Great caution is necessary when a fox runs into a village: if he is hallooed there, get forward as fast as you can. Foxes, when tired, will lie down anywhere, and are often lost by it. A wide cast is not the best to recover a tired fox with tired hounds: they should hunt him out, inch by inch, though they are ever so long about it.
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.