Meynell
who then hunted the Quorn country, and Mr. Smith Barry, the Master of the Cheshire, shows that in the middle of the last century drag hunting took place.
In its origin the trail scent was a race for hounds, but in course of time men began to ride to the hounds, and then a plan was hit upon for running a drag for the sole purpose of having a gallop.
A good many people say that the drag is not a sport, but at the same time even the most orthodox are loudest in their praise of hunting when the run after stag, fox, or hare most nearly assimilates to the drag, that is to say, when hounds go as hard as they can from start to finish. The foxhound must be regarded as an animal which can adapt itself to various circumstances, for he will run not only the usual beasts of the chase, but the otter and the drag as well; and when he has gone at his best pace for something like half-an-hour or forty minutes, he finds his reward in the paunch which awaits him when the drag hunt is over.
The method of running a drag is tolerably well known. Various Masters have their own recipe for a drag, but perhaps the most common way is to keep a tame fox in the kennel, and then on hunting days to put the litter into a net, or it is sometimes put into a hare's skin. This is trailed over the ground, and every five minutes or so a few drops of oil of aniseed, or occasionally turpentine, are added, and after a little practice the hounds will stoop to this scent as readily as to that of the stag or fox. Generally speaking, the drag is laid by a man who runs the line on foot, but sometimes he is mounted. The former plan is, however, preferable, since the drag will not jump about so much as when it is trailed behind a horseman.
It is easy to arrange whether the line shall be stiff or not, and it should be understood that the drag is not laid over any trappy fences. The hounds need not, of course, be very valuable specimens, though in well-maintained packs, like, for instance, that of the Household Brigade, a process of heading and tailing goes on, until they all go much of a pace. The usual plan is to have a check half-way through the run, when second horses are mounted, and after a few minutes the run begins again. A properly laid drag will leave a good scent behind it for about an hour after the runner has gone along, and even then the hounds go at a great pace. As before mentioned, the drag has taught many a man to ride. The fences may be big, and brooks may come in the way, but there is some sort of guarantee that a man will not find himself jumping into a quarry or on to a plough, as may be the case when hunting. Since, of course, every man who goes out with a drag hunts to ride, there is always more rivalry than is the case in other forms of hunting. A fast, bold horse is necessary, and so long as he be a good jumper he need not be the most valuable animal in the stable, for he has not to make a long day.
Drag hunts have increased of late years, there being now fourteen packs, including one for each University and one in Jersey.
Six of them are military packs. With a majority, ladies are allowed to follow.
In one respect a good many hunting men might learn from the drag hunts, since there is perhaps more good feeling between the farmers and the followers of the drag than in any other form of hunting. Hospitalities are not unknown, while in various other ways the kindness of the farmer in allowing his land to be ridden over is readily acknowledged by those who ride after what is sometimes called the "red herring." W. C. A. BLEW.Y HUNTING IN FRANCE. - The French Revolution broke up and for the time almost completely destroyed the various hunting establishments which for many centuries had been maintained by the French nobility, and by the more considerable of the landed gentry. The royal pack was, of course, dispersed, and for the moment it seemed that French hunting had vanished, never again to reappear in a country where, during long ages, it had been nourished with every circumstance of care, pomp, and display. The chase is, however, an almost ineradicable instinct of mankind, and after Napoleon I. had seated himself firmly in power a few packs were here and there got together again in France. After Waterloo and the Restoration of the Bour-There much of the sport, especially where bons, the French aristocracy began to reappear on their estates, and some few of the old old noblesse re-established their packs and themselves as of old with red deer, roe, boar, wolf, and hare. Still, the advance was slow; most of the landowners were heavily crippled; money was scarce; many of the ancient breeds of hound had been dispersed and almost destroyed; and it was by no means an easy matter to reestablish French hunting on anything like its former scale of splendour. From 1827 to 1880 matters steadily improved, and there are still hunting in France some sixty or seventy packs of hounds which date from that period. Since 1880 the growth of hunting, in nearly all parts of France where game is to be found and hounds can work, has been extraordinary, and there are at the present time some 320 packs of hounds pursuing various kinds of quarry in that country.
