him, cherishing a fond recollection of the spot where his earliest days were spent-and I cannot picture to myself any one so heartless but who does so they must ever prove fascinating. I'll waive every advantage here met with that can allure the sportsman-I'll make no mention of the opportunities offered here so plentifully to the lover of nature-the scenery, to produce an equal will challenge the world; but this I will maintain, let a man pass one month in the Himalayas, and if he does not wish to return to them, why all I can say is, he must be "one in a thousand," and that a very bad one.

NIMROD'S ANALYSIS

OF

"THE DIARY OF A HUNTSMAN,"

BY THOMAS SMITH, ESQ., LATE MASTER OF THE CRAVen.

I now arrive at a bit of a puzzler, on the interesting subject of casting hounds. But the reader shall judge for himself, for I will transcribe the passage, and also give the sketch of the method of proceeding at this trying moment, from his own pencil :—

"The following," says our author, "is a sketch of a general cast, made by the writer for many years; although the principle of it, at starting, is startling, yet few succeed better, namely, that of first holding the hounds the way he does not think the fox is gone. Thus, when at a check, and the pack have made their own swing, he then holds them round to the right or left, whichever is most up wind; consequently this side would have been the most unlikely, for they probably would not have checked at first, had it been right, owing to its being rather up wind; when, if it does happen to be right, they hit it off directly, so that it takes scarcely a minute to hold them round, back, behind the spot where they checked, about a hundred yards or so. He then turns and takes a little wider circle back, round in front all the way, to the left the same distance, till he reaches, or nearly so, the line he came to behind the check at first. Now having ascertained for certain that his fox is not gone back, or short to the right or left, he can, with confidence, begin a wider cast than he would have ventured to make otherwise, owing to a fear that the fox had headed back, or to the right or left. The wide cast he commences on the left from behind, progressing according to his judgment, and selecting the best scenting ground forward, beyond any fallow or bad scenting ground, as he now knows that the fox must be gone on; this cast is continued all round in front, and to the right, till he again reaches the line behind; he then takes a wider cast either way, and is guided by circumstances: but nineteen times out of twenty this last is not required, except the fox is headed some distance back, and the steam and stain of the horses prevent the

hounds feeling the scent, the quick first cast back. If there is no wind to guide him, there may be a cover to which the fox is gone on the left; but still he holds them first the unlikely side."

I confess I am unable to comprehend our author's logic in this memorable passage. Why a man is to expect to succeed by what he considers" the most unlikely" means of succeeding, is to me quite incomprehensible. But let us look at the means which he thinks the least likely to recover his fox, namely, to hold the hounds round to the right or left, whichever is most up wind, and "consequently," says he, "this side would have been the most unlikely." Now I do not see why this side, the upwind side, should be the most unlikely. The wind has nothing to do with the short turn of a fox; something has headed him, or he has suddenly changed his point, and turned right or left; in which case the holding the pack up wind must be more likely than holding them down wind. I have over and over again stated my opinion that huntsmen to foxhounds are too much given to cast forward, inasmuch as it is natural to suppose that, with a fair scent, in an open country, hounds do not check if the fox is gone on, but because he has turned to the right or the left, or short back on his foil. The rest of this passage is good. In the event of the "unlikely cast" failing, Mr. Smith proceeds thus:-" He (the huntsman) then turns and takes a little wider circle back, round in front all the way, to the left the same distance, till he reaches, or nearly so, the line he came to behind the check at first. Now, having ascertained for certain that his fox is not gone back, or short to the right or left, he can with confidence begin a wider cast than he would have ventured to make otherwise, owing to a fear that the fox had headed back, or to the right or left. The wide cast he commences on the left from behind, progressing according to his judgment, and selecting the best scenting ground forward, beyond any fallow or bad scenting ground. As he now knows that the fox must be gone on, this cast is continued all round in front, and to the right, till he again reaches the line behind; he then takes a wider cast either way, and is guided by circumstances; but nineteen times out of twenty this last is not required, except the fox is headed some distance back, and the steam and stain of the horses prevent the hounds feeling the scent, the quick first cast back. If there is no wind to guide him, there may be a cover to which the fox is gone, on the left; but still he holds them first the unlikely side."

