240 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



good, should remain so long as they sometimes do 

 without killing a fox. 1 Large packs are least subject 

 to this inconvenience : hounds that are quite fresh, 

 and in high spirits, least feel the want of blood : the 

 smallest packs, therefore, should be able to leave at 

 least ten or twelve couple of hounds behind them, to 

 be fresh against the next hunting day. If your 

 hounds be much out of blood, give them rest : take 

 this opportunity to hunt with other hounds ; to see 

 how they are managed ; to observe what stallion 

 hounds they have ; and to judge yourself, whether 

 they be such as it is fit for you to breed from. If 

 what I have now recommended should not succeed ; 

 if a little rest, and a fine morning, do not put your 

 hounds into blood again, I know of nothing else that 

 will ; and you must attribute your ill success, I fear, 

 to another cause. 



You say, that you generally hunt at a late hour : 

 after a tolerably good run, do not try to find another 

 fox. Should you be long in finding, and should you 

 not have success afterwards, it will hurt your hounds : 

 should you try a long time, and not find, that also will 

 make them slack. Never try to find a fox after one 

 o'clock ; you had better return home, and hunt again 

 on the next day : not that I, in general, approve of 

 hunting two days following with the same hounds : 

 the trying so many hours in vain, and the being kept 

 so long off their food, both contribute to make them 



1 A pack of hounds that had been a month without killing a fox, at 

 last ran one to ground, which they dug, and killed upon the earth : the 

 next seven days that they hunted, they killed a fox each day. 



