LETTER X. 



I THOUGHT that I had been writing all this time 

 to a fox-hunter ; and hitherto my Letters have had 

 no other object. I now receive a letter from you, full 

 of questions about hare-hunting ; to all of which you 

 expect an answer. I must tell you, at the same time, 

 that, though I kept harriers many years, it was not 

 my intention, if you had not asked it, to have written 

 on the subject. By inclination I was never a hare- 

 hunter : I followed this diversion more for air and 

 exercise than for amusement ; and if I could have 

 persuaded myself to ride on the turnpike-road to the 

 three-mile stone, and back again, I should have 

 thought that I had had no need of a pack of harriers. 

 Excuse me, brother hare-hunters ! I mean not to 

 offend ; I speak but relatively to my own particular 

 situation in the country, where hare-hunting is so bad, 

 that it is more extraordinary that I should have 

 persevered in it so long, than that I should forsake 

 it now. I respect hunting, in whatever shape it 

 appears : it is a manly and a wholesome exercise, 

 and seems by Nature designed to be the amusement 

 of a Briton. 



You ask, How many hounds a pack of harriers 

 should consist of? and, What kind of hound is best 



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