LETTER XVIII. 



BEFORE I proceed on my subject, give me leave 

 to set you right in one particular, where I per- 

 ceive you have misunderstood me. You say, that you 

 little expected to see the abilities of a huntsman de- 

 graded beneath those of a whipper-in. This is a 

 serious charge against me, as a sportsman ; and, though 

 I cannot admit that I have put the cart before the horse 

 in the manner you are pleased to mention, yet you have 

 made it necessary for me to explain myself farther. 



I must therefore remind you, that I speak of my 

 own country only ; a country full of riot, where the 

 covers are large, and where there is a chase full of deer 

 and full of game. In such a country as this, you that 

 know so well how necessary it is for a pack of fox- 

 hounds to be steady, and to be kept together, ought 

 not to wonder that I should prefer an excellent 

 whipper-in to an excellent huntsman. No one knows 

 better than yourself, how essential a good adjutant 

 is to a regiment : believe me, a good whipper-in is not 

 less necessary to a pack of fox-hounds : but I must beg 

 you to observe, I mean only, that I could do better with 

 mediocrity in the one than in the other. If I have 

 written any thing in a former Letter that implies more, 

 I beg leave to retract it in this. Yet I must confess 



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