One of the most astonishing features of this great revival is that in Republican France no fewer than from 120 to 130 packs of hounds are mastered and maintained by nobility, a large number of whom trace their descent to the ancient aristocracy which, before the upheaval of the revolution, delighted so much in the chase. At the head of these may be noted one of the Orleanist princes, the Duc de Chartres, who maintains a very large hunting establishment at Chantilly, and with two packs of hounds hunts alternatively deer and boar in the great forests of that district. It speaks volumes for the tolerance and good sense of the French Republic, now established for forty years, that such things are to be seen ARRIVAL AT THE MEET. in a country where the monarchy and aristocracy were displaced little more than a century ago with every circumstance of violence and tragedy.
French hunting differs essentially from what we are accustomed to in Britain.
VOL. III in huge woodlands. France is a country deer, boar, and roe are pursued, takes place of great forests, where wild red deer, roe GOING TO DRAW. deer, and wild boar are found in large numbers. In these vast areas it is not easy to expel the game from the covert, and great part of the hunting naturally takes place in forest country, where a good cry of hounds is a chief requisite. French hounds are, therefore, for the most part possessed of hound. Many of the older breeds, which more tongue than the modern English foxare still preserved, are what we should call 66 quality for woodland hunting. A throaty throaty," which, after all, is not a bad hound is almost invariably possessed of excellent scenting qualities as well as a grand voice, and French hounds possess, moreover, this excellent characteristic, that, in a region where other quarry are plentiful, they will stick to the line of their hunted beast without changing to other animals that may be roused during the chase. This faculty was one always insisted upon and bred for by French huntsmen, from the middle ages downwards, and it is, as may be imagined, one of great value in woodland hunting.
Not all parts of France are available for the chasse à courre that is, hunting with running hounds; some are too mountainous or too marshy or not sufficiently stocked northern, and midland portions of the with the requisite game. The western. country are most favourable for hunting purposes, and of the various departments Inférieure, Maine-et-Loire, Indre-et-Loire, Gironde, Mayenne, Vienne, Sarthe, Seine- Indre, Vendée, Cher, Allier, Eure, Haute- F THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF SPORT "FLYING RELAYS." (LES RELAIS VOLANTS.) Vienne, Landes, Nièvres, Tarn, Côte-d'Or, Côtes-du-Nord, Deux-Sèvres, and Finistère support most packs of hounds, and produce most hunting. Gironde, for example, is hunted by eighteen different packs, Mayenne by fifteen, Vienne by fourteen, and Sarthe and Seine-Inférieure by thirteen each. The COUPLING THE PACK. other departments mentioned support from twelve to seven packs of hounds respectively.
Forty other departments are hunted by from half-a-dozen to a single pack of hounds.
Twenty-three departments are unhunted, but these are for the most part inaccessible to hounds from their geographical position.
Hare-hunting is extremely popular in France, and no fewer than seventy-seven packs are devoted to the chase of this animal. Thirty-seven packs of hounds hunt roe, thirty-two pursue wild boar, while sixteen packs follow the wild red deer. A very large number of packs hunt two or more kinds of quarry; thus twenty-one hunt deer and roe, eighteen deer and boar, fourteen boar and roe, and so forth. Twenty packs are nominally devoted to the pursuit of hare and fox. Foxes are, however, at present not much hunted in France; if we except the Pau Hunt, which is run on English lines, and devotes itself to bag-foxes and drag hunts, as well as the genuine article, there is not a single pack in France hunting fox only. When hare-hunting has come to an end, foxes are chased by a certain number of packs for a few weeks till the season is brought to a conclusion.
Some few packs, which hunt every kind of quarry (tous les animaux), pursue fox also at odd times during the season. Seven THE TATE LIBRARY BRIXTON, S.W. a packs are described as hunting wolves and other game, and two only as following wolf alone. Wolf-hunting with a pack of hounds was, thirty or forty years ago, a popular sport in certain parts of Franceespecially in Brittany. But wolves are becoming scarce, and are now not often readily accessible to the sportsman. About six or seven hundred of these animals are still slain in France every year; but of these the vast majority are poisoned or trapped, while others, which dwell in mountainous and difficult country, are pursued on foot with scratch packs by the Louvetiers charged with the duty, and are either shot or worried to death.
