III. TO WHIPPERS-IN
SUMMER EXERCISE AND BREAKING YOUNG HOUNDS
Of course, during the first few weeks of horse exercise, no young hound should be allowed to break away at all, or the whole entry will soon become wild and demoralised.
Later on, if a hare gets up, or any other temptation to riot arises, the hounds should be allowed a good look at the cause of it without anyone saying a word. The steady hounds, when they see what it is, will do nothing, but if one of the wilder customers wants to have his fling, let him go for at least two hundred yards, as long as he gets through no fence over which you cannot follow him, and then ride quietly and quickly to his head, and let him have it as hot as you can. When he has felt the lash then, and not till then, rate him soundly and frighten him back to the huntsman.
If you ride after a riotous hound, holloaing at him from behind, you not only destroy your chance of hitting him, but will, by your ill-judged noise, as often as not make some of the others join him. Similarly, in the hunting season, when the pack is being cast, and a young hound starts after a hare, the quieter you are, and everyone else is, the better. Get to the offender and punish him severely if you possibly can, but do not begin holloaing at him, and thereby causing the rest of the pack to get their heads up. It is far from an easy thing to hit a hound when he is running riot, and it is an accomplishment that few whippers-in, in these days, seem to possess; but remember, the less noise you make before you get to him, the better chance you have, and above all never be tempted to revenge yourself, by hitting him at some future time when he is doing no harm.
If a hound hangs back in covert after it has been drawn blank, ride in and give him a hiding if you can, but never hit one and cut him off from the huntsman after he is outside. Hounds that habitually hang back in covert should be drafted speedily.
Always be attentive when the pack is travelling along a road to prevent their picking up anything, and always be ready to open the gates in turn.