128 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



bred fox-hounds ; yet, I confess to you, it gave me not the least idea of 

 what hare-hunting ought to be. Certain ideas are necessarily annexed to 

 certain words this is the use of language and when a fox-hound is men- 

 tioned, I should expect not only a particular kind of hound, as to make, 

 size, and strength (by which the fox-hound is easy to be distinguished) ; 

 but I should also expect by fox-hunting, a lively, animated, and eager 

 pursuit, as the very essence of it. 1 Eagerness and impetuosity are such 

 essential parts of this diversion, that I am never more surprised than when 

 I see a fox-hunter without them. One hold hard, or reproof, unnecessarily 

 given, would chill me more than a north-east wind ; it would damp my 

 spirits, and send me home. The enthusiasm of a fox-hunter should not 

 be checked in its career ; for it is the very life and soul of fox-hunting. 

 If it be the eagerness with which you pursue your game that makes the 

 chief pleasure of the chase, fox-hunting surely should afford the greatest 

 degree of it ; since you pursue no animal with the same eagerness that you 

 pursue a fox. 



Knowing your partiality to hounds that run in a good style, I advise 

 you to observe strictly your own, when a fox is sinking in a strong cover : 

 that is the time to see the true spirit of a fox-hound. If they spread not 

 the cover, but run tamely on the line of one another, I shall fear it is a sort 

 that will not please you long. A fox-hound that has not spirit and ambi- 

 tion to get forward at a time like this, is at no other likely to do much good. 



You mention, in your last Letter, pretty hounds : certainly I should 

 not pretend to criticize others, who am so incorrect myself ; yet, with your 

 leave, I think I can set you right in that particular. Pretty is an epithet 

 improperly applied to a fox-hound : we call a fox-hound handsome, when 

 he is strong, bony, of a proper size, and of exact symmetry ; and fitness is 

 made essential to beauty. A beagle may be pretty ; but, according to 

 my idea of the word, a fox-hound cannot : but, as it is not to be supposed 

 that you will keep a pack of fox-hounds for the pleasure of looking at them, 

 without doubt, you will think goodness more necessary than beauty. Should 

 you be ambitious to have a handsome pack of hounds, on no account ought 

 you to enter an ugly dog, lest you be tempted to keep him afterwards. 



I once heard an old sportsman say, that he thought a fox, to show 

 sport, should run four hours at least ; and I suppose he did not care how 

 slow his hounds went after him. This idea, however, is not conceived in 

 the true spirit of fox-hunting which is not to walk down a fox, or starve 

 him to death ; but to keep close at him, and kill him as soon as you can. 

 I am convinced that a fox-hound may hunt too much : if tender-nosed, 



1 The six following lines may have a dangerous tendency. Only a good sportsman can 

 know when a reproof is given unnecessarily, and only a bad one will be deserving of reproof. 

 This passage, therefore, should be compared with pages 71,89,91, 98, where the meaning 

 of the author is very clearly expressed. 



