Buck-HUNTING

Buck-HUNTING. Here the same hounds and methods are used as in running the stag; and, indeed, he that can hunt a hart or stag well, will not hunt a buck ill.

In order to facilitate the chace, the game-keeper commonly selects a fat buck out of the herd, which he shoots in order to maim him, and then he is run down by the hounds.

As to the method of hunting the buck. The company generally go out very early for the benefit of the morning. Sometimes they have a deer ready lodged; if not, the coverts are drawn till one is roused: or sometimes in a park a deer is pitched upon, and forced from the herd, then more hounds are laid on to run the chace. If you come to be at a fault, the old staunch hounds are only to be relied upon till you recover him again: if he be sunk, and the hounds thrust him up, it is called an imprime, and the company all found a recheat; when he is run down, every one strives to get in to prevent his being torn by the hounds, fallow deer seldom or never standing at bay.

He that first gets in, cries hoo-up, to give notice that he is down, and blows a death. When the company are all come in, they paunch him, and reward the hounds, and generally the chief person of quality amongst them takes say, that is, cuts his belly open, to see how fat he is.

Hunting. is. When this is done, every one has a chop at his neck, and the head being cut off is shewed to the hounds, to encourage them to run only at a male deer, which they see by the horns, and to teach them to bite only at the head: then the company all standing in a ring, one blows a single death; which being done, all blow a double reheat, and so conclude the chase with a general halloo of hoo-up, and depart the field to their several homes, or to the place of meeting; and the huntsman, or some other, hath the deer cast across the buttocks of his horse, and so carries him home.

Fox HUNTING makes a very pleasant exercise, and is either above or below ground.

1. Above ground. To hunt a fox with hounds you must draw about groves, thickets, and bushes, near villages. When you find one, it will be necessary to stop up the earth, the night before you design to hunt, and that about midnight; at which time he is gone out to prey: this may be done by laying two white sticks across in his way, which he will imagine to be some gin or trap laid for him; or else they may be stopped up with black thorns and earth mixed together.

Mr Beckford is of opinion that for fox-hunting the pack should consist of 25 couple. The hour most favourable for the diversion is an early one; and he thinks that the hounds should be at the cover at sunrise. The huntsman should then throw in his hounds as quickly as he can, and let the two whippers-in keep wide of him on either hand; so that a single hound may not escape them; let them be attentive to his halloo, and let the sportsmen be ready to encourage or rate as that directs. The fox ought on no account to be hallooed too soon, as in that case he would most certainly turn back again, and spoil all the sport.—Two things our author particularly recommends, viz. the making all the hounds steady, and making them all draw. "Many huntsmen (says he) are fond of having them at their horse's heels; but they never can get so well or so soon together as when they spread the cover; besides, I have often known where there have been only a few finders, that they have found their fox gone down the wind, and been heard of no more that day. Much depends upon the first finding your fox; for I look upon a fox well found to be half killed. I think people are generally in too great a hurry on this occasion. There are but few instances where sportsmen are not too noisy, and too fond of encouraging their hounds, which seldom do their business so well as when little is said to them. The huntsman ought certainly to begin with his foremost hounds; and I should wish him to keep as close to them as he conveniently can; nor can any harm arise from it, unless he should not have common sense. No hounds can then slip down the wind and get out of his hearing; he will also see how far they carry a scent, a necessary requisite; for without it he never can make a cast with any certainty.—You will find it not less necessary for your huntsman to be active in pressing forward his hounds when the scent is good, than to be prudent in not hurrying them beyond it when it is bad. It is his business to be ready at all times to lend them that assistance which they so frequently need, and which when they are first at a fault is then most critical. A fox-hound at that time will exert himself most; he afterwards cools and becomes most indifferent about his game. Those huntsmen who

do not get forward enough to take advantage of this eagerness and impetuosity, and direct it properly, seldom know enough of hunting to be of much use to them afterwards. Though a huntsman cannot be too fond of hunting, a whipper-in easily may. His business will seldom allow him to be forward enough with the hounds to see much of the sport. His only thought therefore should be to keep the hounds together, and to contribute as much as he can to the killing of the fox: keeping the hounds together is the surest means to make them steady. When left to themselves they seldom refuse any blood they can get; they become conceited; learn to tie upon the scent; and besides this they frequently get a trick of hunting by themselves, and are seldom good for much afterwards.