On the subject of hounds brought to check by sheep, Mr. Smith has some excellent remarks, and tells his readers that if a huntsman keeps his eyes open, this obstacle to sport will be much lessened. He says if a fox crosses a field on which sheep are, as they are quick-sighted and timid, they invariably show, by the situation of some of them, that they have been alarmed. Some will be seen in a line, with their heads all the same way, or they will form a line all across the field, with their heads in an opposite direction to the part where the fox passed, which part will be clear of sheep. But it sometimes happens that young sheep, after a fox has gone by, follow his line to the spot where he went through the fence. It should also, (he says) be borne in mind, that a fox is not likely to be headed by

252 NIMROD'S ANALYSIS OF THE DIARY OF A HUNTSMAN."

sheep, as he is in the constant habit of passing through them at night, which is proved by their tracks in snow; and here I perfectly agree with him. Sheep do not head foxes, but they bring hounds to check by the effluvia from them blending with the scent, and I have reason to believe the stain from cattle is still worse; an evil to which Leicestershire is much exposed, by reason of so many being wintered abroad, owing to the richness of the grazing land. He then recommends huntsmen to hold their hounds on beyond the sheep, as soon as they have made their own cast, and the better the scenting day the more necessary is this, because on such days the scent from sheep is proportionably strong.

On the subject of preserving a good head of foxes in a country, Mr. Smith's remarks are very good. Blank days (he thinks) will seldom happen if a country is regularly hunted, and without partiality; it is the too frequently hunting favourite covers (he says), and neglecting to hunt the outskirts, which is one cause of blank days. "Foxes go where they are quietest," he says, " and the consequence is, they are unfairly destroyed, on the plea that it is no use to keep foxes if they are not hunted." He also condemns the practice of drawing the same cover too often, although pretty sure of finding. Again, he recommends fixtures for one week not to be made until the close of the preceding one, it being impossible (in some countries) to say which covers may not be disturbed, and few covers will bear being drawn oftener than once in three weeks. No doubt, as he proceeds to tell us, that country shows the best sport (rather, is most likely to show it) in which the outskirts are fairly hunted, equally with the best parts of it, without regard to distance, because the foxes go straighter, and vary the line of the runs; the wildest and best will go where they can be most quiet, which is generally in the most distant covers, and, when found, go back into the best country. These are sentiments truly in character with fox-hunting, and of fox-hunting in its best days, when it was not so artificial as it has lately, in some respects, become.

We have now an amusing and instructive anecdote of our author's being a match for an old sly fox, by invariably running a ring of about three miles, and taking a line of small covers, in which, by moving fresh foxes, he contrived to save himself. The last time he found him, he had recourse to the following expedient:-When playing his old game of running two rings, and about to run a third, the hounds were stopped, and quietly walked back, to the surprise of a large field of sportsmen, and on reaching an open part, as was expected, the hunted fox was seen coming the same line as before, directly towards the hounds, which got a view, and so astonished him that he went straight away, and was killed twelve miles from where he was found. This I take to be an expedient that may be adopted on such an occasion as this, though not to be admitted as a system.

Mr. Smith thinks hounds sent ten or twelve miles overnight, to be ready for the next day's hunting, show themselves to greater advantage, are more light and lively, and altogether fitter to go, than when only a short time out of their kennel, or turned out of an omnibus; and he also discountenances three-days-a-week countries. "Many hounds," says he, in this case, "seldom hunt two days together

they do not get acquainted with each other's tongues to have that confidence which generally makes them fly together at once, but will stop and listen to the stranger, till they hear hounds they know to be true." This is all good doctrine.

We have next some good remarks on cub hunting, which Mr. Smith says should be commenced as soon as possible in the autumn, insisting on the necessity of moving young foxes that are known of, inasmuch as they are not easily found afterwards by fox stealers, "for," says he, "they beat out from home after they have travelled a little, in consequence of being disturbed."

