268 QUALITIES OF HUNTSMEN. 



be constitutional, as be is bimself slow or active, 

 dull or lively, patient or impatient : it is for 

 that reason I object to a hare-hunter for a pack 

 of fox-bounds ; for the same ideas of bunting 

 will most probably stick by bim as long as 

 he lives. 



Your huntsman is an old man : should he 

 have been working bard all his life on wrong 

 principles, he may be now incorrigible. 



Sometimes you will meet with a good kennel 

 huntsman ; sometimes an active and judicious 

 one in the field: some are clever at finding a 

 fox, others are better after be is found ; whilst 

 perfection in a huntsman, like perfection in any 

 thing else, is scarcely any where to be met with : 

 there are not only good, bad, and indifferent 

 huntsmen, but there are perhaps a few others, 

 who, being as it were of a different species, 

 should be classed apart ; I mean such as have 

 real genius. It is this peculiar excellence, 

 which I told you in a former letter I would 

 rather wish my first whipper-in to be possessed 

 of, than my huntsman; and one reason among 

 others is, that he, I tbini<, would have more 

 opportunities of exercising it. 



The keeping hounds clean and healthy, and 

 bringing them into the field in their fullest 



