SINGULAR CHARACTER 153 



will be. Good sense, and a little observation, will 

 soon prevent such people from doing amiss ; and I 

 hold it as an almost invariable rule in hunting, that 

 those who do not know how to do good, are always 

 liable to do harm. 1 There is scarcely an instant 

 during a whole chase, when a sportsman ought not 

 to be in one particular place; and I will venture to 

 say, that if he be not there, he might as well be in 

 his bed. 



I must give you an extraordinary instance of a 

 gentleman's knowledge of hunting : He had hired a 

 house in a fine hunting country, with a good kennel 

 belonging to it, in the neighbourhood of two packs of 

 fox-hounds, of which mine was one ; and, that he 

 might not offend the owner of either, intended, as he 

 said, to hunt with both. He offered me the use of 

 his kennel, which, for some reasons, I chose to 

 decline : it was afterwards offered to the other 

 gentleman, who accepted it. The first day that the 

 hounds hunted his country, he did not appear : the 

 second day, the hounds were no sooner at the cover- 

 side, than my friend saw an odd figure, strangely 

 accoutred, riding up, with a spaniel following him. 

 "Sir," said he, "it gave me great concern not to be 



1 This is a better reason, perhaps, why gentlemen ought to under- 

 stand this diversion, than for the good they may do in it ; since a pack 

 of hounds that are well manned will seldom need any other assistance. 

 A gentleman, perceiving his hounds to be much confused by the frequent 

 halloos of a stranger, rode up to him, and thanked him with great 

 civility for the trouble he was taking ; but, at the same time, acquainted 

 him, that the two men he saw in green coats, were paid so much a-year 

 on purpose to halloo; it would be needless for him, therefore, to give him- 

 self any further trouble. 



