QUANTITY OF HOUNDS NECESSARY 17 



A friend of mine killed thirty-seven brace of foxes in one season : 

 twenty-nine of the foxes were killed without any intermission. I must 

 tell you, at the same time, that they were killed with hounds bred from a 

 pack of harriers ; nor had they, I believe, a single skirter belonging to 

 them. There is a pack now in my neighbourhood, of all sorts and sizes, 

 which seldom miss a fox ; when they run, there is a long string of them, 

 and every fault is hit off by an old southern hound. However, out of the 

 last eighteen foxes that they hunted, they killed seventeen ; and I have 

 no doubt, that, as they become more complete, more foxes will escape 

 from them. Packs which are composed of hounds of various kinds, seldom 

 run well together ; nor do their tongues harmonize ; yet they generally, 

 I think, kill most foxes : but unless I like their style of killing them, what- 

 ever may be their success, I cannot be completely satisfied. I once asked 

 the famous Will Crane, 1 how his hounds behaved. ' Very well, Sir,' he 

 replied : ' they never come to a fault but they spread like a sky-rocket.' Thus 

 it should always be. 



A famous sportsman asked a gentleman what he thought of his hounds. 

 ' Your pack is composed, Sir,' said he, ' of dogs which any other man 

 would hang : they are all skirter s.' This was taken as a compliment. 

 However, think not that I recommend it to you as such ; for, though I 

 am a great advocate for style in the killing of a fox, I never forgive a pro- 

 fessed skirter : where game is in plenty, they are always changing, and 

 are the loss of more foxes than they kill. 



You ask me, how many hounds you ought to keep ? It is a question 

 not easy to answer : from twenty to thirty couple are as many, I think, as 

 you should ever take into the field. The propriety of any number must 

 depend upon the strength of your pack, and the country in which you are 

 to hunt : the quantity of hounds necessary to furnish that number for a 

 whole season, must also depend on the country where you hunt ; as some 

 countries lame hounds more than others. The taking out too many hounds, 

 Mr. Somerville very properly calls an useless incumbrance. It is not so 

 material what the number is, as it is that all your hounds should be steady, 

 and as nearly as possible of equal speed. 



When packs are very large, the hounds are seldom sufficiently hunted 

 to be good. Few people choose to hunt every day ; and, if they did, it is 

 not likely that the weather in winter would give them leave. You would 

 always be obliged, therefore, either to take out a very large pack, or a 

 great number of hounds must be left behind : in the first case, too many 

 hounds in the field would probably spoil your sport ; in the second, hounds 

 that remain long without work, always get out of wind, and oftentimes 



* l Huntsman to Colonel Bullock, of Falkborne Hall, Essex ; he t'-ained Mr. Smith Barry's 

 hounds Bluecap and Wanton for the famous 500 match against Mr. Meynell's couple at 

 Newmarket. He died in April, 1802, at Rivenhall, Essex, aged 80 years. 



3 



