Letters to young sportsmen on hunting, angling and shooting

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ON HUNTING, by Lieutenant-Colonel J. Mackillop i

I. — Some Preliminary Hints i

II. The Fox And The Hounds

IN the previous letter we had arrived at the meet, and nothing up to that point had occurred to suggest that we were not old hands. Unless something of a game is understood by the spectator much of the enjoyment is lost. We watch and read of cricket with interest because we know the rudiments of the game, if we are not all entirely familiar with the science and niceties of it. Baseball may be quite as good a game, but the first time we see it, not understanding what it is all about, we fail to appreciate its points and the whole is a mixed-up affair. So it will be with hunting, and in the following lines I will try to convey to you how the game is played by fox, hounds and huntsman and, finally, by that larger but less important body, the spectators. It is quite easy to recognise the officials. The huntsman, whips and second horsemen, also the Master, invariably wear red coats and velvet hunting caps. If it were not for hunting the fox would have disappeared from these islands long ago, as did the wolf and wild boar. In non-hunting countries he has many enemies and few friends. But in hunting countries he is preserved and gamekeepers are paid certain fees every time a fox is found in their coverts. Foxes move about at night ; like dogs, they have big stomachs and slow digestions — as opposed to the horse, which has a small stomach and quick digestion — and sleep all day. They roam far and wide after dark, and in their marauding expeditions learn to know the country like a tax collector. At certain seasons of the year they go for miles, and "travelling" foxes usually give the big historic gallops. In the daytime they mostly occupy holes in the ground, called " earths," made by themselves, or artificial " earths " put down for their io LETTERS TO YOUNG SPORTSMEN.

accommodation. Occasionally foxes do not occupy earths. These are called " stub bred," and lie out in willow beds — most uncomfortable places, unapproachable and waterlogged. Some few live in hollow trees and odd places, but 90 per cent, may be said to live in " earths." After a night's foraging (and it is a great mistake to think that foxes are always after farmers' chickens ; they live largely on vermin, rats, hedgehogs, and so on) the fox returns to his " earth " to sleep off his heavy meal. It is pretty clear, therefore, as we go hunting in the daytime, that unless something is done, all the foxes will be underground and unget-at-able. Therefore, notice is given to keepers and professional earth-stoppers that on a certain day such and such area will be hunted, and they, after the fox has quitted the earth and before he has had time to return, block up the entrance to the hole. This is called " putting to." Finding his ingress is barred, the fox will " lie out " in the coverts,

COILED UP AND ASLEEP.

that is, coil up somewhere and go to sleep. Let us leave him there and say a word on hounds.

You will wonder, perhaps, why so many hounds are required to hunt a fox. Hounds hunt by scent almost entirely. Of course, they will run in view till they lose sight of the fox, when they drop their noses and hunt by

ON HUNTING. n

scent. If scent were always good few hounds would do well enough ; any pack of curs will hunt a fox if scent is good enough ; but scent is often faint and catchy good in covert or bad out, and vice versd. When scent is bad one hound may pick up the line and bring the others to it, and in drawing for a fox an odd hound " hits off " the line and the balance of the hounds join in. To hunt a country four days a week sixty couples of hounds used to be thought not too many. Nor were they, as hounds will not turn out too often ; their feet may be damaged, and for many reasons some may be kept in kennels. Since the war many packs are much depleted, hounds having been " put down " in deference to the Food Controller. Later in the season brood bitches are laid up and the pack further reduced. Some huntsmen hunt all bitches together on one day and all dogs on another, and do not mix the packs till late in the season, when, from shortage of hounds, they must. Other huntsmen mix the packs, putting in a few big bitches with the dogs and a few small dogs with the bitches. Bitches are apt to be flighty ; dogs work closer, the latter help to steady the bitches, but bitches undoubtedly sharpen up the dogs. The main idea is to get the best hunting qualities out of each. Hounds are very expensive to keep, and if you want to do a real good turn and become popular, " walk " a puppy — that is, after he is weaned from his mother, take him or, better still, take two, and keep them for a few months till they are old enough to go back to kennels and form the new entry for the coming season.

