48 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



spaniel to snipes, and the dog ever after was partial to them, preferring 

 them to every other bird. 



If you have martin-cats 1 within your reach, as all hounds are fond of 

 their scent, you will do well to enter your young hounds in the covers 

 they frequent. The martin-cat, being a small animal, by running the 

 thickest brakes it can find, teaches hounds to run cover, and is therefore 

 of the greatest use. I do not much approve of hunting them with the old 

 hounds : they show but little sport ; are continually climbing trees ; and 

 as the cover they run seldom fails to scratch and tear hounds considerably, 

 I think you might be sorry to see your whole pack disfigured by it. The 

 agility of this little animal is really wonderful ; and though it frequently 

 falls from a tree in the midst of a whole pack of hounds, all intent on catching 

 it, there are but few instances, I believe, of a martin's being caught by them 

 in that situation. 



In summer, hounds might hunt in any evening. 2 I know a pack 

 that, after having killed one fox in the morning with the young hounds, 

 killed another in the evening with the old ones. Scent generally lies well 

 at the close of the day ; yet there is a great objection to hunting at that 

 time ; animals are then more easily disturbed, and you have a greater 

 variety of scents than at an earlier hour. 



Having given you all the information that I can possibly recollect, 

 with regard to my own management of young hounds, I shall now take 

 notice of that part of your last letter, where, I am sorry to find, our opinions 

 differ. Obedience, you say, is everything necessary in a hound, and it 

 is of little consequence by what means it is obtained. I cannot altogether 

 concur in that opinion ; for I think it very necessary that the hound should 

 at the same time understand you : obedience, under proper management, 

 will be a necessary consequence of it. Obedience, surely, is not all that 

 is required of them : they should be taught to distinguish of themselves 

 right from wrong, or I know not how they are to be managed when, as it 

 frequently happens, we cannot see what they are at, and must take their 

 words for it. A hound that hears a voice which has often rated him, and 

 that hears the whip which he has often felt, I know will stop. I also know 

 that he will commit the same fault again, if he has been accustomed to 

 be guilty of it. 



Obedience, you very rightly observe, is a necessary quality in a hound, 

 for he is useless without it. It is, therefore, an excellent principle for a 

 huntsman to set out upon ; yet, good as it is, I think it may be carried 

 too far. I would not have him insist on too much, or torment his hounds 

 mal-d-propos, by forcibly exacting from them what is not absolutely neces- 



* 1 The Pine marten (mustela martes), see Introduction. 



** During the latter part of the seventeenth century buck-hunting began at four o'clock 

 in the afternoon. 



