16 GEKEUAL OBSERVATIONS 



LETTER II. 



Since you intend to make hunting your chief 

 amusement in the country, you are certainly in 

 the right to give it some consideration before 

 you begin, and not, like Master Stephen in the 

 play, buy first a hawk, and then hunt after a 

 book to keep it by. — I am glad to find that you 

 intend to build a new kennel, as I flatter myself 

 the experience I have had may be of some use 

 to you in the building of it. It is not only the 

 first thing you should do, but it is also the most 

 important. As often as your mind may alter, 

 so often may you easily change from one kind 

 of hound to another ; but your kennel will still 

 remain the same; will always keep its original 

 imperfections, unless altered at a great expense, 

 to be less perfect at last than it might have been 

 made at first, had you pursued a proper plan. 

 It is true, hounds may be kept in barns and sta- 

 bles ; but those who keep them in such places 

 can best inform you whether their hounds are 

 capable of answering the purposes for which 

 they are kept. The sense of smelling, the odora 



