28 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



in one season : twenty-nine of the foxes were killed 

 without any intermission. I must tell you, at the 

 same time, that they were killed with hounds bred 

 from a pack of harriers ; nor had they, I believe, a 

 single skirter belonging to them. There is a pack 

 now in my neighbourhood, of all sorts and sizes, 

 which seldom miss a fox ; when they run, there is a 

 long string of them, and every fault is hit off by an 

 old southern hound. However, out of the last 

 eighteen foxes that they hunted, they killed seven- 

 teen ; and I have no doubt, that, as they become 

 more complete, more foxes will escape from them. 

 Packs which are composed of hounds of various 

 kinds, seldom run well together ; nor do their tongues 

 harmonize ; yet they generally, I think, kill most 

 foxes : but unless I like their style of killing them, 

 whatever may be their success, I cannot be com- 

 pletely satisfied. I once asked the famous Will 

 Crane, how his hounds behaved. "Very well, Sir" 

 he replied : "they never come to a fault but they spread 

 like a sky-rocket." Thus it should always be. 



A famous sportsman asked a gentleman what he 

 thought of his hounds. " Your pack is composed, Sir," 

 said he, "of dogs which any other man would hang: 

 they are all skirter s." This was taken as a compli- 

 ment. However, think not that I recommend it to you 

 as such ; for, though I am a great advocate for style 

 in the killing of a fox, I never forgive a professed 

 skirter : where game is in plenty, they are always 

 changing, and are the loss of more foxes than they kill. 



You ask me, how many hounds you ought to keep ? 



