274 MANAGEMENT OF HOUNDS. 



more general practice for them to hunt their own hounds, 

 we should not hear of the continual changes which are 

 yearly taking place. They would become attached to 

 their hounds, anxious to show sport, and more enthusiastic 

 in the pursuit of it. 



In confirmation of this view of the case, I cannot do 

 better than quote a passage from the clever author of the 

 ** noble science," who, in alluding to the power of mind, 

 thus expresses his opinion : — " For this reason I imagine 

 that men of education, or, in the common acceptation of 

 the term, gentlemen, who devote themselves to any of 

 the several exercises or accomplishments, such as riding 

 or driving, boxing or fencing, shooting, cricket, &c., are 

 generally found far to excel, in proportion to their 

 number, the rest of the world, who in inferior station 

 have adopted any of these walks of life, from necessity 

 rather than choice. In divinity, physic, or law, the 

 hightest ornaments have been, with few exceptions, the 

 most finished gentlemen. And I have no doubt that a 

 gentleman farmer, instead of too often furnishing matter 

 for a joke, would prove the best agriculturist if he would 

 farm less as an amateur, and bring his own deductions to 

 the assistance of the general rules of practice. I see 

 myself no other objection to the gentleman huntsman 

 but this, that he would not, could not, consistently with 

 the maintenance of any society, abandon himself to the 

 labour of the field, certainly not of the kennel ; and I 

 hold it a sine qua non, that a huntsman should be per- 

 petually with his hounds." 



I cannot quite agree with Mr. Delme RatclifFe, that a 

 gentleman who hunts his own hounds must of necessity 

 give up society even to a moderate extent unless he hunts 