"Every country is soon known; and nine foxes out of ten, with the wind in the same quarter, will follow the same track. It is therefore easy for the whipper-in to cut short, and catch the hounds again. With a high scent you cannot push on hounds too much. Screams keep the fox forward, at the same time that they keep the hounds together, or let in the tail-hounds: they also enliven the sport; and, if discreetly used, are always of service; but in cover they should be given with the greatest caution. Halloos seldom do any hurt when you are running up the wind, for then none but the tail hounds can hear you: when you are running down the wind, you should halloo no more than may be necessary to bring the tail hounds forwards; for a hound that knows his business seldom wants encouragement when he is upon a scent.—Most fox-hunters wish to see their hounds run in a good style. I confess I myself am one of those; I hate to see a string of them; nor can I bear to see them creep where they can leap. A pack of harriers, if they have time, may kill a fox, but I defy them to kill him in the style in which he ought to be killed; they must hunt him down. If you intend to tire him out, you must expect to be tired also yourself; I never wish a chase to be less than one hour, or to exceed two: it is sufficiently long if properly followed: it will seldom be longer unless there be a fault somewhere; either in the day, the huntsman, or the hounds.

"Changing from the hunted fox to a fresh one is as bad an accident as can happen to a pack of fox-hounds, and requires all the ingenuity and observation that man is capable of to guard against it. Could a fox-hound distinguish a hunted fox as the deer-hound does the deer that is blown, fox-hunting would then be perfect. A huntsman should always listen to his hounds while they are running in cover; he should be particularly attentive to the headmost hounds, and he should be constantly on his guard against a skirter; for if there be two scents, he must be wrong. Generally speaking, the best scent is least likely to be that of the hunted fox: and as a fox seldom suffers hounds to run up to him as long as he is able to prevent it; so, nine times out of ten, when foxes are hallooed early in the day, they are all fresh foxes. The hounds most likely to be right are the hard-running line-hunting ones; or such as the huntsman knows had the lead before there arose any doubt of changing. With regard to the fox, if he break over an open country, it is no sign that he is hard run; for they seldom at any time will do that unless they are a great way before the hounds. Also if he run

Hunting. up the wind;—they seldom or never do that when they have been long hunted and grow weak; and when they turn their foil, that also may direct him. All this requires a good ear and nice observation; and indeed in that consists the chief excellence of a huntman.

“When the hounds divide, and are in two parts, the whipper-in, in stopping, must attend to the huntman and wait for his halloo, before he attempts to stop either: for want of proper management in this respect, I have known the hounds stopped at both places, and both foxes lost. If they have many scents, and it is quite uncertain which is the hunted fox, let him stop those that are farthest down the wind; as they can hear the others, and will reach them soonest: in such a case there will be little use in stopping those that are up the wind. When hounds are at a check, let every one be silent and stand still. Whippers-in are frequently at this time coming on with the tail hounds. They should never halloo to them when the hounds are at fault; the least thing does them harm at such a time, but a halloo more than any other. The huntman, at a check, had better let his hounds alone; or content himself with holding them forward, without taking them off their noses.—Should they be at a fault, after having made their own cast (which the huntman should always first encourage them to do), it is then his business to assist them further; but except in some particular instances, I never approve of their being cast as long as they are inclined to hunt. The first cast I bid my huntman make is generally a regular one, not choosing to rely entirely on his judgment: if that should not succeed, he is then at liberty to follow his own opinion, and proceed as observation or genius may direct. When such a cast is made, I like to see some mark of good sense and meaning in it; whether down the wind, or towards some likely cover or strong earth. However, as it is at best uncertain, I always wish to see a regular cast before I see a knowing one; which, as a last resource, should not be called forth till it be wanted: The letting hounds alone is but a negative goodness in a huntman; whereas it is true this last shows real genius; and to be perfect it must be born with him. There is a fault, however, which a knowing huntman is too apt to commit: he will find a fresh fox, and then claim the merit of having recovered the hunted one. It is always dangerous to throw hounds into a cover to retrieve a lost scent; and unless they hit him in, is not to be depended on.

