The San Francisco call., 1896-11-28

regard it in the nature OF country sport.
Instead of paper hares and trails across
the fields the bay of the hounds will soon
be heard and the "piping horn," and
above all else will ring out the cry remind
fui of crisp frosty days "tallyho tally hoF'
For California is to have its pack of
English foxhounds, and the San Mateo
hills are to be stocked with genuine Eng
ilsh foIes. And soon the rivalry among
gentlemen who follow the hounds will be
largely confined to capturing the brush. !"
or to be particular where this term may
appear technical, the tail of the fox.
after that will come the struggle for foxes
neads to decorate the stalls of winning
horses
Burlingame will then be strictly in good
lorm 1t will have its red coats, it's W hip
perrin, its master; and San Mateo County
ils req coated fox-hunting sQuires. This
VIII be truly English, you know, but to be
au ialt nowadays, such things are neces-
sary. The good old sport will be the tad
OF burllngame, and already it has given
new life to that arIstocratic club within
the exclusive precincts of which fox
hunting has become the favorlte topic of
conversation. On the polo ground
between innings mem bers discuss hounds
and foxes with the ladies, at dinners they
ones sigh for stone fences and trim hedge
rows while reconciling themselves with
ordinary California COW fences ana the
like.
Even now there is pack of fox
hounds on the way from New 7 ork, where
the dogs were bought by Walters. Hobart.
They were shipped by rail Wednesday
last and are expected 10 arrive here in the
course of week. The pack consists of
nine pairs, or thirty-eight hounds in
all. The kennel will be at San Mateo,
whence the first hunt will start as soon as
the dogs are well rested after their trip
across the continent.
With them, though in another train, a
goodly supply of English red foxesls being
hurried toward California. They will be
set free in a large inclosure back toward
the foothills behind the town of San
Mateo and left there 10 increase In num-
bers.
For the present, at least during this
season, the fox will not be hunted, for the
reason that the number must first be
materially increased before any of them
are set at liberty IN the hills. That will
not be until the following hunting season,
but there will be royal sport after Reynard
through the mesa lands and the rolling
foothills down the peninsula. And all the
hunters will have merry time in trying
to get in first at The death.
Until that time bags of aniseec will be
used TO furnish the sport. This method OF
making trail for hounds is known as a
drag hunt. A horseman rides away ahead
dragging bag of an iseed over the ground.
It is part Of his performance to initiate
the cunning fox. He must go back on his
trail and use such SLY tricks to throw the
hounds off the scent. at given time the
hounds are let loose. Then they pick up
the scent and away they go, the pack bay
ing and flying with noses to the ground
and the hunters at their heels, riding for
all that is in them over drains and over
fences and rYwhere, if they don't wish
TO lose caste, the hounds go. At last the
end of the trail is reached, and the first
hunter to arrive wins the first honor
Through the energies OF some members
OF the Burlingame Club hunt club is be-
ing organized. This will be an indepen-
dent organization to be called the San
Mateo Hunting Club. 1t will select a
master of the hounds and the whipper-in.
Ladies can become members, so that they
will now have an opportunity of this mag
nificent country sport, and in addition
to that their presence will make it de-
cidedly popular. Horsemen say that the
new rivalry which fox-hunting will create
will improve the quality of hunting horses
in California.