Wild red deer are plentiful in forest country in many parts of France. In place of the harbourer, who locates the red deer of Exmoor at early morning, a Valet-de- Limier is utilised in France. This is a survival of a very early mediæval hunting custom. The Limier is nothing else than the Lime Hound of old English hunting; and the Valet-de-Limier is a hunt servant on foot, who, with a hound in leash, tracks the deer to its resting place, and informs the Master of its whereabouts. In the actual hunting operations, part of the pack, termed rapprocheurs, which correspond to the "tufters" of Exmoor, rouse the deer from its harbourage, and the chase then goes forward-if, that is to say, the beast is a warrantable one. In some hunts the deer is roused with the full pack. Relays of hounds are set in various parts of the forest, and are employed during the progress of the chase. This is another survival of ancient hunting, which has long since fallen into desuetude in England. Red deer yield WILD BOAR. very good forest hunting, but it is rare to obtain a good run in the open with them as on Exmoor. Sixteen packs hunt red deer alone in France, but other forty-four pursue F2 deer alternately with some other kind of quarry, such as roe and boar.
Thirty-two packs of French hounds hunt wild boar, while other eighty-one packs pursue this animal in conjunction with other game-no less than eighteen packs, for example, being devoted to the chase of red deer and boar. The boar is a forest-loving beast, and yields very excellent sport with hounds. He is usually roused by means of rapprocheurs, as with red deer. When the end comes and the grim beast is surrounded by the baying pack, among the more venturous of which he deals furious wounds, he is either slain with a sword or long huntin the department of Eure, has known a roe to stand before his pack for thirty-two kilometres-which is equal to twenty English miles. As a rule, in hunting roe, rapprocheurs are not employed, but the deer is roused by the whole pack. This is readily understood when one remembers that this small deer is found singly or in pairs.
The majority of French hare-hunting packs are hunted on horseback, but some, as in England, are managed on foot. This is especially the case where beagles (imported from England) are employed.. Hare-hunting is almost the only form of LAYING ON THE PACK. ing knife, sometimes by a shot from rifle or revolver. English foxhounds are much employed for boar-hunting in France, and their courage and resolution, combined with first-rate hunting qualities, render them ideal hounds for this form of chase.
Roedeer-hunting is extremely popular in many parts of France, and as many as thirty-seven packs of hounds are devoted to the sole chase of this beautiful little deer, while other fifty-six packs hunt roe alternately with other kinds of game. Roe are true forest lovers, and are usually difficult to force from covert, ringing round about the woodland in a manner which would sadly perplex a pack not accustomed to their habits. Once driven out, however, by a swift and resolute pack, they afford excellent runs, and will often face open country. M. Simons, who hunts these deer chase in France which is not always conducted in forest country; yet at times, so plentiful are woodlands, a good deal even of hare-hunting takes place in that kind of country. In England harriers and beagles are usually whipped off so soon as they reach a covert. re-hunting Probably owing to this reason French harrier masters do not account for so many hares in a season's hunting as we do in England. Sixty or eighty hares are often brought to hand in a season by English packs-some few even reach 100-but these figures are seldom attained by French packs.
From thirty-five to forty hares represent a fair season with an average French harehunting establishment. From thirty to forty wild boars is also a fair average score for a French Vautrait, or boar hunt, although as many as fifty are killed by one or two packs. A good pack of French staghounds, such, for example, as the Rallye- Francbord, maintained by Prince De la Tour D'Auvergne, in Mayenne, will bring to hand from forty-five to fifty red deer during the season. M. Paul Lebaudy, who hunts in Seine-et-Oise, takes about fifty deer during his annual campaign. As for roe deer, the most successful of the packs which pursue this quarry kill about fifty during the season, while many average packs take from thirty to forty during the winter's hunting.
Many different types of hounds are to of the most popular of French hunting hounds is the Batard du Haut-Poitou, of which some forty packs are to be found.
The ancient Poitou hound had become scarce and enfeebled, but a cross of the English foxhound was introduced, the result being the modern crossbred (Batard) Poitou, a fine, hardy, tri-coloured hound, which is extremely popular all over France.
