OF THE FOX-HOUND. 275 



made essential to beauty. A beagle may be 

 pretty, but, according to my idea of the word, 

 a fox-hound cannot : but as it is not to be sup- 

 posed that you will keep a pack of fox-hounds 

 for the pleasure of looking at them, without 

 doubt you will think goodness more necessary 

 than beauty. Should you ever be ambitious to 

 have a handsome pack of hounds, on no account 

 must you enter an ugly dog, lest you should be 

 tempted to keep him afterwards. 



I once heard an old sportsman say, that he 

 thought a fox, to show sport, should run four 

 hours at least ; and I suppose he did not care 

 how slow his hounds went after him. This 

 idea, however, is not conceived in the true 

 spirit of fox hunting ; which is not to walk 

 down a fox, or starve him to death, but to 

 keep close at him, and kill him as soon as 

 you can. I am convinced a fox-hound may 

 hunt too much : if tender-nosed, and not over- 

 hurried, he will always hunt enough; whilst 

 the highest-bred hounds may be made to tie 

 on the scent by improper management.* 



It is youth and good spirits which suit best 



* It more frequently is owing either to want of patience 

 or want of mettle than to want of nose, that a hound does 

 not hunt well. 