“Gentlemen, when hounds are at fault, are too apt themselves to prolong it. They should always stop their horses some distance behind the hounds; and if it be possible to remain silent, this is the time to be so. They should be careful not to ride before the hounds or over the scent; nor should they ever meet a hound in the face, unless with a design to stop him. Should you at any time be before the hounds, turn your horse's head the way they are going, get out of their track, and let them pass by you. In dry weather, and particularly in healthy countries, foxes will run the roads. If gentlemen at such times will ride close upon the hounds, they may drive them miles without any scent.—High-mettled fox-hounds are seldom inclined to stop while horses are close at their heels. No one should ever ride in a direction which if persisted in would

carry him amongst the hounds, unless he be at a great distance behind them. Hunting.

“The first moment that hounds are at fault is a critical one for the sport people, who should then be very attentive. Those who look forward may perhaps see the fox; or the running of sheep, or the pursuit of crows, may give them some tidings of him. Those who listen may sometimes get a hint which way he is gone from the chattering of a magpie; or perhaps be at a certainty from a distant halloo: nothing that can give any intelligence at such a time ought to be neglected. Gentlemen are too apt to ride all together: were they to spread more, they might sometimes be of service; particularly those who, from a knowledge of the sport, keep down the wind: it would then be difficult for either hounds or fox to escape their observation.—You should, however, be cautious how you go to a halloo. The halloo itself must in a great measure direct you; and though it afford no certain rule, yet you may frequently guess whether it can be depended upon or not. At the sowing time, when boys are keeping off the birds, you will sometimes be deceived by their halloo; so that it is best, when you are in doubt, to send a whipper-in to know the certainty of the matter.”

Hounds ought not to be cast as long as they are able to hunt. It is a common, though not very just idea, that a hunted fox never stops; but our author informs us that he has known them stop even in wheel-ruts in the middle of a down, and get up in the middle of the hounds. The greatest danger of losing a fox is at the first finding him, and when he is sinking; at both which times he frequently will run short, and the eagerness of the hounds will frequently carry them beyond the scent. When a fox is first found, every one ought to keep behind the hounds till they are well settled on the scent; and when the hounds are catching him, our author wishes them to be as silent as possible; and likewise to eat him eagerly after he is caught. In some places they have a method of tracing him; that is, throwing him across the branch of a tree, and suffering the hounds to bay at him for some minutes before he is thrown among them; the intention of which is to make them more eager, and to let in the tail hounds; during this interval also they recover their wind, and are apt to eat him more readily. Our author, however, advises not to keep him too long, as he supposes that the hounds have not any appetite to eat him longer than while they are angry with him.

2. Under-ground. In case a fox does so far escape as to earth, countrymen must be got together with shovels, spades, mattocks, pick-axes, &c. to dig him out, if they think the earth not too great. They make their earths as near as they can in ground that is hard to dig, as in clay, stony ground, or amongst the roots of trees; and their earths have commonly but one hole, and that is straight a long way in before you come at their couch. Sometimes craftily they take possession of a badger's old burrow, which hath a variety of chambers, holes, and angles.

Now to facilitate this way of hunting the fox, the huntman must be provided with one or two terriers to put into the earth after him, that is, to fix him into an angle; for the earth often consists of many angles: the

Hunting. tise of the terrier is to know where he lies; for as soon as he finds him, he continues baying or barking, so that which way the noise is heard that way dig to him. Your terriers must be garnished with bells hung in collars, to make the fox bolt the sooner; besides, the collars will be some small defence to the terriers.