The Blue Gascony hound is a fine old type of big, blue-mottle hound, which is still happily preserved in its ancient purity. This hound has always enjoyed a great reputation for the chase of the wolf. At the THE STAG AT BAY. be found in France. During the storm and turmoil of the Revolution it seemed probable that some of the ancient breeds would be swept away and lost. But, happily, thanks to the care and loyalty of old retainers, some of the remnants of the historic packs were carefully preserved, and the descendants of these hounds are still to be seen hunting in France. Modern French breeders have done much to sustain and fortify the old strains. The fine white and orange, smooth-coated Vendée hound--- which traces descent from the white hounds of the old French kings is still pretty often to be seen. The Griffon (or rough-coated) Vendéean of the same colour is also well known. Of these two grand races there are some fifteen packs now hunting, while the Vendéean blood is also to be noted among the various French crossbred packs. One present time it is chiefly used for deer, roe, and hare. The Gascon-Saintongeois is an admirable cross of two old races, the Blue Gascon and the hound of Saintonge, one of the ancient French provinces. This excellent hound is largely used, and is famous for its good hunting qualities. The Anglo- Norman is a cross between the English foxhound and the old Norman hound, which had almost died out. This is a tri-coloured hound, with a heavier, more old-fashioned head than we are accustomed to see in the English foxhound. Among harriers an excellent type of the ancient, short-legged hare-hound is the Briquet d'Artois, which resembles a good deal in shape and characteristics the Old Southern harrier of England. A beautiful stamp of harehound is the Porcelaine, or Franc-Contois hound, a lively and smart-looking harrier, which resembles greatly the old-fashioned lightcoloured harrier still seen in Devon and Somerset. The true Porcelaine colour is white and orange. Among other races may be noted the Ariégeois hound, the Persac, Pindray, Céris, and the Beagle Elisabeth.
Several races of basset hound, smooth and rough coated, exist in France, but these are usually associated with shooting (Chasse à tir), and not with the Chasse à courre. A large proportion of French packs are crossbred hounds, in which English foxhound out in hunting costume and perform admirably over jumps, will easily convince the most sceptical to the contrary.
French hunting is conducted with much more pomp and circumstance than is the case in England. The huntsmen and whips, and not seldom the Master, carry big, circular horns which are worn over the chest and shoulder. With these much curious and complicated music is accomplished. The Fanfare is of very ancient origin, and many hunts possess their own SOUNDING THE Mort. blood often plays a prominent part. Some seven packs of pure English foxhounds are to be found hunting in various parts of France.
English and Irish horses are largely employed by French sportsmen, and even the native-bred French hunter owes a good deal of its excellence to an infusion of British blood. Although, from the fact that so much of French hunting lies in forest regions, there is nothing like the amount of jumping and cross-country work seen with us, it is a mistake to suppose that French hunting folk are not good horsemen.
At the present time large numbers of them are accomplished riders, equal to crossing any country. A glance at a modern French horse show, where Gallic sportsmen come as particular piece, sacred and peculiar to their assemblies. At the death, the Hallali is blown vigorously in concert, and at different stages of the chase other calls are made use of. In large hunting establishments many as three or four hunt servants may be seen mounted, with one or two or more on foot. Owing to the system of relays, the valet de chiens à pied, or foot-whip, is always in evidence, having his hounds in couples. The French piqueux corresponds with our huntsman, and the valetde-chiens with our whip. The piqueur is more correctly not the huntsman proper, but the stud groom, who has charge of the stables.
French hunting costume differs considerably from that of the English. Red coats are much less frequently seen than blue, grey-blue, grey, and green. White breeches are coming more into fashion, especially among those sportsmen who affect English customs. Blue is also a common colour for breeches, which as often as not are made of_velveteen or velvet cord. Orange, yellow, ruby, and garnet are favourite colours for the collars and cuffs of the hunting coat, as also for waistcoats. Nearly all hunt servants wear as a decoration for the coat galon de venerie, or hunting lace, usually of gold, and a broad band of the same material encircles the hunting cap. a The chase in France differs from English hunting also in this respect, that it is much more the pastime of a class, or caste, than with us. The French peasant, with his small holding, is little if at all interested in the chase, and hunting for the most part takes place on the estates of large private owners. Meets are small, in consequence, and those who attend are usually members who have the hunt button, invited guests, and officers from the neighbouring garrison town, if there happens to be one. Here and there, in places, a few of the better-class farmers may be seen out, but this is not very often the case. Many of the huge forests where hunting takes place are leased by the owners (more often than not members of the nobility) to the State, the lessors reserving the right to hunt over the property.
