66 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



but if once suffered to taste blood, you may find it 

 difficult to reclaim them. Various are the methods 

 used to break such dogs from sheep: some will couple 

 them to a ram, but that is breaking them with a 

 vengeance : you had better hang them. A late lord 

 of my acquaintance, who had heard of this method, and 

 whose whole pack had been often guilty of killing 

 sheep, determined to punish them, and to that intent 

 put the largest ram he could find into his kennel. 

 The men with their whips and voices, and the ram 

 with his horns, soon put the whole kennel into 

 confusion and dismay ; and the hounds and the ram 

 were then left together. Meeting a friend soon after 

 " Come," says he, " come with me to the kennel, and 

 see what rare sport the ram makes among the hounds : 

 the old fellow lays about him stoutly, I assure you. 

 Egad he trims them : there is not a dog dares look 

 him in the face." His friend, who is a compassionate 

 man, pitied the hounds exceedingly, and asked, if he 

 was not afraid that some of them might be spoiled ? 

 " No ; d — n them," said he, " they deserve it, and let 

 them suffer." On they went : all was quiet : they 

 opened the kennel door, but saw neither ram nor 

 hound. The ram by this time was entirely eaten up, 

 and the hounds, having filled their bellies, were retired 

 to rest. 



Without doubt it is best, when you air your 

 hounds, to take them out separately; the old ones one 

 day, another day the young: 1 but as I find your 



1 It would be better still, to take out your hounds every day, the old 

 and young separately, when it can be done without inconvenience ; when 

 it cannot, a large grass-court will partly answer the same purpose. 



