ON BLOODING HOUNDS 121 



no foxhound can fail of killing more than three or 

 four times following without being visibly the worse 

 for it. When hounds are out of blood there is a kind 

 of evil genius attending all they do ; and, though they 

 may seem to hunt as well as ever, they do not get 

 forward ; while a pack of foxhounds well in blood, 

 like troops flushed with conquest, are not easily with- 

 stood. What we call ill-luck, day after day when 

 hounds kill no foxes, may frequently, I think, be 

 traced to another cause, namely, their being out of 

 blood; nor can there be any other reason assigned 

 why hounds which we know to be good should remain 

 so long as they sometimes do without killing a fox. 

 Large packs are the least subject to this inconvenience ; 

 hounds who are quite fresh and in high spirits least 

 feel the want of blood." 



Beckford then deals with the remedy for " slack- 

 ness," which is invariably consequent on want of 

 blood. "If your hounds be much out of blood, give 

 them rest. ... 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. After a tolerably good run 

 do not try to find another fox. Should you be long 

 in finding, and should you not have success after- 

 wards, it will hurt your hounds ; should you try a 

 long time and not find, that also will make them 

 slack ; and nothing surely is more contrary to the 

 true spirit of fox-hunting, for foxhounds, I have 

 already said, ought always to be above their work. . . . 

 When hounds are much out of blood some men pro- 

 ceed in a method that must necessarily keep them so. 



