LETTER X 



I THOUGHT that I had been writing all this time to a fox-hunter ; and 

 hitherto my Letters have had no other object. I now receive a letter 

 from you, full of questions about hare-hunting ; to all of which you expect 

 an answer. I must tell you, at the same time, that, though I kept harriers 

 many years, it was not my intention, if you had not asked it, to have written 

 on the subject. By inclination I was never a hare-hunter : I followed this 

 diversion more for air and exercise than for amusement ; and if I could have 

 persuaded myself to ride on the turnpike-road to the three-mile stone, and 

 back again, I should have thought that I had had no need of a pack of 

 harriers. Excuse me, brother hare-hunters ! I mean not to offend ; I 

 speak but relatively to my own particular situation in the country, where 

 hare-hunting is so bad, that it is more extraordinary that I should have 

 persevered in it so long, than that I should forsake it now. I respect hunt- 

 ing, in whatever shape it appears : it is a manly and a wholesome exercise, 

 and seems by Nature designed to be the amusement of a Briton. 



You ask, How many hounds a pack of harriers should consist of ? and, 

 What kind of hound is best suited to that diversion ? You should never 

 exceed twenty couple in the field : it might be difficult to get a greater num- 

 ber to run well together ; and a pack of harriers cannot be complete if they 

 do not ; l besides, the fewer hounds you have, the less you foil the ground, 

 which you otherwise would find a great hindrance to your hunting. Your 

 other question is not easily answered. The hounds, I think, most likely to 

 show you sport, are between the large slow-hunting harrier and the little 

 fox-beagle : the former are too dull, too heavy, and too slow ; the latter 

 too lively, too light, and too fleet. The first species, it is true, have most 

 excellent noses, and, I make no doubt, will kill their game at last if the day be 

 long enough ; but you know the days are short in winter, and it is bad hunt- 

 ing in the dark : the other, on the contrary, fling and dash, and are all alive ; 

 but every cold blast affects them ; and if your country be deep and wet, 

 it is not impossible that some of them may be drowned. My hounds were 

 a cross of both these kinds, in which it was my endeavour to get as much 

 bone and strength in as small a compass as possible. It was a difficult under- 

 taking. I bred many years, and an infinity of hounds, before I could get 



1 A hound that runs too fast for the rest, ought not to be kept. Some huntsmen load 

 them with heavy collars ; some tie a long strap round their necks ; a better way would be, to 

 part with them. Whether they go too slow, or too fast, they ought to be drafted. 



M 



