134 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



Never try to find a fox after one o'clock ; you had better return home, and 

 hunt again on the next day : not that I, in general, approve of hunting 

 two days following with the same hounds : the trying so many hours in 

 vain, and the being kept so long off their food, both contribute to make 

 them slack ; and nothing, surely, is more contrary to the true spirit of fox- 

 hunting ; for fox-hounds, I have already said, ought always to be above 

 their work. This is another particular, in which hare-hunting and fox- 

 hunting totally differ ; for harriers cannot be hunted too much, as long as 

 they are able to hunt at all : the slower they go, the less likely they will be 

 to over-run the scent, and the sooner, in all probability, will they kill their 

 game. I have a friend, who hunted his five days following, and assured 

 me that he had better sport with them the last day than the first. 



I remember to have heard, that a certain pack of fox-hounds, since 

 become famous, were many weeks, from a mixture of indifferent hounds, 

 bad management, and worse luck, without killing a fox ; however, they 

 killed one at last, and tried to find another : they found him, and they 

 lost him ; and were then, as you may well suppose, another month without 

 killing another fox : this was ill-judged : they should have returned home 

 immediately. 



When hounds are much out of blood, some men proceed in a method 

 that must necessarily keep them so : they hunt them every day, as if tiring 

 them out were a means to give them strength and spirit : this, however, 

 proceeds more from ill-nature and resentment, than sound judgment. 1 As 

 I know your temper to be the reverse, without doubt, you will adopt a 

 different method ; and, should your hounds ever be in the state here 

 described, you will keep them fresh for the first fine day ; when, supposing 

 them to be all perfectly steady, I do not question that they will kill their 

 fox. 



When hounds are hi want of blood, give them every advantage ; go 

 out early, choose a good quiet morning, and throw off your hounds where 

 they are likely to find, and are least likely to change : if it be a small cover, 

 or furze-brake, and you can keep the fox in, it is right to do it ; for the 

 sooner you kill him, when you are in want of blood, the better for the 

 hounds. 



When hounds are in want of blood, and you get a fox into a small cover, 

 it must be your own fault if you do not kill him there : place your people 

 properly, and he cannot get off again. You will hear, perhaps, that it is 

 impossible to head back a fox. No animal is so shy ; consequently, no 

 animal is so easily headed back by those who understand it. When it is 

 your intention to check a fox, your people must keep at a little distance 

 from the cover side ; nor should they be sparing of their voices ; for, since 



1 It is not the want of blood only that is prejudicial to hounds : the trying long in vain 

 to recover a lost scent, no less contributes to make them slack. 



