LETTER II 



SINCE you intend to make hunting your chief amusement in the coun- 

 try, you are certainly in the right to give it some consideration before 

 you begin ; and not, like Master Stephen in the play, 1 first buy a hawk, 

 and then hunt after a book to keep it by. I am glad to find that you intend 

 to build a new kennel : and, I flatter myself, the experience that I have 

 had may be of some use to you in building it : it is not only the first thing 

 that you should do, but it is also the most important. As often as your 

 mind may alter, so often may you easily change from one kind of hound 

 to another ; but your kennel will still remain the same ; will still keep 

 its original imperfections, unless altered at a great expense ; and be less 

 perfect at last than it might have been made at first, had you pursued a 

 proper plan. It is true, hounds may be kept in barns and stables : but 

 those who keep them in such places can best inform you, whether their 

 hounds are capable of answering the purposes for which they were designed. 

 The sense of smelling, the odora canum vis, as Virgil calls it, is so exquisite 

 in a hound, that I cannot but suppose every stench is hurtful to it. It 

 is that faculty on which all our hopes depend ; it is that which must lead 

 us over greasy fallows, where the feet of the game we pursue, being clogged, 

 leave little scent behind ; as well as over stony roads, through watery 

 meads, and where sheep have stained the ground. 



Cleanliness is not only absolutely necessary to the nose of the hound, 

 but also to the preservation of his health. Dogs are naturally cleanly 

 animals ; they seldom, when they can help it, dung where they lie : air, 

 and fresh straw, are necessary to keep them healthy. They are subject 

 to the mange ; a disorder to which poverty and nastiness will very much 

 contribute. This, though easily stopped at its first appearance, if suffered 

 to continue long, may lessen the powers of the animal ; and the remedies 

 which are then to be used, being in themselves violent, must injure his 

 constitution. It had better be prevented : let the kennel, therefore, be 

 an object of your particular care. 



Upon some little eminence erect, 



And fronting to the ruddy dawn ; its courts 



On either hand wide opening to receive 



The sun's all-cheering beams, when mild he shines, 



And gilds the mountain tops. 



* l Every Man in His Humour (Act I. Sc. 1). 'I have bought me a hawk, and a hood 

 and bells and all : I lack nothing but a book to keep it by.' 



8 



