138 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



goodness of the hounds ; which may more justly be known from the few 

 foxes they lose, than from the number that they kill. When you inquire 

 after a pack of fox-hounds, whether they be good, or not, and are told they 

 seldom miss a fox ; your mind is perfectly satisfied about them, and you 

 inquire no further : it is not always so, when you are told the number of 

 foxes they have killed. If you ask a Frenchman, What age he is of ? he 

 will tell you that he is in good health. In like manner, when I am asked, 

 How many brace of foxes my hounds have killed ? I feel myself inclined to 

 say, the hounds are good ; an answer which, in my opinion, goes more 

 immediately to the spirit of the question than any other that I could give ; 

 since the number of foxes' heads is, at best, but a presumptive proof of the 

 goodness of the hounds. In a country neighbouring to mine, foxes are 

 difficult to be killed, and not easy to be found ; and the gentlemen who 

 hunt that country, are very well contented when they kill a dozen brace of 

 foxes in a season. My hounds kill double that number : ought it to be 

 inferred from thence that they are twice as good ? 



All countries are not equally favourable to hounds. I hunt in three, 

 all as different as it is possible to be ; and the same hounds that behave 

 well in one, sometimes appear to behave indifferently in another. Were 

 the most famous pack, therefore, to change their good country for the 

 bad one I here allude to (though, without doubt, they would behave well), 

 they certainly would meet with less success than they are at present used 

 to : our cold flinty hills would soon convince them, that the difference 

 of strength between one fox and another the difference of goodness be- 

 twixt one hound and another are yet but trifles, when compared with 

 the more material difference of a good-scenting country and a bad one. 1 



I can hardly think you serious, when you ask me, If the same hounds 

 can hunt both hare and fox ? However, thus far you may assure your- 

 self, that it cannot be done with any degree of consistency. As to your 

 other question, of hunting the hounds yourself, that is an undertaking 

 which, if you will follow my advice, you will let alone. It is your opinion, 

 I find, that a gentleman might make the best huntsman : I have no doubt 

 that he would, if he chose the trouble of it. I do not think there is any 

 profession, trade, or occupation, to which a good education would not 

 be of service ; and hunting, notwithstanding it is at present exercised 

 by such as have not had an education, might, without doubt, be carried 

 on much better by those that have. I will venture to say, fewer faults 



1 Great inequality of scent is very unfavourable to hounds. In heathy countries the 

 scent always lies ; yet I have remarked, that the many roads which cross them, and the many 

 inclosures of poor land that surround them, render hunting in such countries, at times, very 

 difficult to hounds. The sudden change from a good scent to a bad one, puzzles their noses, 

 and confuses their understandings ; and many of them, without doubt, follow the scent 

 unwillingly, owing to the little credit that they give to it. In my opinion, therefore, a scent 

 which is less good, but more equal, is more favourable to hounds. 



