AN EARLY HOUR RECOMMENDED 83 



degree, the variety that we have to treat of, yet I was well aware of the 

 impossibility of sufficiently explaining myself in the midst of a fox-chase, 

 whose rapidity, you know very well, brooks no delay. Now is the time, 

 therefore, to make good that deficiency : what afterwards remains on the 

 subject of hunting, will serve as a supplement to the rest ; in which I shall 

 still have it in my power to introduce whatever may be now forgotten, or 

 give a further explanation of such parts as may seem to you to require it ; 

 for, since my principal view in writing these Letters is, to make the instruc- 

 tion that they contain of some use to you, if you should want it ; if not, to 

 others the being as clear and as explicit as I can, will be far beyond all 

 other considerations. Repetitions, we know, are shocking things ; yet, in 

 writing so many Letters on the same subject, I fear it will be difficult to 

 avoid them. 



First, then, as to the early hour recommended in my former Letter 

 I agree with you, that it requires explanation : but you will please to con- 

 sider, that you desired me to fix the hour most favourable to the sport, 

 and, without doubt, it is an early one. l You say, that I do not go out so 

 early myself. It is true, I do not. Do physicians always follow their own 

 prescriptions ? Is it not sufficient that their prescriptions be good ? How- 

 ever, if my hounds should be out of blood, I go out early ; for then it 

 becomes necessary to give them every advantage. At an early hour, you are 

 seldom long before you find. The morning is the part of the day that 

 generally affords the best scent ; and the animal himself, which, in such a 

 case, you are more than ever desirous of killing, is then least able to run 

 away from you. The want of rest, and perhaps a full belly, give hounds a 

 great advantage over him. I expect, my friend, that you will reply to 

 this, ' a fox-hunter, then, is not a fair sportsman.' He certainly is not ; 

 and, what is more, would be very sorry to be mistaken for one. He is 

 otherwise from principle. In his opinion, a fair sportsman, and a foolish 

 sportsman, are synonymous : he therefore takes every advantage 

 that he can of the fox. You will think, perhaps, that he may 

 sometimes spoil his own sport by this : it is true, he sometimes does, 

 but then he makes his hounds ; the whole art of fox-hunting being to keep 

 the hounds well in blood. Sport is but a secondary consideration with a 

 true fox-hunter. The first is the killing of the fox ; hence arises the eager- 

 ness of pursuit chief pleasure of the chase. I confess, I esteem blood so 

 necessary to a pack of fox-hounds, that, with regard to myself, I always 

 return home better pleased with but an indifferent chase, with death at 

 the end of it, than with the best chase possible, if it end with the loss of 

 the fox. Good chases, generally speaking, are long chases ; and, if not 

 attended with success, never fail to do more harm to hounds than good. Our 

 pleasures, I believe, for the most part, are greater during the expectation 



1 An early hour is only necessary where you are not likely to find without a drag. 