The foxhound is a lethargic, lazy-looking, handsome animal at the covert side, serious and sagacious, no playing about or gambolling like other dogs. But when running a fox he is a different article altogether, full of dash and drive and, when closing up on a beaten fox, with his hackles up, tremendously fierce and keen. I have seen foxhounds when used for stag hunting, go for a stag at bay time after time and receive some cruel wounds from his horns. Foxes in coverts are found by what is called " drawing " for them. Hounds are put into covert and spread themselves out, and one or another is likely to put the fox on his feet. A huntsman usually, if it suits the covert and agrees with the direction

A HUNTSMAN . . . DRAWS UP WIND. '

ON HUNTING.

he wants the fox to go in, draws up wind to give the hounds the advantage of the wind, if the wind is not too high. If it is and there is a good deal of noise in the tree-tops, he would not draw up-wind, because a fox might be " chopped " — that is, pounced upon before he had got on his legs. The object of hunting in the regular season is to provide runs and kill foxes at the end of them, not to ' mob ' foxes in v^ tiff* i

A WHIPPER-IN IS PLACED AT SOME VANTAGE POINT.

covert. One would, perhaps, imagine that it would be a good way to get the fox out by cracking whips and making a noise, and not by putting hounds in covert at all. But a fox well found is half killed, and huntsmen like hounds to find and " come away " with their foxes. I know lots of coverts in Ireland, and some in England, which are just a small square of gorse or whins planted specially for foxes, and if there are likely to be several foxes in it, the huntsman blows his horn and cracks his whip and often a fox quits ; he then lays hounds on, does not disturb the covert, and gets a better start close on his fox ; but it is a bad thing for hounds ; their heads are always up, and they will not draw well when wanted. Good hounds are known by their drawing qualities, trying here, trying there. If they gaze about, scratch themselves and roll about, they had better be hanged. Some odd hounds, however, are very good on the line, but won't draw, and hang about the huntsman's heels ; but they have to be very good hunting hounds to avoid the rope. A whipper-in is usually placed at some vantage point at the corner of the covert from which he can see both sides, and another or a second horseman at some other point from which he commands a view of a fox " breaking " covert. These are to " holloa " a fox away — that is, give the huntsman warning when a fox quits. The duties of whippers-in and the art and abuse of " holloaing " need a word, but of this later. The huntsman, and the huntsman only, goes into covert if it is of any size, with hounds, and by voice and horn draws the pack to places which have not been tried and cheers them on a fox when found and gets them out of covert as quickly as possible if a fox is " holloaed away."

Get familiar with the sound of the huntsman's voice and know what the various weird noises mean and what the " toots " on his horn imply and then, though you do not see him, you will know what is going on. " Hound language " is very difficult to explain, as these sounds have no equivalent in spelling. " Yoicks," " Forward on," " Hark to Rover," and so on are only used in poetry and on the music-hall stage in sporting revues. A man would need lungs like a gladstone bag and a larynx of brass to shout " Yoicks" very loud and often. Let me try phonetically to convey what language the huntsman employs. As he puts hounds into covert he usually says " 'Eu in there," and when inside, " toite, toite," or something like it, as he draws the pack towards any particular spot, " Lu, Lu, Wind'im, wind'im " (English, smell him out), with an occasional single staccato note on the horn. If the

ON HUNTING.

i5 covert is " blank," i.e., no fox, a prolonged swelling note calls hounds out of covert. When all are out he blows a long single note — for the whips who, when the covert is blank, go in and crack any remaining hounds on to the huntsman. If a fox is found the huntsman encourages hounds with " Hi, tally'o, Hi, tally'o " and a double note on the horn, known as " doubling the horn." The huntsman knows the sound of the hound which " opens " first on a fox,

BLOWING THE " GONE AWAY.

