When you meet the pack with a strange horse

When you meet the pack with a strange horse

When you meet the pack with a strange horse

When you meet the pack with a strange horse, don’t go near it until sure that he will not kick at hounds, as some ill-educated horses will do.

Before the hounds begin to draw, you may get some useful information as to a strange country from a talkative farmer.

When hounds are drawing a large cover, and when you cannot see them, keep down wind, so as to hear the huntsman, who, in large woodlands, must keep on cheering his hounds. When a fox breaks cover near you, or you think he does, don’t be in a hurry to give the Tally-a-e-o! for, in the first place, if you are not experienced and quick-eyed, it may not be a fox at all, but a dog, or a hare. The mistake is common to people who are always in a hurry, and equally annoying to the huntsman and the blunderer; and, in the next place, if you halloo too soon, ten to one the fox heads back into cover. When he is well away through the hedge of a good-sized field, halloo, at the same time raising your cap, Tally-o aw-ay-o-o! giving each syllable very slowly, and with your mouth well open; for this is the way to be heard a long distance. Do this once or twice, and then be quiet for a short spell, and be ready to tell the huntsman, when he comes up, in a few sentences, exactly which way the fox is gone. If the fox makes a short bolt, and returns, it is Tally-o back! with the back loud and clear. If the fox crosses the side of a wood when the hounds are at check, the cry should be Tally-o over!