LETTER IX. 97 



my friend said, to have their fun out, and I have no doubt 

 they would become steadier afterwards, by finding out 

 their own mistake ; but this would only happen in the 

 event of their not getting the blood of the hare^ for, if 

 allowed to kill their own game and eat it too, I have an 

 idea that on a blank day with fox they would have re- 

 course to their old pastime, particularly as hare is more 

 delicate eating. The steadiest foxhounds, when puss 

 comes in their way (out of sight of the whipper-in) in 

 high cover, will have a sly snaj) at her, and, as the 

 Irishman said, ** small blame to them" when as hungry 

 as hawks. Beckford relates an instance of extraordinary 

 discernment in a foxhound, which joined his pack of 

 harriers one day, and hunted and ran with them as if he 

 had always been accustomed to that game, but when he 

 saw this hound with his own pack he was perfectly 

 steady from hare. 



In bygone days my father had a pack of foxhounds 

 with which he hunted both hare and fox; they com- 

 menced the season with hare, as foxes were then scarce 

 in the country, but after Christmas they began hunting 

 fox, and were from that time to the end of the season 

 steady to a fox scent, often passing through woods 

 where hares abounded without taking any notice of 

 them. These hounds were of Lord Egremont's blood, 

 a famous sort in those days, and could run as well as 

 hunt. 



It is the fashion to abuse both the horses and hounds 

 of the old school; the first is supposed to have been a 

 poor, slow, half-bred animal, and the hounds as never 

 having been able to go much faster than turnspits. In 

 answer to this, I can only state I have heard my father 



H 



