THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. ^ 



^all fake the liberty of giving it you in his own 

 words, to fave you the trouble of turning to 

 him* 



You may remember, perhaps, that when we 

 were huntine: together at x urin, the hounds 

 having loft the ftag, and the piqueurs (ftill more 

 in fault than they) being ignorant which way to 

 try, the king hid theip. alk Milord Anglois. Nor 

 is it to be wondered at, if ^n Englifhman fhculd 

 be thought to underftand the art of hunting, as 

 the hounds which this country produces are uni- 

 verfally allowed to be the bcft in the world : from 

 whence T think this inference may be drawn, that 

 although every man who follows this diverlion 

 may not underftand it, yet it is extraordinary of 

 the many who do, that one only of any note 

 fhould have written on the fubject. It is rather 

 unfortunate for me that this ingenious fportfman 

 fhould have preferred writing an elegant poem to 

 an ufeful leftbn ; lince, if it had pleafed him, he 

 might eaftly have faved me the trouble of writing; 

 thefe letters. Is it not flrange in a country where 

 the prefs is in one continued labour with opi- 

 nions of almoft every kind, from the moft ferious 

 and inftrudiive to the moft ridiculous and tri- 

 fling; a country beftdes, fo famoAis for the beft: 

 hounds, and the beft horfes to follow them, 

 whofe authors fometimes hunt, and whofe fportf- 

 men fometimes write, that only the pradical part 

 B a of 



