BEST METHOD OF BLOODING HOUNDS 241 



slack ; and nothing, surely, is more contrary to the 

 true spirit of fox-hunting ; for fox-hounds, I have 

 already said, ought always to be above their work. 

 This is another particular, in which hare-hunting and 

 fox-hunting totally differ ; for harriers cannot be hunted 

 too much, as long as they are able to hunt at all : the 

 slower they go, the less likely they will be to over-run 

 the scent, and the sooner, in all probability, will they 

 kill their game. I have a friend, who hunted his five 

 days following, and assured me that he had better 

 sport with them the last day than the first. 



I remember to have heard, that a certain pack of 

 fox-hounds, since become famous, were many weeks, 

 from a mixture of indifferent hounds, bad management, 

 and worse luck, without killing a fox ; however, they 

 killed one at last, and tried to find another : — they 

 found him, and they lost him ; and were then, as you 

 may well suppose, another month without killing 

 another fox : — this was ill-judged : they should have 

 returned home immediately. 



When hounds are much out of blood, some men 

 proceed in a method that must necessarily keep them 

 so : they hunt them every day, as if tiring them out 

 were a means to give them strength and spirit : — this, 

 however, proceeds more from ill-nature and resentment, 

 than sound judgment. 1 As I know your temper to be 

 the reverse, without doubt, you will adopt a different 

 method ; and, should your hounds ever be in the 



1 It is not the want of blood only that is prejudicial to hounds : the 

 trying long in vain to recover a lost scent, no less contributes to make 

 them slack. 



R 