that is first to " own " the scent and give tongue, then he shouts " 'Ike to Rattler," or whatever the hound's name may be, and other hounds turn to the one who " owns ' the fox. When the fox quits cover or " goes away," as it is called, the huntsman blows the " gone away," two short notes and a long one, repeated several times, and as the pack tumbles out of covert he shouts " Forrad away, forrad away ! " If one of the whips " views " a fox away from covert he " holloas ".; a shrill, clear cry, which thrills you as nothing else will, when you come to know its import. For some extraordinary reason the whip thrusts his finger in his ear when he holloas, goodness knows why, but they all do it. Also do huntsmen very often when they " toite toite " hounds to them in covert. If a fox " breaks " but doubles back to covert the whipper-in sings out " Tally 'o bike " (back) and cracks his whip. While all this is going on the field will be outside the covert all close together, a Master will marshal all horsemen where they are least likely to head a fox. Sometimes in drawing big coverts the field will follow up the centre " ride " if there is one. Do not detach yourself from the remainder of the field and wander about or you may " head a fox," that is, turn him back into hounds when he tries to " break/' one of the greatest possible sins. When hounds find there will be a Niagara-like rush to the first gate or easy place in the first fence, therefore, unostentatiously nose your way up to this bolt-hole, or up to the front of the cavalcade in a " ride," because if you are not near the front the pack may be half a mile off before you have got through after waiting your turn. When hounds find, get a move on ; I do not say gallop off in diametrically the opposite direction to that in which hounds have gone, but get clear of the crowd and you can look about you and decide what to do. There are many ways of seeing a run — riding on your own where hounds go, known as " taking your own line," following some trusted pilot who knows the country and will get along fairly well through gates and gaps or, worse still, attaching yourself to the road brigade, who trot along the roads and see what little they can from its rather unenviable security. Later we will touch on these various methods. Also on the sins of skirting and point riding in an attempt to anticipate the line likely to be taken by the fox, often resulting in heading him in the open, and spoiling the sport of everyone else.

III. Seeing Sport

WHEN last we parted the fox had been " viewed " away and each of us had to decide what method he meant to adopt to keep hounds in sight or see as much of the sport as he could. Before tackling these important matters a word is, perhaps, as well as to what you should do if, by chance, you see a fox " break ' covert and no one else is with you. If you are anywhere alongside the covert, keep close to it, not wide out in the adjoining field. The chief idea is to let the fox get well away before you move or utter a sound. If the huntsman can see you, just hold up your hat ; he will come soon enough, that is if hounds are not busy with another fox in covert. If the huntsman cannot see you, wait till the fox is a good way off and then " holloa." If you do it too soon the fox may double back, and that is a calamity, because the first fox away is usually the best, as he thus shows some dash, and probably knows where he is bound for and will go there straight. Straightness is an essential to all good runs ; unenterprising, short-running foxes are a nuisance. I know a good sportsman who says he always tries to say the alphabet to himself before he " holloas ' when he has viewed a fox away, but so keen and full of excitement is he that he has never reached S yet. After you have " holloaed " watch the fox as far as you can see him, note the precise spot where he crossed a drain or went through a fence. If the huntsman comes to your " holloa " and hounds do not " settle " at once, he will want to know exactly where you saw him last. If you try to explain and are not quite clear, mistakes will occur, just as they did in the old musketry school days, when we tried to fix a spot in the " indication and recognition " practice. You may know just where the fox went but not be able to point it out in a moment of

c excitement so that the huntsman will understand exactly. If the fox is lost during a hunt it is dangerous to " holloa " if you see one, because, unless you have considerable knowledge of the game, it is difficult to recognise the hunted fox, and you may put the pack on a fresh one, which is most annoying when the hunted fox may be threading fences and running short, as foxes do when sinking. Though I counselled you to keep forward in the cavalcade when hounds were drawing, once the fox breaks covert you, being well up to the front, sit still and quiet till hounds have really settled on his line. Another time to stand still is when hounds check or hover when running a fox.

Now about the three methods of seeing the sport which were mentioned in concluding our last letter. Road riding is inglorious and soon dismissed. I think half a mile behind, or half a hundred, is worth all the road riding there ever was. Still, there are many good sportsmen who command our respect, though possibly not our admiration, who never leave friend Macadam's rather inglorious security. They know all about hunting, the pedigree of the individual hounds, the line of half the foxes in the country. But my letters are to " young sportsmen," and the road is no place for them — at any rate for the next forty years. Not that old gentlemen are always found there, by any means. I once saw in Ireland a wiry little man on a young, high-couraged, blood horse, slipping him along with the best. He was close on eighty years of age ! The road is the place for nurses with children in tub-carts, fat people on ponies, and second horsemen — which latter should be there a good deal more than they are. Now for the class which follow hounds wherever they go, but some distance behind, and with this class perhaps you will find yourself at first, so get to know them. They are acquainted with the likely run of foxes, the fords in all the streams, the easiest place in half the fences in the country, all the gates and every path for miles. On bad scenting days and with ringing foxes they see all there is to see, and sometimes more than some of the " thrusters." If you want the best description of a hunt they can always give it you. They jump all the places, or most of them, which are jumped by the forward brigade, or rather section,

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LETTERS TO YOUNG SPORTSMEN.