The instruments to dig withal are these; a sharp-pointed spade, which serves to begin the trench where the ground is hardest and broader tools will not so well enter; the round hollowed spade, which is useful to dig among roots, having very sharp edges; the broad flat spade to dig withal, when the trench has been pretty well opened, and the ground softer; mattocks and pick-axes to dig in hard ground, where a spade will do but little service; the coal-rake to cleanse the hole, and to keep it from stopping up; clamps, wherewith you may take either fox or badger out alive to make sport with afterwards. And it would be very convenient to have a pail of water to refresh your terriers with, after they are come out of the earth to take breath.

Hare-HUNTING. As, of all chases, the hare makes the greatest pastime, so it gives no little pleasure to see the craft of this small animal for her self-preservation. If it be rainy, the hare usually takes to the high-ways; and if she come to the side of a young grove, or spring, she seldom enters, but squats down till the hounds have over-shot her; and then she will return the very way she came, for fear of the wet and dew that hangs on the boughs. In this case, the huntsmen ought to stay a hundred paces before he comes to the wood-side, by which means he will perceive whether she return as aforesaid; which if she do, he must halloo in his hounds; and call them back; and that presently, that the hounds may not think it the counter the came first.

The next thing that is to be observed, is the place where the hare sits, and upon what wind she makes her form, either upon the north or south wind: she will not willingly run into the wind, but run upon a side, or down the wind; but if she form in the water, it is a sign she is foul and mealled: if you hunt such a one, have a special regard all the day to the brook-sides; for there, and near passies, she will make all her crossings, doublings, &c.

Some hares have been so crafty, that as soon as they have heard the sound of a horn, they would instantly start out of their form, though it was at the distance of a quarter of a mile, and go and swim in some pool, and rest upon some rath bed in the midst of it; and would not stir from thence till they have heard the sound of the horn again, and then have started out again, swimming to land, and have stood up before the hounds four hours before they could kill them, swimming and using all subtleties and crossings in the water. Nay, such is the natural craft and subtlety of a hare, that sometimes after she has been hunted three hours, she will start a fresh hare, and squat in the same form. Others having been hunted a considerable time, will creep under the door of a sheep-cot, and hide themselves among the sheep; or, when they have been hard hunted, will run in among a flock of sheep, and will by no means be gotten out from among them till the hounds are coupled up, and the sheep driven into their pens. Some of them (and that seems somewhat strange)

will take the ground like a coney, and that is called Hunting. going to the vault. Some hares will go up one side of the hedge, and come down the other, the thickness of the hedge being the only distance between the courses. A hare that has been sorely hunted, has got upon a quickset hedge, and run a good way upon the top thereof, and then leapt off upon the ground. And they will frequently betake themselves to furze bushes, and will leap from one to the other, whereby the hounds are frequently in default.

Having found where a hare hath relieved in some pasture or corn-field, you must then consider the season of the year, and what weather it is: for if it be in the spring-time, or summer, a hare will not then set in bushes, because they are frequently infested with pismires, snakes, and adders; but will set in corn-fields, and open places. In the winter-time, they set near towns and villages, in tufts of thorns and brambles, especially when the wind is northerly or southerly. According to the season and nature of the place where the hare is accustomed to sit, there beat with your hounds, and start her; which is much better sport than trailing of her from her relief to her form.

After the hare has been started and is on foot, then step in where you saw her pass, and halloo in your hounds, until they have all undertaken it and go on with it in full cry: then reheat to them with your horn, following fair and softly at first, making not too much noise either with horn or voice; for at the first, hounds are apt to overshoot the chace through too much heat. But when they have run the space of an hour, and you see the hounds are well in with it, and flick well upon it, then you may come in nearer with the hounds, because by that time their heat will be cooled, and they will hunt more soberly. But above all things, mark the first doubling, which must be your direction for the whole day; for all the doublings that she shall make afterwards will be like the former; and according to the policies that you shall see her use, and the place where you hunt, you must make your compasses great or little, long or short, to help the defaults, always seeking the moistest and most commodious places for the hounds to scent in.