French hunting, although, as I have shown, it differs widely in its scope and aspects from our form of chase, is now in a thoroughly healthy and flourishing condition. It shows signs within a limited sphere of increasing popularity, and is destined apparently to enjoy a long and prosperous career.
H. A. BRYDEN. دو HORN MUSIC. - One of the most important "points of venery has always been the winding of the hunting horn, and although the art has declined in the British Isles during nearly a century, it still maintains its position as part of the ritual of the chase in France and Belgium. There the "compassed" horn is yet employed, while its place has, since the end of the seventeenth century, been taken on this side the Channel by the now familiar straight horn, originally from two spans (eighteen inches) to two feet in length, but now made much shorter. The "compassed" horn was so-called because it possessed a compass of twelve notes, from C below the line in the treble clef to G above the line. It was so formed as to encompass the body of the huntsman. An earlier horn, which still persists in some places, was bugle-shaped, and worn slung from the shoulder by a baldrick.
It was usually the actual horn of some beast -buffalo for preference though subsequently made in metal. Whether straight or curved, of horn or metal, these horns could only be sounded in one key, usually that of A or D. Difference in the "lessons" or calls, therefore, could only be obtained by altering the character, length, arrangement, frequency, and repetition of the note produced, and by varying the number of "windes" with which they were to be blown.
The late Colonel Anstruther-Thomson complained in his Hints to Huntsmen that many of them blew "the same monotonous note on the horn all day long without variety or meaning." This fact is not improbably due to the non-existence of any reference to or instruction in the notation of horn music in modern hunting literature, though in ancient books on the chase much space was given to recording the notation of the various "lessons."
More sportsmen took an interest in the subject in former days, since all carried horns, and after the "mort" was "wound" at the taking of the stag or the death of a buck, it was customary for the whole company to blow a "recheat" in concert, and immediately after to give a general "whoowhoop." τ a دو It was, moreover, laid down as matter for strict observance that each quarry was entitled to different "lesson," whether during the chase or at a kill. There was even e a measure provided for occasions when hounds were running a quarry unknown. Thus the buck was entitled to a "double mort," and the hart to a "triple mort," while the "pryse" of a hart royal was a most elaborate specimen of horn music "to be blowen thrice with three several windes and the recheat upon it."
There were also several varieties of the latter "lesson," as the "double recheat," the royal recheat," "Hewitt's recheat," the running or farewell recheat," and others. ،، 66 It will suffice here to give the notation of those calls which are, or which may be appropriately, used in these days in the pursuit of stag, buck, fox, hare, and otter, and to indicate precisely what calls should be employed in different stages of the chase.
In the first place there is the single note at throwing-off hounds, applicable to each of these quarry, and useful to inform the field that the day's sport is about to commence. (Fig. 1.) FIG. 1. more elaborate forms after the "mort" or "rattle " by Masters and huntsmen who are musically inclined. (Fig. 8.) FIG. 8.
To be blown with three windes. "Doubling the horn" is used when hounds are on a scent, or, in the case of otter-hounds, when they are racing on a hot drag before "marking." (Fig. 2.) FIG. 2.
The "Veline" is a pretty call to be used at the "rousing" of a stag, the "unkennelling" of a fox, the "finding" of a hare, or the "putting-down" of an otter. (Fig 3.) FIG. 3.
To be blown with three windes.
The "Gone Away" should follow, and explains itself. (Fig. 4.) FIG. 4.
A long swelling note is used for calling hounds away. (Fig. 5.) FIG. 5. 番 But a simple and much more attractive call, which might well be revived for this purpose, was formerly employed. (Fig. 6.) FIG. 6.
