148 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



many halloos : it is true, I have not ; and, what is 

 worse, I fear I am never likely to meet your 

 approbation in that particular ; for should we hunt 

 together, then I make no doubt you will think that I 

 halloo too much ; a fault which every one is guilty of, 

 who really loves this animating sport, and is eager in 

 the pursuit of it. Believe me, I never could halloo in 

 my life, unless after hounds ; and the writing a halloo 

 appears to me almost as difficult as to pen a whisper. 



Your friend A , you say, is very severe on us 



fox-hunters : no one is more welcome. However, 

 even he might have known, that the profession of fox- 

 hunting is much altered since the time of Sir John 

 Vanbrugh ; and the intemperance, clownishness, and 

 ignorance of the old fox-hunter, are quite worn out : a 

 much truer definition of one might now be made than 

 that which he has left. Fox-hunting is now become 

 the amusement of gentlemen ; nor need any gentleman 

 be ashamed of it. 



I shall now begin to answer your various questions 

 as they present themselves. Though I was glad of 

 this expedient to methodize, in some degree, the 

 variety that we have to treat of, yet I was well aware 

 of the impossibility of sufficiently explaining myself in 

 the midst of a fox-chase, whose rapidity, you know 

 very well, brooks no delay. Now is the time, there- 

 fore, to make good that deficiency : what afterwards 

 remains on the subject of hunting, will serve as a sup- 

 plement to the rest ; in which I shall still have it in 

 my power to introduce whatever may be now forgotten, 

 or give a further explanation of such parts as may seem 



