82 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



notion, at least, for what they are beaten ; but let me 

 entreat you, before this charivari 1 begins, to draft off 

 your steady hounds : an animal to whom we owe so 

 much good diversion, should not be ill-used unneces- 

 sarily. When a hare is put into the kennel, the 

 huntsman and both the whippers-in should be 

 present ; and the whippers-in should flog every 

 hound, calling him by his name, and rating him as 

 often as he is near the hare ; and upon this occasion 

 they cannot cut them too hard, or rate them too 

 much. When they think they have chastised them 

 enough, the hare should then be taken away, the 

 huntsman should halloo off his hounds, and the 

 whippers-in should rate them to him. If any one 

 love hare more than the rest, you may tie a dead one 

 round his neck, flogging him and rating him at the 

 same time. This possibly may make him ashamed 

 of it. I never bought a lot of hounds, some of 

 which were not obliged to undergo this discipline. 

 Either hares are less plentiful in other countries, or 

 other sportsmen are less nice in making their hounds 

 steady from them. 



I would advise you to hunt your large covers with 

 your young hounds : it will tire them out ; 2 a 



1 A confusion arising from a variety of noises. It is a custom in 

 France and in Switzerland, if a woman marry sooner than is usual after 

 the death of her husband, or a woman get the better of her husband 

 when attempting to chastise her, and return the beating with interest — 

 the neighbours give them a charivari j a kind of concert, composed of 

 tongs, fire-shovels, kettles, brass pans, &c, &c. 



2 Provided that you have old hounds enough out to carry on the 

 scent : if you have not a body of old hounds to keep up a cry on the 

 right scent, the young ones, as soon as the ground becomes foiled, will 