To conclude: Those who delight in hunting the hare must rise early, lest they be deprived of the scent of her footsteps.

Hart or Stag HUNTING. Gesner, speaking of hart-hunting, observes, that this wild, deceitful, and subtle beast, frequently deceives its hunter by windings and turnings. Wherefore the prudent hunter must train his dogs with words of art, that he may be able to set them on and take them off again at pleasure.

First of all, he should encompass the beast in her own layer, and so unharbour her in the view of the dogs, that so they may never lose her scent or footing. Neither must he set upon every one, either of the herd or those that wander solitary alone, or a little one; but partly by fight, and partly by their footing and sumets, make a judgment of the game, and also observe the largeness of his layer.

The huntsmen, having made these discoveries in order to the chace, takes off the couplings of the dogs; and some on horseback, others on foot, follow the cry, with the greatest art, observation, and speed; remembering and intercepting him in his subtle turnings and

Hunting. headings; with all agility leaping hedges, gates, pales, ditches; neither fearing thorns, down-hills, nor woods, but mounting a fresh horse if the first tire. Follow the largest head of the whole herd, which must be singled out of the chace; which the dogs perceiving, must follow; not following any other. The dogs are animated to the sport by the winding of horns, and the voices of the huntsmen. But sometimes the crafty beast fends forth his little squire to be sacrificed to the dogs and hunters, instead of himself, lying close the mean time. In this case, the huntsmen must find a retreat, break off the dogs, and take them in, that is, leam them again, until they be brought to the fairer game; which riseth with fear, yet still striveth by flight, until he be wearied and breathless. The nobles call the beast a wise hart, who, to avoid all his enemies, runneth into the greatest herds, and so brings a cloud of error on the dogs, to obstruct their further pursuit; sometimes also bearing some of the herd into his footings, that so he may the more easily escape by amusing the dogs. Afterwards he betakes himself to his heels again, still running with the wind, not only for the sake of refreshment, but also because by that means he can the more easily hear the voice of his pursuers whether they be far from him or near to him. But at last being again discovered by the hunters and sagacious scent of the dogs, he flies into the herds of cattle, as cows, sheep, &c. leaping on a cow or ox, laying the fore parts of his body thereon, that so touching the earth only with his hinder feet, he may leave a very small or no scent at all behind for the hounds to discern. But their usual manner is, when they see themselves hard beset and every way intercepted, to make force at their enemy with their horns, who first comes upon him, unless they be prevented by spear or sword. When the beast is slain, the huntsmen with his horn windeth the fall of the beast; and then the whole company comes up, blowing their horns in triumph for such a conquest; among whom, the skilfullest opens the beast, and rewards the hounds with what properly belongs to them, for their future encouragement; for which purpose the huntsmen dip bread in the skin and blood of the beast to give to the hounds.

It is very dangerous to go in to a hart at bay; of which there are two sorts, one on land and the other in water. Now, if the hart be in a deep water, where you cannot well come at him, then couple up your dogs; for should they continue long in the water, it would endanger their surbating or foundering. In this case, get a boat, and swim to him, with dagger drawn, or else with rope that has a noose, and throw it over his horns: for if the water be so deep that the hart swims, there is no danger in approaching him; otherwise you must be very cautious.

As to the land-bay, if a hart be burnished, then you must consider the place; for if it be in a plain and open place, where there is no wood nor covert, it is dangerous and difficult to come in to him; but if he be on a hedge-side, or in a thicket, then, while the hart is staring on the hounds, you may come softly and covertly behind him, and cut his throat. If you miss your aim, and the hart turn head upon you, then take refuge at some tree; and when the hart is at bay, couple up your hounds; and when you see the hart turn head to

fly, gallop in roundly to him, and kill him with your sword. Hunting.

