With all well-managed packs, they are quietly brought up to the place of meeting; and when thrown off, a general silence should prevail, that every hound may be permitted to do his own work. Hounds well bred, and well broke to their business, seldom want assistance. Officious intrusions frequently do more harm than good: nothing requires greater judgment, or nicer observation in speaking to a hound, than to know the critical time when a word is wanting. Young men, like young hounds, are frequently accustomed to babble when newly entered, and, by their frivolous questions or conversation, attract the attention of the hounds, and insure the silent curse of the HUNTSMAN, as well as the contemptuous indifference of every experienced sportsman in the field.
Whenever a hare is turned out of her form, or jumps up before the hounds, a general shout of clamorous exultation too frequently prevails, by which the hare's intentional course is perverted, and she is often headed, or turned into the body of the HOUNDS to a certain death; when, on the contrary, was she permitted to go off with less alarm, and to break view, without being so closely pressed at starting, there is no doubt but much better runs would be more generally obtained. Individual emulation, or individual obstinacy, invariably occasions horsemen in hare-hunting to be too near the hounds, who, being naturally urged by the rattling of the horses, and the exulting zeal of the riders, often very much over-run the scent, and have no alternative but to turn and divide amidst the legs of the horses, so soon as they have lost it; and to this circumstance may be justly attributed many of the long and tedious faults which so frequently occur, and render this kind of chase the less attracting.
Gentlemen who keep HARRIERS vary much in their modes of hunting them; but the true sportsman never deviates from the strict impartiality of the chase. If a hare is found sitting, and the hounds too near at hand, they are immediately drawn off, to prevent her being chopped in her form: the hare is then silently walked up by the individual who previously found her, and she is permitted to go off at her own pace, and her own way. The hounds are then drawn over the spot from whence she started, where taking the scent, they go off in a style of uniformity, constituting what may be fairly termed the consistency of the chase. Others there are who never can, or never will, resist the temptation of giving the hounds a view, and never fail to tell you, both HARE and HOUNDS run the better for it. In addition to this humane method of beginning the chase, every advantage is taken of the poor affrighted animal's distress, amidst all its little instinctive efforts for the preservation of life. The hounds, instead of being permitted to run the soil, and kill the hare by dint of their own persevering labour, are constantly capped from chase to view; and the object of the sport most wantonly and uncharitably destroyed; for nothing less than a miracle can effect its escape.
Those of nicer sensations enjoy the sport, but enjoy it much more mercifully; and would rather see their own hounds occasionally beaten, than, by any unfair or unsportsman-like introduction, kill their hare. These never permit a profusion of vociferous assistance from the huntsman, who is enjoined to an almost silent execution of his own duty, that the hounds may not be prevented (by his noise) from a strict and attentive performance of theirs. If they throw up, upon a dry or greasy fallow, a footpath, a highway, or a turnpike-road, a thousand busy bustling endeavours are to be self-made for a recovery of the scent, before any one effort is permitted to assist in lifting them along; and even then, not till every patient and persevering struggle has failed of success. The sportsman of this description admits of no device, stratagem, or foul play whatever; the HOUNDS must hunt the hare; they must go over every inch of ground she has gone before them; they must hit off their own checks, recover their faults; and, by cold hunting, pick it along, where, in passing through a flock of sheep, the ground has been foiled, and the chase proportionally retarded. Early and extensive casts are unjust, unless upon some unexpected or unavoidable emergency; as the repeated interventions of sheep, or intersections of roads, or fallows in a dry season; when it would be impossible to make the least progress in getting the hounds along without assistance.
When hounds come to a check, not a horse should move, not a voice should be heard: every hound is eagerly employed, exerting all his powers for a recovery of the scent, in which, if not officiously obstructed, they will most probably soon succeed. At such times there is generally, and unluckily, some popinjay in the field, who, unfortunately for himself, never speaks but upon the most improper occasion; rendering, at such moment, the judicious observation of Mr. Beckford truly neat and applicable, that "when in the field, he never desires to hear any other tongue than a HOUND." Whenever assistance to hounds is become unavoidably necessary, and the chase cannot be carried on without, sound judgment, and long experience, are necessary to speedy success. Casts cannot be made by any fixed, certain, or invariable rules, but must, at different times, be differently dependent upon the chase, the soil, the weather, and the kind of country you are hunting in. It may, in one instance, be prudent to try forward first; in another, to try back; as it may be judicious, or necessary, to make a small circular cast at one time, and a much larger at another; and although to one of the field, circumstances may appear, in either instance, to have been nearly the same, yet they have not been so in the "mind's eye" of the HUNTSMAN, (or the person hunting the hounds,) upon whose superior knowledge, or circumspection, the good or ill effect of the experiment must depend.
None, but weak or inexperienced sportsmen, ever presume to obtrude their opinions when hounds are at fault; those who do it, soon find the interference is ill-timed, and that it only excites a contemptuous indifference. Strangers cannot be too cautious and circumspect in the field, if they wish to avoid just reproofs, and not to encounter rebuffs: some there are, whose hard fate it is to become conspicuously ridiculous upon every occasion that can occur, and to such, unfortunately for them, occasions are seldom wanting. During the chase, they are riding into, over, or before, the HOUNDS; and at every check, asking some vexatious, trifling question of the HUNTSMAN; or entering into a frivolous conversation with what seems to them the most vulnerable subject of the company. Officious individuals of this description, whose error too frequently originates in a certain degree of personal pride, and unbounded confidence, should learn to know, that "the post of honour is a private station;" as well as that an old pollard in a painting, might be admirably calculated to form a respectable object in the back-ground, but never intended by the artist to become a principal figure in the front of the picture.
HARE NETS
—are of two sorts, one of which will be found described under the head "Gate-nets;" the other are called PURSE-NETS, and are exactly in the form of cabbage-nets, but of larger and stronger construction. These occasionally afford collateral aid to the former; for being fixed at the different meuses (either in hedges, or to paling) where HARES are expected to pass, and the ground being scoured by a mute lurcher, as there described, the destruction is certain. These nets are the nocturnal engines of old and experienced POACHERS, doing more mischief where hares are plenty, in one night, than the wire manufacturers can accomplish in a week.
"HARK FORWARD!"
—is a sporting exclamation, well known in the practice of the field, and affords to every distant hearer, authentic information, that the hounds are a-head, and going on with the chase. It sometimes happens, that, in very large and thick coverts, no man or horse existing can be in with the hounds; at which times (particularly in stormy weather) recourse must be had to every means for general accommodation. The best sportsmen are often thrown out for miles, and not unfrequently for the day, by various turns of the CHASE in COVERT, and then breaking up the wind on a contrary side, leaving every listening expectant in an awkward predicament, if not relieved by the friendly communication of "HOIC FORWARD!" from one to another, enabling the whole to continue the sport.