2 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



better, I must beg you to accept them in humble 

 prose, which, in my opinion, is better suited to the 

 subject. Didactic essays should be as little clogged as 

 possible : they should proceed regularly and clearly : 

 should be easily written, and as easily understood ; 

 having less to do with words than things. The game of 

 crambo is out of fashion, to the no small prejudice of 

 the rhyming tribe ; and before I could find a rhyme to 

 porringer ) I should hope to finish a great part of these 

 Letters. I shall, therefore, without further delay, 

 proceed upon them : — this, however, I must desire to 

 be first understood between us — that when, to save 

 trouble to us both, I say a thing is, without tacking a 

 salvo to the tail of it, such as, in my opinion — to the 

 best of my judgment, &c. &c. — you shall not call my 

 humility in question, as the assertion is not meant to 

 be mathematically certain. When I have any better 

 authority than my own, such as Somerville, for in- 

 stance (who, by the bye, is the only one that has 

 written intelligibly on this subject), I shall take the 

 liberty of giving it you in his own words, to save you 

 the trouble of turning to him. 



You may remember, perhaps, that when we were 

 hunting together at Turin, the hounds having lost the 

 stag, and the piquettrs (still more at fault than they) 

 being ignorant which way to try, the king bid them 

 ask Milord Anglois : nor is it to be wondered at, if 

 an Englishman should be thought to understand the 

 art of hunting, as the hounds which this country 

 produces are universally allowed to be the best in the 

 world. Whence, I think, this inference may be drawn 



