THE CHOICE OF THE PACK 27 



are characteristic of the other. I could tell you, that 

 I have seen very good sport with very unhandsome 

 packs, consisting of hounds of various sizes, differing 

 from one another as much in shape and look as in 

 their colour ; nor could there be traced the least sign 

 of consanguinity amongst them. Considered separ- 

 ately, the hounds were good ; as a pack of hounds, 

 they were not to be commended ; nor would you be 

 satisfied with anything that looked so very incomplete. 

 You will find nothing so essential to your sport, as 

 that your hounds should run well together ; nor can 

 this end be better attained, than by confining yourself, 

 as near as you can, to those of the same sort, size, 

 and shape. 



A great excellence in a pack of hounds, is the head 

 they carry ; and that pack may be said to go the 

 fastest, that can run ten miles the soonest ; notwith- 

 standing the hounds, separately, may not run so fast 

 as many others. 1 A pack of hounds, considered in a 

 collective body, go fast, in proportion to the excellence 

 of their noses, and the head they carry ; as that 

 traveller generally gets soonest to his journey's end 

 who stops least upon the road. Some hounds that 

 I have hunted with, would creep all through the 

 same hole, though they might have leapt the hedge, 

 and would follow one another in a string, as true 

 as a team of cart-horses. I had rather see them, 

 like the horses of the sun, all a-breast. 



A friend of mine killed thirty-seven brace of foxes 



t 1 The most essential thing in a pack of hounds is the head they 

 carry.] 



