120 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



always thought hare-hunting should be taken as a ride, 

 after breakfast, to get us an appetite to our dinner. 

 If you make a serious business of it, you spoil it. 

 Hare-finders, in this case, are necessary : it is agree- 

 able to know where to go immediately for your diver- 

 sion, and not beat about, for hours perhaps, before you 

 find. It is more material with regard to the second 

 hare than the first ; for if you are warmed with your 

 gallop, the waiting long in the cold afterwards, is, I 

 believe, as unwholesome as it is disagreeable. Who- 

 ever does not mind this, had better let his hounds find 

 their own game : they will certainly hunt it with more 

 spirit afterwards ; and he will have a pleasure himself 

 in expectation, which no certainty can ever give. 

 Hare-finders make hounds idle : they also make them 

 wild. Mine knew the men as well as I did myself; 

 could see them almost as far ; and would run, full cry, 

 to meet them. Hare-finders are of one great use : 

 they hinder your hounds from chopping hares, which 

 they otherwise could not fail to do. I had in my 

 pack one hound in particular, that was famous for it : 

 he would challenge on a trail very late at noon, and 

 had a good knack at chopping a hare afterwards : he 

 was one that liked to go the shortest way to work ; 

 nor did he choose to take more trouble than was 

 necessary. Is it not wonderful that the trail of a hare 

 should lie after so many hours, when the scent of her 

 dies away so soon ? 



Hares are said (I know not with what truth) to 

 foresee a change of weather, and to seat themselves 

 accordingly. This is, however, certain, that they are 



