116 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



true, have most excellent noses, and, I make no doubt, 

 will kill their game at last if the day be long enough ; 

 but you know the days are short in winter, and it is 

 bad hunting in the dark : the other, on the contrary, 

 fling and dash, and are all alive ; but every cold blast 

 affects them ; and if your country be deep and wet, it 

 is not impossible that some of them may be drowned. 

 My hounds were a cross of both these kinds, in which 

 it was my endeavour to get as much bone and strength 

 in as small a compass as possible. It was a difficult 

 undertaking. I bred many years, and an infinity of 

 hounds, before I could get what I wanted : I at last 

 had the pleasure to see them very handsome ; small, 

 yet bony; they ran remarkably well together; ran fast 

 enough; had all the alacrity that you could desire; and 

 would hunt the coldest scent. When they were thus 

 perfect, I did as many others do — I parted with them. 

 It may be necessary to unsay (now that I am 

 turned hare-hunter again) many things that I have 

 been saying as a fox-hunter ; as I hardly know any 

 two things of the same genus (if I may be allowed the 

 expression) that differ so entirely. What I said in a 

 former Letter, about the huntsman and whipper-in, is 

 in the number. As to the huntsman, he should not 

 be young : I should, most certainly, prefer one, as the 

 French call it, d'un certain age, as he is to be quiet 



a good shoulder is a necessity. A miniature foxhound, only with rather 

 shorter legs in comparison, is an ideal beagle wherewith to hunt the hare. 

 Hunting on foot is splendid exercise, and affords a means of enjoying 

 sport to those whose purse or inclination does not allow them to keep 

 a horse. Harriers are only permissible in a country that is not hunted 

 by foxhounds. From ten to fifteen couple of hounds are enough to hunt 

 a hare.] 