A long single note tells the whippers-in that the huntsman has all the hounds in his hand. (Fig. 7.) FIG. 7.
The "Tally-ho, back," is accompanied by the crack of a whip, and may also be employed for the "Hark holloa" in otterhunting. (Fig. 9.) FIG. 9.
The "Call for the company" is an ancient "lesson" that might be revived in order to inform the field that hounds are drawing on or going to a fresh covert. (Fig. 10.) FIG. IO.
The "Rattle" is now blown at a kill with foxhounds, harriers, beagles, and otterhounds alike. (Fig. 11.) FIG. II. 番 And, melancholy to relate, the historic "mort" with the Devon and Somerset Staghounds and other packs that hunt wild deer has dwindled to a mere doubling of the horn, a relic of the final "winde" of the measure. In order that those Masters and huntsmen who have the care of "points of venery" at heart may be able to revive in its entirety this fine and apposite lesson, the notation is appended. (Fig. 12.) FIG. 12.
To be blown with three windes.
Formerly the "Recheat" was in its simplest form wound to recall hounds running a counter-scent" or heelways, for which purpose, as for bringing back part of a pack that has divided, or calling on the tail hounds, it might usefully be retained. It may also be blown in one of its This is the "lesson" to be wound at the taking of a stag; at the death of a buck only the first two windes should be used.
In former days at "the pryse of a Hart Royall" the whole of this measure was to be blown thrice with "three severall windes and the recheat upon it," and, of course, a 66 royal recheat" at that. But nowadays huntsmen are in too great a hurry to get their second horses or to get hounds home to kennels to spare time for such elaborate musical performance.
L. C. R. CAMERON. an HUNTERS. — If the combination of means, opportunity, and no more than a moderate bodily weight enable a man to own THE TATE LIBRARY, BRIXTON, S.W. horse offers to him who really means going." ،، It is a wonder that more men do not attend the various bloodstock sales and pick up some of the cheaper yearlings and two-year-olds. Plenty of " rubbish" is bred annually; but a horse as "slow as a man in boots” for racing purposes is nevertheless a fast hunter, and an unfashionable pedigree does not matter for the hunting field. Of course, these youngsters will require to be thrown by and forgotten for a year or two, and they would be out of place in the stable of anyone who cannot A GOOD JUMPER. a thoroughbred hunter, he can desire nothing better. The blood horse is at all times, and, in the writer's opinion, in every country, the pleasantest and, as often as not, the easiest to ride. He can skim over Leicestershire, surmount the formidable banks which divide field from field in Devon, and can prove his value in every intermediate kind of country. If, therefore, the man who can ride can mount himself on a thoroughbred horse, so much the better for him; but the novice may well content himself with a more ordinary animal until he has learned enough to be able to utilise to the full the advantages the blood himself make them into hunters or obtain the services of someone who can.
As, however, the thoroughbred hunter is not common, men must ride something else, and hunters vary in character as much as they do in size. In the field one sees every possible type, from the horse which only just misses being thoroughbred, the old "cocktail" in fact, down to something very nearly related to the carthorse; in size they range from fourteen to seventeen hands, with an occasional specimen below and above these heights. Thus it is practically impossible to put forward any stamp of horse as the true type of hunter, except TR 2 in the highest class of horses, horses fit to carry fourteen stone and upwards up to the tail of hounds in a stiffly fenced country.
Just as the tiro at fiddling can do with a less valuable instrument than a "Strad" or a "Joseph," so the novice at hunting can enjoy a great deal of amusement on a very moderate priced mount. Yet even this cheap conveyance must possess certain attributes. He must, of course, be workably sound; and here let it be written down as BEN CAPEL, HUNTSMAN OF THE BELVOIR, AND HIS MOUNT. a rule never to be broken that no one should, under any temptation of price, buy a roarer.
In nine hundred and ninety-nine times out of a thousand the infirmity will grow worse with each succeeding season, and the noise is unpleasant both to the rider and other members of the field. Again, no horse with defective vision should ever be bought for hunting purposes, nor should the purchase of a horse suffering from fever in the feet be entertained, for no humane man would find pleasure in riding a horse which is suffering from pain, not to mention the fact that a steed so affected would bring next to nothing if offered for sale. Opinions differ as to the risk in riding "nerved " horses; but the novice had better keep clear of them.
