in his skin, to dry immediately after a sweat, and to be in full vigour of body. Of these medicines there are several sorts in use; but the diuretic and diaphoretic are in my opinion the best. It is almost needless to observe, that the latter act upon the skin: but as sensible perspiration in the horse is not to be obtained by medicine without difficulty, and having recourse to larger doses than may be safe or convenient for him to take when at work, and it is insensible perspiration that we wish to obtain, these alteratives should be combined; for it is from their gradual and almost imperceptible operation that we are to look for the effect we wish to produce. Antimony forms the principal diaphoretic; and from its weight a sufficient quantity—one ounce divided into four parts—may be given him every day in his corn for eight days together; but this should be given when the weather is warm, or danger from catching cold may arise, from the pores of the skin being relaxed. With proper precautions, however, none is to be apprehended, and the effect on the general health and appearance of the horse is striking. If the diaphoretic alterative, in the quantity above stated, be not given before the horse begins to work, and the weather becomes cold and wet, it is better to combine it with the diuretic, by giving him a very mild urine ball twice a week, for three weeks in succession, with half an ounce of antimony, finely levigated, in each ball. These medicines combined will check that excitement of the general habit which always accompanies a transition from rest to work, purify the blood, and give tone and vigour to the system. Nitre has been much used by grooms as a cooling diuretic, and a preventive of disease from such causes; but it must be borne in mind that nitre is a strong repellant, and of a debilitating nature.

All this, however, without a good stable, and good stable management, is of no avail.

Speaking next of feeding, Nimrod says:—Formerly wheat was given to race horses, as more nourishing than oats; but now the latter form the chief food for all descriptions of horses. Beans, however, have for some time been allowed to hunters, and when given with discretion are most beneficial. Two single handfuls in each feed of corn is the allowance for a hunter who is fed (as he ought to be) five times a day.