186 BAD HABITS. 



SO. It is however necessary ; nor will a good 

 whipper-in leave a cover whilst a single hound 

 remains in it : for this reason there should be 

 two ; one of which should be always forward 

 with the huntsman. You cannot conceive the 

 many ills that may happen to hounds that are 

 left behind. I do not know that I can enume- 

 rate one half of them ; but this you may be 

 certain of, that the keeping them together is the 

 surest means to keep them steady. When left 

 to themselves, they seldom refuse, I believe, any 

 blood they can get ; they acquire many bad 

 habits ; they become conceited, a terrible fault 

 in any animal ; and they learn to tie upon the 

 scent, — an unpardonable fault in a fox-hound. 

 Besides this, they frequently get a trick of 

 hunting by themselves, and they seldom are 

 worth much afterwards. The lying out in the 

 cold, perhaps the whole night, can do no good 

 to their constitutions; nor will the being wor- 

 ried by sheep-dogs or mastiffs be of service to 

 their bodies. All this, however, and much 

 more, they are liable to. I believe I menti- 

 oned in my fourth letter, that the straw-house 

 door should be left open when any hounds are 

 missing. 



Every country is soon known, and nine foxes 