The hunter on which early experience is gained should be temperate and bold that is to say, he should go at his fences only just fast enough to inspire his rider with confidence. and jump cleanly enough to show the beginner that a leap is not such a terrible affair after all. A lad or man who learns on a slow sticky jumper will be a very long time in acquiring the art of getting readily over a country; but as the beginner will not be in a position to sit down and ride with the best and boldest, it will be no harm if his early mounts be rather aged and show some signs of wear.
They will know their business, will teach the learner his, and blemishes, of course, will not matter in the least. Make and shape, however, must not be left out of consideration, not merely because a nicely made horse is pleasant to look upon, but because without a certain conformation a horse is no good for use in the hunting field. A horse with bad shoulders is not comfortable to ride; he will never gallop freely, and is very likely to fall when going down hill.
Good quarters and hocks are equally necessary, or he will never spread himself over his fences or get up hill; if he is somewhat long in the back it does not matter. It is a cardinal defect in the show ring; but except when a very heavy weight has to be carried it makes little difference in the hunting field.
The visitor to a fashionable country, such as the Quorn, Pytchley, Mr. Fernie's, the Cottesmore, and others will at once be struck by the number of fine horses to be seen at the covert side. A few may be home-bred, and a few picked up by chance at comparatively small sums, but the majority will have been bought from dealers at a high price. The dealers making hunters their chief line of business have agents all over the horse-breeding districts, and they themselves travel about to pick up all the horses which they deem saleable. They have to be transported home, in many cases schooled and brought into better condition; frequently credit has to be given; and accident, disease, and death have to be reckoned with, so that by the time a really good horse reaches the buyer's. stable he has cost a good deal of money.
Anyone, however, who has once ridden a really perfect hunter will cease to wonder at the large sums given for horses of the right kind. The hunter which gallop fast, will not turn his head from anything, wants no rousing and but little holding, one that skims over water, and can jump timber, that will walk through a gap, and so spread himself at his fences as easily to clear an unexpectedly wide ditch on the far side, is not to be picked up every day, and when found must be paid for. can Still, there are hundreds of men who a animals. Occasionally a thoroughbred horse gets a weight carrier from a mare which may not be of any great power; 30 cannot afford hunters costing from hundred and fifty to four hundred guineas, and who have, of necessity, to put up with something cheaper, though it must not be supposed that a long price necessarily means a good horse; on the other hand, many a first-rate hunter is bought at quite a low figure, and it frequently happens that a horse regarded by his owner as being no more than middling is found, when the question is asked him, to possess galloping and jumping abilities of a high order. Nor must it be forgotten that much, very much, depends upon the man in the saddle, for some men could never show to advantage on the most brilliant hunter that ever looked through a bridle, while others will "shove along," to use an expressive hunting field phrase, on almost anything.
The upstanding, weight-carrying hunter necessarily commands the most money, owing to his scarceness. He must show as much quality as possible, and be able to gallop and jump with the lighter horses; and hunters fit to carry men like the late Mr. Heywood-Lonsdale, Master of the Shropshire, or the late Mr. Bisset, for so many years Master of the Devon and Somerset Staghounds, can only be found LIGHT HUNTER FOR SOUTH DOWN COUNTRY. now and then. No one at present has discovered how to breed these weight carriers to order; they are entirely chance bred A STONE WALL. JUMPER. sometimes a cart stallion or a cart mare is responsible for a great strong horse in which cart blood is not observable, but it is seldom that two weight carriers are bred by the same parents in two successive years.
The light-weight rider has a very wide field open to him from which to mount himself, as he can either ride weedy well bred, or thoroughbred horses, or can get along on smaller horses, horses, that is to say, which would bring good money were they but a little bigger; but, although people talk a good deal about the excellence of little horses, the almost universal feeling is in favour of animals from about 15 hands 3 3 inches to 16 hands I inch in height.