DO NOT TAKE ANYONE S PLACE AT A GAP.

because the company in the very front is surprisingly select, even in the biggest of fields. This division will tackle a very awkward obstacle rather than be put out of the hunt, so do not imagine you will be on the flat if you stick to them. They are the real backbone of every hunt, good sportsmen all, really fond of hunting for hunting's sake, revelling in hound work, and viewing with keenly critical and knowledgeable eye every cast the huntsman makes. Full of enjoyment of the chase, they pretend to no great things, are not the least jealous, and lend a helping hand to all in distress. There are one or two axioms to keep in mind when you ride in the second flight. Do not take anyone else's place at a gate, gap or easy place in a fence ; it is not sporting. Wait your turn. Never jump a fence close behind anyone else ; see them clear away on the other side before you jump. Often your horse is impetuous with being kept back and will rush in and follow another horse quite close. You cannot, perhaps, stop him at short notice and may jump on the man in front if his horse happens to fall. If anyone gets off to open a refractory gate (and, by the way, get off and open a fair share yourself), let him get on his horse again before you move away an inch. If you move off even slowly his horse will follow yours, and he will be hopping along with one foot in the stirrup and the other perhaps ankle deep in mud. If you can catch a riderless horse and take him back to his owner, do so ; it is a Christian act, and you will appreciate the kindness after running half a mile in top boots across a ploughed field like a gigantic rice pudding.

YOU WILL APPRECIATE THE KINDNESS AFTER RUNNING HALF A MILE IN TOP BOOTS.

Next we come to the van, the first flight. Anyone can be with them ; there are no reserved seats ; but this taking a line of your own is a more difficult thing to excel in than almost anything in the wide realm of sport. It can be no more taught than writing a novel can be. It either is or is not in a man. It looks so easy, sweeping along, never in a hurry, keeping up with hounds however fast they run, without apparent effort, always jumping the fence exactly in the right place, just where the take-off is best and where the landing is safest. If hounds bend they always seem to turn towards rather than away from this fine exponent of the game. Even has he time to unlatch and swing back many a gate. Hounds come out of every covert on the side which he has chosen. All seems so simple. It is not always the good horsemen who have this gift. Many fine horsemen have not got it, nor ever will have. If a man has it and happens to be a fine horseman he is undefeatable. I shall always remember a very little man and very fat, who had this intuitive gift in a marked degree, who, provided he did not fall off, was hard to beat. If he did fall off, no power on earth would put him up again, unless he could climb on some object as high as the saddle. I never saw him ride at an impracticable place at a fence, and I knew when hounds turned they would turn to him. He chose his ground and, in spite of his weight, got, in the very first flight, to the end of many big runs. But though his head was long his legs were very short and his " deck hamper " enormous, coupled with the fact that he rode big, powerful blood horses, he was often jumped clean off, and a " peck ' unshipped him like an orange. I recommended him to put a strap through each of the breastplate D's and across the pommel of the saddle ; this he gripped as the horse neared the fence, and it saved him scores of falls. I do not advise gripping anything, because if you suddenly let go a horse's head he is as likely to refuse as not ; but his horses were so perfect they never knew what refusing was. Still, he had an almost uncanny gift of riding to hounds. Many men will ride behind those who actually cut out the work, jumping every fence and going where they go, full of courage and determined to see w u

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s the fox killed, but who, if hounds were running across Hyde Park, would, if alone, lose themselves in doubt as to through which arch they should go at Hyde Park Corner. I know steeplechase jockeys, men who have ridden in half a dozen " Nationals," who could not stay with hounds half a dozen fields if they ran fast and no pilot was handy. I never knew a pudding-headed man who was a first-flighter. A good man to hounds is quick-witted and observant, decisive and self-reliant.

