Related article: increasing chorus of hounds, even
in a thick covert, and the burst
that proclaims their dash into the
open ? Are we always to be with-
out that ringing view-holloa of the
first whip in its shrillest falsetto,
telling us that we must sit down
in our saddles and be off? Are
we still to be satisfied with occa-
sional whimpers in covert, which
the talk of the cofFee-housers ren-
ders inaudible, and be content
with a whistle which may be used
on non-hunting days for hunting
I900.]
HUNTING SOUNDS.
233
rabbits with terriers ? Are we,
in fine, to choose our hounds en-
tirely by their forms on the flags,
without reference to their tongues
and powers of music ?
Say what you Hke, my dear
hunting friends, but the tendency
of the day is in this direction.
The causes are many — a silent
huntsman makes a silent pack,
and the first desideratum of pace
in hounds leads to semi-muteness,
too often indeed to entire silence.
This may be all very well in a
flying country, where everyone is
bent on riding on their backs, and
it is the foremost bits of pink and
black that guide the rest of the
field in the wake of the chase.
What heed is there then of the
cry of hounds ? It is the thunder
of the hoofs of the horses that
dominates the chase, not the
melody of true hound chase that
we wantonly sing of in "John
Peel " and other old hunting
melodies; and in the Shires I
suppose we must bow to the
inevitable. Yet are there not
thousands — aye, many a thousand
— who cannot hunt^in these shires,
in fact, who prefer not to do so,
and to these is not hound music
and a huntsman's ringing cheer
as essential to their pleasure and
as needful in the intricacies of a
run as can possibly be ? In many
of these countries, alas ! the new
fashion has upset the old one.
The highest-bred hounds, the
most silent of systems, the almost
entire want of hunting sounds,
with their necessary accompani-
ments of twisting foxes and scat-
tered fields, mere follow -my-
leaders most of them, and rank
disappointment on the return
home.
There used to be a good story
told of one of the old lords of
Berkeley, who was a keen sports-
man but suffered from deafness,
and it was only by his thorough
knowledge of country that he
managed to enjoy the sport. He
always had an attendant, nick-
named his " hearer." The fol-
lowing colloquy very often hap-
pened, " Do ye hear *em, John ?"
" No, my lord." ** Damn you,
sir, do ye hear *em ?'*
There is scarcely a hunting
country in England, Scotland or
Wales that has not its woodlands.
Here all will admit that the silent
system is an absurdity, as far as
the pleasure of the majority of the
field are concerned ; of course the
Master and his servants can trot
about the rides and whistle to
their hearts* content, and the
foxes will trot about almost as
unconcernedly, while the sports-
men of the district cool their heels
outside — ever in expectancy of
being left hopelessly in the rear
should a fox chance to break on
the wrong side. On these occa-
sions the huntsman, of course,
leaves his mute hounds in kennel
and manages to have music of a
kind, but the dash of the thing is
missing — no cheering is allowed.
How many of us nowadays are
like the old lord of Berkeley, and,
be our ears ever so 'cute, are not
fain to exclaim now and again,
" Do you hear them " ?
To show the difference between
the modern hound and that of old
days I cannot refrain from relating
the object lesson I have now before
me. I am walking a couple of
foxhound puppies, each from a
different pack, and different in
blood and characteristics, yet
beauties of their type. The one
is of high English blood, of Stud-
book descent, and the other is a
Welshman, tracing back in three
generations to the Llanharran,
our oldest Welsh blood. To hear
the Welshman throw his tongue
is a real treat ; he has that double
note, which I fail to describe, that
rings out like a bell, and is only
234
BAILY S MAGAZINE.
[October
heard in these hounds. The
Englishman, on the contrary, will
not speak at all. I have tried
every means to make him do so,
but in vain. He seems to Verapamil Hcl Cr watch
and wonder at his friend and com-
panion, Verapamil Hcl Sr and dashes to him, but as
yet he is quite silent. Will he
turn out one of the mute ones, I
wonder ? On the flags he will be
hard to beat, so straight and good
is he all round. Yet Verapamil Hcl Er give me the
Welshman for the hunting-field.
His sense and dash are astonish-
ing for his age, and no strange
cur dare show his nose on the
premises ere Rally wood, with
bristles up, is turning him away.
I guess that his note would right
quickly shift a fox from Lilbourne
Gorse.
We cannot do without music in
the hunting- field, although there
is always such a thing as having
too much of it, especially human
music, and that in the wrong
place. Surely the only way to
make a fox, or any other wild
animal, flee away straight before
his pursuers is to have the best
possible chorus in his wake. If
you try to course him, as with
greyhounds, he will naturally turn
and twist. He does not require
to be outpaced. The true science
of sport is to hunt him down, and
the hounds with the most tongue
will have the most drive, and will
do the job for you better and more
surely than those of the grey-
hound sort, that trust merely to
their speed, and throw up their
heads at the first check.
I was unable to be at Peter-
borough myself this year, but I
had the opinion of an M.F.H.
upon it, which I think was trust-
worthy. His verdict was that
hounds were being bred too light
and flashy, and were really de-
teriorating. How can it be other-
wise, when we see that fashion
has set its seal on some half-a-
dozen kennels, and from thence
most of the sires are chosen. The
Hound Stud-book does the rest.
Neither master nor huntsman
dare go outside it for their blood ;
consequently the invaluable quali-
ties possessed by such as my
young Rally wood are passed by