286 BEST METHOD OF 



many weeks, from a mixture of indifferent 

 hounds, bad management, and worse luck, with- 

 out killing a fox. However, they killed one at 

 last, and tried to find another. They found 

 him — and they lost him ; and were then, as you 

 may well suppose, another month without kill- 

 ing another fox. This was ill-judged: they 

 should have returned home immediately. 



When hounds are much out of blood, some 

 men proceed in a method that must necessarily 

 keep them so : they hunt them every day, as if 

 the tiring them out was a means to give them 

 strength and spirit : — this, however, proceeds 

 more from ill-nature and resentment than sound 

 judgment.* As I know your temper to be the 

 reverse of this, without doubt you will adopt a 

 different method ; and should your hounds ever 

 be in the state here described, you will keep 

 them fresh for the first fine day ; when, sup- 

 posing they are all perfectly steady, I do not 

 question that they will kill their fox. 



When hounds are in want of blood, give 

 them every advantage : go out early ; choose a 

 good quiet morning; and throw off" your hounds 



" It is not the want of blood only that is prejudicial to 

 hounds : the trying long in vain to recover a lost scent no 

 less contributes to make them slack. 