Remember — and it is a comforting thought withal — that a good horse, if fresh, can jump anything you dare or should put him at. A tired horse is a dangerous conveyance, of course, but you will soon know when he has had enough. Three feet six of timber, strong creosoted rails, absolutely unbreakable and unyielding, looks a formidable obstacle, but almost any horse or pony could hop over it. Open water or a clean-cut drain 12ft. wide appears, in cold blood, a positive arm of the sea ; still, every stride of a blood horse at a gallop on the flat covers nearly twice as much. A high, hairy fence, with goodness knows what on the other side, looks forbidding enough, but the combined weight of man and horse, say i,40olbs., has a good deal of smashing power, and the drain beyond is not likely to further any agricultural requirement by being at the outside more than 4ft. wide. The horse, if sailing on, would clear half as much again in his stride. A wall is seldom more than 3ft. gins, high, but if mortared on the top what a serious proposition it is ; but the " take-off " is always good and landing sound. Walls are the safest jumps of all. No one would or could build a wall on boggy ground, nor alongside a drain. All the above obstacles to our progress are within the powers of any moderately good horse, provided always that the " take off " is good. Out of deep plough, up-hill, any horse can fall over a brush fence; while taking off from a muddy hedge bottom, poached by cattle and ill defined, the best horse may make a mistake.

A pumped-out horse may fall over anything. You must and will have falls ; a few do no harm, to show you how easy they are; but what we are out for is to get over the country without falls. I have hunted for thirty years, in England and Ireland. With much gratitude and wood-touching, I fail to remember but one fall which kept me out of the saddle. The fall that did me in for some time was from a horse slipping up whilst galloping on a road. And I never yet broke a bone. It's all luck. I have gone half a season and never had a fall, and have had three " bursters " in a morning. As regards the art of falling, there are two text-book rules : " Never part company with your horse till the last moment, and never leave go of the reins." I agree with the latter, though it's not so easy, but I disagree with the former. When falling, if you stick like glue to a horse till the last moment, he is as likely as not to pin your leg under him, and in the effort to get up kicks you or rolls on you. He won't do it knowingly. If you think he may fall, but are not certain, sit still by all means if you can, because if you lurch forward your extra weight suddenly applied will put him off his balance when he might otherwise save himself. But if it is plain he is going to fall, roll clear. In ordinary falls I think horses seem to fall on the left side ; then you shoot on to your left shoulder, roll over and get up before the horse. This is the commonest and easiest fall of the lot. Where to ride at fences, the pace required for different varieties of obstacles, the use of ground, and other tips I hope to inflict you with on another occasion.

IV. Riding A Country

IN concluding my previous letter I ventured to say that I would touch in this upon how to get a horse across country. Let me try to give you some " tips " which I have found to be sound in practice. The audacity of this appals me ! How to ride a run ! I might as well set out to show you how to paint a picture or write a sermon. Still, as my readers are " young sportsmen " they will not know more than I do, and may know less. In this letter it will not be possible to go into the questions involved in how to get a bad horse over a country ; so, to make any progress at all, it must be presumed you are mounted on a perfect horse ; nothing less will do in this letter. The mount then will be perfection, have manners, speed, courage, discretion, be able to negotiate the biggest and most awkward of fences, never refuse and never tire. You will never again be on such a horse ; because he does not exist, so make the best of him. Hounds have found, there is an undeniable scent and you have got a good start. On a still day the fox may take any direction. If there is much wind he will not run long facing it, eventually he will turn down or, at any rate, across it, because he will find that the scent being blown back to the hounds will enable them to run too fast for his liking. Therefore, if you can remember — I seldom can — ride on the " leeward " or down wind side of the pack, you will then have the advantage of the turn which the fox will make sooner or later. Never ride in the wake of hounds if you are near them ; they do not like galloping horses close in their rear. Foxhounds, despite their dash and drive, are really rather timid ; they will, if pressed, try to get out of the way and not pay all their attention to the scent.

ON HUNTING.

A good deal of England and Ireland was once under the plough, and the relics of that period are still to be found in most grass countries by the presence of ridge and furrow — those corduroy- like undulations in the fields. Do not gallop across these broadside on, because they take a lot out of the horse and will almost shake the life out of you. Of course, our mount, being perfect, has the best of action and the most beautiful shoulders