THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. j d 



L E T T E R IL 



C ^N'CE you intend to make liunting your chief 

 ^^ amufemcnt in the country, you are certainly 

 in the right to give it fome confideration before 

 you begin, and not like Mafter Stephen in the 

 piny, firiz boy a hawk, and then hunt after a 

 book io keep it by. I am glad to find that you 

 intend to build a new kennel, and I flatter my- 

 felf the experience I have had may be of fome 

 ufe to you in building it : it is not only the iiril 

 thing that you fhould do, but it is alfo the motl 

 important. As often as your mind may alter, io 

 often may you eafily change from one kind of 

 hound to another ; but your kennel v/ill flill re- 

 main the fame ; will ftill keep its original ira- 

 perfed^ions, unlefs altered at a great expence ; 

 and be lefs perfect at laft than it might have been 

 made at firfi, had you purfued a proper plan. 

 It is true, hounds may be kept in barns and fta- 

 bles ; but thofe who keep them in fuch places can 

 bed inform you whether their hounds are capable 

 of anfvvering the purpofes for which they were 

 deiigned. The fenle of fmelling, the odora canian 

 rw, as Virgil calls it, is fo exquilite in a hound, 

 that I cannot but fuppofe every flench is hurtful 

 to it. It is that faculty on which all our hopes 



depend; 