A horse standing under 15 hands 2 inches must have a very grand reputation to realise `a long price. Here then is the light weight's opportunity; he can afford to buy misfits of all kinds, and, if he be a good horseman, he can afford to disregard sundry little peculiarities of temper and temperament which would cause the horse to be rejected at once by anyone ready to pay a good price for a hunter approximately perfect.
One hears a great deal at times of the horse for this country and the horse for that; but much of it is pure theory. One or two propositions certainly stand out prominently, one of them being that an indifferent horse is of no earthly use in the shires. If his rider does not want to jump he must at any rate gallop from gate to gate; but if a man goes" on the grass he 66 Leicestershire or Northamptonshire; but the man on a cob who happens to be in a fine run with the Devon and Somerset would see very little of it. Similarly, in the more wooded portions of Kent and Sussex, it HUNT SERVANTS' MOUNTS IN THE SHIRES. must have a good horse. But the horse for Leicestershire is also the best horse for everywhere else, and in no hunting country in England does the workman buy an indifferent hunter if he can afford a better. Mr. Charles Brindley, better known perhaps under his pseudonym "Harry Hieover," wrote in one of his books that a fifty pound hack was quite good enough for Surrey.
Well, if any of the packs hunting over that county find a good fox on a good scenting day and get away on good terms with him, anyone who thinks a common horse good enough for Surrey will learn the erroneousness of his opinion, especially if the line happen to lie in one of the Vales, the Godstone Vale, for instance. "Do you call the Blankshire a difficult country?" a young man is reported to have asked of a Nestor of the Chase. My friend," was the reply, "all countries are difficult when hounds really run," and this should be kept in mind by horse buyers. In Essex, with its interminable plough, a stranger would scarcely imagine that there is ever much of the gaudy side of fox-hunting to be seen; but let him be out when scent lies and a stout fox is before the hounds, while the going is deep; the best horse in England will not then be found too good for the occasion. 66 It has often been said that you want nothing more than a cob in order to enjoy the sweets of hunting the wild stag on Exmoor or the Quantocks. There are many days on which a cob would suffice for will be found that the best horse procurable is better than an inferior conveyance.
So far as regards the physical characteristics of different countries, horses very soon grow accustomed to a change of fences..
A Leicestershire horse would not be long in mastering the banks of the Blackmore Vale, or even the big banks to be found furthest west, but it is to be noted that, as a rule, a horse used to a flying country becomes clever in a cramped or banking country in less time than a horse accustomed to banks learns to jump freely in a flying country. Many Irish hunters, when they first come into the hands of English dealers, are by no means free jumpers, and take no little time to school before they perform in a manner which will commend itself to the buyer who desires to ride over a flying country; but a horse which may be regarded as somewhat rash over this description of country soon learns not to rush at banks, and quickly gives up attempting to fly them. Although, then, one can scarcely have too good a horse for any country, a man may have too good a horse for himself; that is to say, if a man does not jump, there is no necessity for him to go to the expense of buying a hunter fit to go anywhere. With respect to those good sportsmen who can afford small sums only for their horses, it may be asked where do the fifty and sixty pound horses-many seen in the field cost less-come from? They come from everywhere. A hunter out of an unknown stud sent to the hammer never realises much; a horse which will not go in harness or into a horse-box has a good deal of his value knocked off, and a tendency to pull or be light-hearted is amongst the causes which make hunters and other horses pass from hand to hand at little money.
And now just a word to the inexperienced on the subject of buying horses. Buying at auction is very dangerous, unless a man be a very good judge and know something about the horse he proposes to buy; nor should the novice rely upon his own judgment when buying privately. There is no royal road to buying a hundred pound horse for half that sum, nor for obtaining a fifty pound horse for twenty-five pounds; so the beginner should at once abandon all idea of bargain hunting.
Those who live in the country can generally hear of a horse by mentioning their wants to their friends, and when the time comes for selling the cub-hunters by auction a suitable mount can frequently be obtained, or recourse can be had to a dealer who deals in the kind of horse required. It is a very him what he wants, and the price to which he is prepared to go, he will probably not have reason to repent his line of action.
W. C. A. BLEW. [See also Dogs, Fox, and HOUND BREED- ING.] GLOSSARY-Fox.
Away.-(Of a fox), left the covert.