Directions at the Death of a Hart or Buck. The first ceremony, when the huntsmen comes in to the death of a deer, is to cry "ware haunch," that the hounds may not break into the deer; which being done, the next is the cutting his throat, and there bloodling the youngest hounds, that they may the better love a deer, and learn to leap at his throat: then the mort having been blown, and all the company come in, the best person who hath not taken say before, is to take up the knife that the keeper or huntsmen is to lay across the belly of the deer, some holding by the fore legs, and the keeper or huntsmen drawing down the pizzle, the person who takes say, is to draw the edge of the knife leisurely along the middle of the belly, beginning near the brisket, and drawing a little upon it, enough in the length and depth to discover how fat the deer is; then he that is to break up the deer, first slits the skin from the cutting of the throat downwards, making the arber, that so the ordure may not break forth, and then he paunches him, rewarding the hounds with it.

In the next place, he is to present the same person who took say, with a drawn hanger, to cut off the head of the deer. Which being done, and the hounds rewarded, the concluding ceremony is, if it be a stag, to blow a triple mort; and if a buck, a double one; and then all who have horns, blow a recheat in concert, and immediately a general whoop, whoop.

Otter-HUNTING is performed with dogs, and also with a sort of instruments called otter-spears; with which when they find themselves wounded, they make to land, and fight with the dogs, and that most furiously, as if they were sensible that cold water would annoy their green wounds.

There is indeed craft to be used in hunting them; but they may be caught in snares under water, and by river-sides: but great care must be taken, for they bite sorely and venomously; and if they happen to remain long in the snare, they will not fail to get themselves free by their teeth.

In hunting them, one man must be on one side of the river, and another on the other, both beating the banks with dogs; and the beast not being able to endure the water long, you will soon discover if there be an otter or not in that quarter; for he must come out to make his spraints, and in the night sometimes to feed on grass and herbs.

If any of the hounds finds out an otter, then view the soft grounds and moist places, to find out which way he bent his head; if you cannot discover this by the marks, you may partly perceive it by the spraints; and then follow the hounds, and lodge him as a hart or deer. But if you do not find him quickly, you may imagine he is gone to couch somewhere farther off from the river; for sometimes they will go to feed a considerable way from the place of their rest, choosing rather to go up the river than down it. The persons that go a-hunting otters, must carry their spears, to watch his vents, that being the chief advantage; and if they perceive him swimming under water, they must endeavour to strike him with their spears, and if they miss, must pursue him with the hounds, which, if they be good and perfectly entered, will go chanting.

Hunting. ing and trailing along by the river-side, and will beat every root of a tree, and ofer-bed, and tuft of bulrushes; nay, they will sometimes take water, and bait the beast, like a spaniel, by which means he will hardly escape.

Roe-buck HUNTING is performed divers ways, and very easily in the woods.

When chased, they usually run against the wind, because the coolness of the air refreshes them in their course; therefore the huntsmen place their dogs with the wind: they usually, when hunted, first take a large ring, and afterwards hunt the hounds. They are also often taken by counterfeiting their voice, which a skilful huntsmen knows how to do by means of a leaf in his mouth. When they are hunted, they turn much and often, and come back upon the dogs directly; and when they can no longer endure, they take foil, as the hart does, and will hang by a bough in such a manner, that nothing of them shall appear above the water but their snout, and they will suffer the dogs to come just upon them before they will stir.

The venison of a roe-buck is never out of season, being never fat, and therefore they are hunted at any time; only that some favour ought to be shown the doe while she is big with fawn, and afterwards till her fawn is able to shift for himself; but some roe-does have been killed with five fawns in their bellies.

He is not called, by the skilful in the art of hunting, a great roe-buck, but a fair roe-buck; the herd of them is called a bevy: and if he hath not bevy-grease upon his tail, when he is broken up, he is more fit to be dog's meat than man's meat. The hounds must be rewarded with the bowels, the blood, and feet slit asunder, and boiled altogether; this is more properly called a dose than a reward.