228 OF STEADINESS. 



haps severely chastised for hunting, they must 

 needs think us very cruel, capricious, and in- 

 consistent.* 



If you know any pack that is very unsteady, 

 depend upon it, either no care has been taken in 

 entering the young hounds to make them steady, 

 or else the men, afterwards, by hallooing them 

 on improperly and to a wrong scent, have forced 

 them to become so. 



The first day of the season, I advise you to 

 take out your pack where you have least riot, 

 and where vou are most sure to find : for, not- 

 withstanding tl^eir steadiness at the end of the last 

 season, long rest may have made them other- 

 wise. If you have any hounds more vicious 

 than the rest, they should be left at home a 

 day or two, till the others are well in blood : 

 your people, without doubt, will be particularly 



* Though all hounds ought to be made obedient, none 

 require it so much as fox-hounds, for without it they will 

 be totally uncontroulable ; yet not all the chastisement that 

 cruelty can inflict will render them obedient, unless they be 

 made to understand what is required of them : when that 

 is effected, many hounds will not need chastisement, if you 

 do not suffer them to be corrupted by bad example. Few 

 packs are more obedient than my own, yet none, I believe 

 are chastised less ; for as those hounds that are guilty of an 

 offence are never pardoned, so those that are innocent, being 

 by this means less liable to be corrujited, are never jnmished. 



