LETTER XVIII 



BEFORE I proceed on my subject, give me leave to set you right in one 

 particular, where I perceive you have misunderstood me. You 

 say, that you little expected to see the abilities of a huntsman degraded 

 beneath those of a whipper-in. This is a serious charge against me, as a 

 sportsman ; and, though I cannot admit that I have put the cart before 

 the horse in the manner you are pleased to mention, yet you have made it 

 necessary for me to explain myself farther. 



I must therefore remind you, that I speak of my own country only ; 

 a country full of riot, where the covers are large, and where there is a chase 

 full of deer and full of game. In such a country as this, you that know so 

 well how necessary it is for a pack of fox-hounds to be steady, and to be 

 kept together, ought not to wonder that I should prefer an excellent whipper- 

 in to an excellent huntsman. No one knows better than yourself, how 

 essential a good adjutant is to a regiment : believe me, a good whipper-in is 

 not less necessary to a pack of fox-hounds : but I must beg you to observe, 

 I mean only, that I could do better with mediocrity in the one than in the other. 

 If I have written anything in a former Letter that implies more, I beg leave 

 to retract it in this. Yet I must confess to you, that a famous huntsman I 

 am not very ambitious to have, unless it necessarily followed that he must 

 have famous hounds ; a conclusion that I cannot admit, as long as these so 

 famous gentlemen will be continually attempting themselves to do, what 

 would be much better done if left to their hounds : besides, they seldom 

 are good servants, are always conceited, and sometimes impertinent. I 

 am very well satisfied if my huntsman be acquainted with his country and 

 his hounds ; if he ride well up to them ; and if he have some knowledge of 

 the nature of the animal which he is in pursuit of ; but so far am I from 

 wishing him to be famous, that I hope he will still continue to think his 

 hounds know best how to hunt a fox. 



You say you agree with me, that a huntsman should stick close to his 

 hounds. If, then, his place be fixed, and that of the first whipper-in (where 

 you have two) be not ; I cannot but think genius may be at least as useful 

 in one as in the other : for instance, while the huntsman is riding to his 

 headmost hounds, the whipper-in, if he have genius, may show it in various 

 ways : he may clap forwards to any great earth that may, by chance, be 

 open ; he may sink the wind to halloo, or mob a fox, when the scent fails ; 

 he may keep him off his foil ; he may stop the tail hounds, and get them 



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