274 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 



necessarily given, would chill me more than a 

 north-east wind i, it would damp my spirits, and 

 send me home. The enthusiasm of a fox-hunter 

 should not be checked in its career, for it is the 

 very life and soul of fox-hunting. It is the ea- 

 gerness with which you pursue your game that 

 . makes the chief pleasure of the chase ; and what 

 animal do you pursue with the same eagerness 

 you do a fox ? 



Knowing your partiality to hounds that run 

 in a good style, I advise you to observe strictly 

 yours, when a fox is sinking in a strong cover ; 

 that is the time to see the spirit of a fox-hound. 

 If they spread not the cover, but run tamely on 

 the line of one another, I shall fear it is a sort 

 that will not please you long. A fox-hound 

 that has not spirit and ambition to get forward 

 at such a time as this, is at no time likely to do 

 much good. 



You talked, in your last letter, of pretty 

 hounds: certainly I should not pretend to criti- 

 cise others, who am so incorrect myself; yet, 

 with your leave, I think I can set you right in 

 that particular. Pretty is an epithet improperly 

 applied to a fox -hound ; we call a fox-hound 

 handsome when he is strong, bony, of a proper 

 size, and of exact symmetry ; and fitness is 



