NUMBER OF OLD HOUNDS NECESSARY 79 



of a few couple more than you want, in case of acci- 

 dents ; since, from the time you make your draft to 

 the time of hunting, is a long period, and their exist- 

 ence, at that age and season, very precarious ; besides, 

 when they are safe from the disorder, they are not 

 always safe from each other ; and a summer seldom 

 passes without some losses of that kind. At the same 

 time I must tell you, that I should decline entering 

 more than are necessary to keep up the pack ; since a 

 great number would only create useless trouble and 

 vexation. 



You wish to know what number of old hounds you 

 should hunt with the young ones : that must depend 

 on the strength of your pack, and the number which 

 you choose to spare ; if good and steady, ten or twelve 

 couple will be sufficient. 



My young hounds, and such old ones as are in- 

 tended to hunt along with them, 1 are kept in a kennel 

 by themselves till the young hounds are hunted with 

 the pack. I need not, I am sure, enumerate the many 

 reasons that make this regulation necessary. 



1 never trust my young hounds in the forest till 

 they have been well blooded to fox, and seldom put 

 more than a couple into the pack at a time: 2 the others 

 are walked out amongst the deer when the men exer- 

 cise their horses, and are severely chastised if they 



1 Some also take out their unsteady hounds when they enter the 

 young ones : I doubt the propriety of it. 



2 I sometimes send all my young hounds together into the forest, with 

 four or five couple of old hounds only ; such as I know they cannot spoil. 

 As often as any of them break off to deer, they are taken up and flogged. 

 When they lose one fox they try for another, and are kept out till they 

 are all made tolerably steady. 



