HUNTSMAN AND HOUNDS 125 



and the taking him out at that time may occasion him a long confinement 

 afterwards : put it not to the trial. Should any fall lame while they are 

 out, leave them at the first house that you come to. 



I have seen huntsmen hunt their young blood in couples. Let me 

 beg of you not to suffer it. I know you would be sorry to see your hounds 

 hanging across a hedge, grinning at each other, perhaps in the very agonies 

 of death : yet it is an accident that often has happened ; and it is an acci- 

 dent so likely to happen, that I am surprised any man of common sense 

 will run the risk of it. If necessary, I would much rather they should be 

 held in couples at the cover-side, till the fox be found. 



The two principal things which a huntsman has to attend to, are the 

 keeping of his hounds healthy and steady. The first is attained by cleanliness 

 and proper food ; the latter, by putting as seldom as possible any unsteady 

 ones among them. 



At the beginning of the season, let him be attentive to get his hounds 

 well in blood. As the season advances, and foxes become stout, attention 

 then should be given to keeping them as vigorous as possible. It is a 

 great fault, when hounds are suffered to become too high in flesh at the 

 beginning of the season, or too low afterwards. 



When a fox is lost, the huntsman, on his return home, should examine 

 into his own conduct, and endeavour to find in what he might have done 

 better : he may, by this means, make the very loss of a fox of use to him. 



Old tieing hounds, and a hare-hunter turned fox-hunter, are both as 

 contrary to the true spirit of fox-hunting as anything could possibly be: 

 one is continually bringing the pack back again ; the other as constantly 

 does his best to prevent them from getting forward. The natural prejudices 

 of mankind are such, that a man seldom alters his style of hunting, let him 

 pursue what game he may ; besides, it may be constitutional, as he is him- 

 self slow or active, dull or lively, patient or impatient. It is for that reason 

 that I object to a hare-hunter for a pack of fox-hounds ; for the same 

 ideas of hunting will most probably stick by him as long as he lives. 



Your huntsman is an old man ; should he have been working hard 

 all his life on wrong principles, he may be now incorrigible. 



Sometimes you will meet with a good kennel-huntsman ; sometimes 

 an active and judicious one in the field : some are clever at finding a fox, 

 others are better after he is found ; while perfection in a huntsman, like 

 perfection in anything else, is scarcely ever to be met with : there are 

 not only good, bad, and indifferent huntsmen, but there are, perhaps, a 

 few others, who, being, as it were, of a different species, should be classed 

 apart ; I mean such as have real genius. It is this peculiar excellence, 

 which I told you, in a former Letter, I would rather wish my first whipper- 

 in to be possessed of than my huntsman ; and one reason, among others, 

 is, that he, I think, would have more opportunities of exercising it. 