Cub hunting in September, Mr. Smith thinks, should be finished by nine o'clock a.m., on account of the heat; but he appears to give preference to commencing about five o'clock in the evening, thinking the cubs are more easily found at that time, and instead of the air becoming hotter, it is gradually becoming cooler. Add to this (he asserts), that cubs run stouter at that period of the day than in the morning. Great inconvenience, however, must attend this system; for how pleasant so ever it may be to a gentleman huntsman, it must be far otherwise to servants, who have to feed hounds and clean horses after ten o'clock at night. Our author takes credit for having been the first to practise evening cub hunting, but Mr. Delme Radcliffe, in his "Noble Science," undeceives him on that point.

WILD FOWL SHOOTING FROM A PUNT IN

FRESHWATER.

[The following paper was communicated to the editor some considerable time ago, by a gentleman who furnished several articles of great practical worth for these pages. It is given in the present number, as the period for the sport to which it refers is now fast approaching].

It may be set down as a rule, without any exception, that no amateur of the trigger can be a thorough sportsman who is not fond of wild-fowl shooting; because if a man is not capable of manoeuvring wild-game, it is more than probable that he will be but an indifferent tactician when beating for any kind of game, and without this excitement he can have but little interest in his sport. It is no sign of a sportsman to go out with his gun at the beginning of the season, when birds are tame, even if he should be able to cock an eye, and bring them down with tolerable precision. But fashion-which must ever intrude upon sporting-has now brought crowds to our moors, who carry their sporting pretensions no further. These fashionable shooters are not content, when they arrive at their different quarters, to ascertain the whereabouts of the packs, but they must needs have them all marked by a keeper, who leads them up as methodically to the quarry as to a trap for pigeon shooting; and thus they take infinite pains to deprive this most splendid of all gunnery-grouse shooting-of its

chief interest, or to reduce it, as near as they can, to little better than the pigeon-shooting of the Red House.

But I have no notion of such expeditious methods of filling the bag, for a puff for the newspapers. What should we think of the performances of a billiard-player, who was directed by the marker every stroke he was to make? It may seem bumptious (as we used to say at Eton), but I could excuse any shooter for saying-and he need not be an unsociable fellow either-that in nine cases out of ten, especially when squeezed up in a punt, he would rather have a man's room than his company; for I believe it is about as rare to meet with a thorough sportsman, as it is to meet with a man who makes no pretensions whatever to the character.

I have met with no writer or sportsman who has attempted wildfowl shootings from a punt in a fresh-water loch; and the system of shooting on the coast, as described by Col. Hawker, with stauncheon gun and punt, is very different from what must be here adopted. In the first place, on the Freshwater loch, it is entirely day work; also, the birds are generally sitting out on the water, dotted up and down, and not congregated, as is most frequently the case in estuaries or in harbour, and they, therefore, require considerable manoeuvring to get them properly together for a good shot. I believe the fresh-water shooting is the most scientific of the two, though it seldom affords the same opportunities for a heavy shot.

My first essay with the punt was unfortunate, and might have been attended with very disastrous consequences. It may serve, however, as a warning to others, as it will be most certainly a lesson to myself, not to employ any gunmaker, however respectable, who has not had sufficient experience in making large duck-guns. The punt which I used was built by a country carpenter, according to the directions given by Col. Hawker; and, very foolishly, a country gunmaker, who shall be nameless, was entrusted to make a large swivel gun for it. I thought it prudent, for the first time, to fire it by tying a string to the trigger, not that I anticipated the catastrophe which followed, but as I was not very sure about the recoil. The gun snapped once or twice, but at last, after putting powder pretty freely into the nipple, it went off, and with such an explosion! The barrel was burst, tearing away the block in which the swivel was fastened, and bending the swivel nearly double, and, for nearly half a minute after, large pieces of the breeching and barrel kept dropping down into the water like a shower of stones.*

We next procured one of Lancaster's largest shoulder-guns, which, on the whole, I think more suitable for this kind of shooting, and, properly equipped in our white dresses, the keeper and I launched forth to try our skill in the punt. It was very soon evident, however (though I certainly took some wonderfully long shots with the car

The gunmaker maintained that I must have loaded with damp wadding, which was not the case, and that that had occasioned the bursting. I think it is more probably owing to the powder not having been rammed sufficiently down, and putting more powder into the nipple. However, I think there is no excuse for the maker, for if the gun had been properly constructed, and the metal properly tempered, I see nothing that should have made it burst.