^2 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 



plete. — You will find nothing fo eflcntlal to yout 

 {port, as, that your hounds fhould run well to- 

 gether ; nor can this end be better attained, than 

 by confining yourfclf, as near as you can to thofe 

 of the fame fort, fize, and fhape. 



A great excellence in a pack of hounds is the 

 head they carry ; and that pack may be faid to go 

 the faftefl, that can run ten miles the foonelt ; 

 notwithftanding the hounds, feparately, may not 

 run fo fail as many others. A pack of hounds, 

 confidcrcd in a colle6live body, go faft in propor- 

 tion to the excellence of their nofes, and the head 

 they carry ; as that traveller generally gets fooneft 

 to his journey's end, who flops Icaft upon the 



road. Some hounds that I have hunted with, 



would creep all through the fame hole, though 

 they might have leapt the hedge, and would fol- 

 low one another in a llring, as true as a team of 

 cart-horfes. — I had rather fee them, like the liorfcs 

 of the fun, all a-hreaji. 



A friend of mine killed thlrty-feven brace of 

 foxps in one fcafon : twenty nine of the foxes 

 were killed without any intermiffion. I mull tell 

 you at the fame time, that they were killed v/ith 

 hounds bred from a pack of harriers ; nor had 

 they, I believe, a fingle lldrter belonging to them. 

 There is a pack now in my neighbourhood of all 

 forts and lizes, wliicli feldom mifs a fox; when 



they 



