106 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



along with them to spoil your whole pack. If old hounds should be 

 unsteady, it may not be in your power to make them otherwise ; and I can 

 assure you from experience, that an unsteady old hound will give you more 

 trouble than all your young ones : the latter will at least stop ; but an 

 obstinate old hound will frequently run mute, if he find that he can run no 

 other way : besides, old hounds that are unacquainted with your people, 

 will not readily hunt for them as they ought ; and such as were steady in 

 theie own pack may become unsteady in yours. I once saw an extraordin- 

 ary instance of this, when I kept harriers. Hunting one day on the downs, 

 a well-known fox-hound of a neighbouring gentleman came and joined us ; 

 and as he both ran faster than we did, and skirted more, he broke every 

 fault, and killed many hares. I saw this hound often in his own pack after- 

 wards, where he was perfectly steady ; and though he constantly hunted in 

 covers where hares were in great plenty, I never remember to have seen him 

 run one step after them. 



A change of country, also, will sometimes occasion a difference hi the 

 steadiness of hounds. My hounds hunt frequently in Cranborn Chase, and 

 are steady from deer ; yet I once knew them run an outlying deer, which 

 they unexpectedly found in a distant country. 



I am sorry to hear that so bad an accident has happened to your pack, 

 as that of killing sheep ; but I apprehend from your account of it, that it 

 proceeded from idleness, rather than vice. The manner in which the sheep 

 were killed, may give you some insight into it ; old practitioners generally 

 seizing by the neck, and seldom, if ever, behind. This, like other vices, 

 sometimes runs in the blood : in an old hound it is, I believe, incorrigible : 

 the best way, therefore, will be to hang all those which, after two or three 

 whippings, cannot be cured of it. In some countries, hounds are more 

 inclined to kill sheep than they are in others. Hounds may be steady in 

 countries where the covers are fenced, and sheep are only to be seen in flocks, 

 either in large fields or on open downs ; and the same hounds may be 

 unsteady in forests and heathy countries, where the sheep are not less wild 

 than the deer. However, hounds, should they stir but a step after them, 

 should undergo the severest discipline : if young hounds do it from idleness, 

 that, and plenty of work, may reclaim them : for old hounds guilty of this 

 vice, I know, as I said before, of but one sure remedy the halter. 



Though I so strongly recommend to you to make your hounds steady 

 from having seen unsteady packs, yet I must also add that I have frequently 

 seen the men even more unsteady than the hounds. It is shocking to hear 

 hounds halloo'd one minute and rated the next : nothing offends a good 

 sportsman so much, or is in itself so hurtful. I will give you an instance of 

 the danger of it : My beagles were remarkably steady : they hunted hare 

 in Cranborn Chase, where deer are in great plenty, and would draw for hours, 

 without taking the least notice of them. When tired of hare-hunting, I was 



