270 THE BOOK OF THE DOG. 



not only prevents the latter from getting the blood they should not, but it also prevents them 

 from being overawed by the smacking of whips, which is too apt to obstruct drawing and 

 going deep in cover. A couple of hounds which I received from a neighbour last year were 

 hurtful to my pack. They had run with a pack of harriers ; and, as I soon found, were never 

 afterwards to be broken from hare. It was the beginning of the season ; covers were thick, 

 hares in plenty, and we seldom killed less than five or six in the morning. The pack at last 

 got so much blood that they would hunt them as if they were designed to hunt nothing else. 

 I parted with the two hounds ; and the others, by proper management, are become as steady 

 as they were before. You will remind me, perhaps, that they were draft-hounds. It is true, 

 they were so ; but they were three or four years' hunters an age when they might be 

 supposed to have known better. I advise you, unless a known good pack of hounds are to 

 be disposed of, not to accept old hounds. I mention this to encourage the breeding of hounds, 

 and as the likeliest means of getting a handsome, good, and steady pack. Though I give you 

 this advice, it is true I have accepted draft-hounds myself, and some have been very good : 

 but they were the gift of a friend, mentioned by me in a former letter ; and, unless you meet 

 with such another, old hounds will not prove worthy your acceptance they never can be very 

 good, and may bring vices along with them, to spoil your pack. If old hounds are unsteady, 

 it may not be in your power to make them otherwise ; and I can assure you from experience 

 that an unsteady old hound will give you more trouble than all your young ones. The latter 

 will at least stop ; but an obstinate old hound will frequently run mute, if he finds he can run 

 no other way. Besides, old hounds, that are unacquainted with your people, will not readily 

 hunt for them as they ought ; and such as were steady in their own pack may become 

 unsteady in yours. 



"You desire to know what kind of hound I would recommend. As you mention not 

 for any particular chase or country, I understand you generally ; and shall answer that I most 

 approve of hounds of the middle size. I believe all animals of that description are strongest, 

 and best able to endure fatigue. In the height as well as the colour of the hounds, most 

 sportsmen have their prejudices ; but in their shape at least, I think they must all ag-ree. 

 I know sportsmen who boldly affirm that a small hound will oftentimes beat a large t ic 

 that he will climb hills better, and go through cover quicker ; whilst others are not less 

 ready to assert that a large hound will make his way in any country, will get better 

 through the dirt than a small one, and that no fence, however high, can stop him. You 

 have now three opinions, and I advise you to adopt that which suits your country best. 

 There is, however, a certain size best adapted for business, which I take to be that between 

 the two extremes ; and I will venture to say that such hounds will not suffer themselves 

 to be disgraced in any country. Somerville, I find, is of the same opinion : 



" ' But here a mean 



Observe, nor the large hounds prefer, of size 

 Gigantick ; he in the thick-woven covert 

 Painfully tugs, or in the thorny brake 

 Torn and embarrassed bleeds. But if too small, 

 The pigmy brood in every furrow swims ; 

 Moiled in the clogging clay, panting they lag 

 Behind inglorious ; or else shivering creep, 

 Benumbed and faint, beneath the shelt'ring thorn. 

 For hounds of middle size, active and strong, 

 Will better answer all thy various ends, 

 And crown thy pleasing labours with success.' 



