234 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 



is beft fuitcd to that diverfion ? You fliould 



never exceed twenty couple in the field ; it might 

 be difficult to get a greater number to run well 

 together, and a pack, of harriers cannot, be com- 

 plete if they do not:* befides, the fewer hounds 

 you have, the lefs you foil the ground, which you 

 otherwife would find a great hindrance to your 



hunting. Your other queltion is not eafily 



anfwered ; the hounds, I think, moft likely to 

 fhew you fport, are between the large flow hunt- 

 ing harrier; and the little fox beagle : the former 

 are too dull, too heavy, and too flow ; the latter, 

 too lively, too light, and too fleet. The firfl 

 Ipecies, it is true, have mofi excellent nofes, and 

 I make no doubt, will kill their game at laft, if 

 the day be long enough ; but, you know, the 

 days are fhort in winter, and it is bad hunting in 

 the dark. The other, on the contrary, fling and 

 dafh, and are all alive ; but every cold blaft af~ 

 fe6ls them, and if your country be deep and wet, 

 it is not impoflible that fome of them may be 

 drowned. My hounds were a crofs of both thefe 

 kinds, in which it was my endeavour to get as 

 much bone and flrength, in as fma'.l a compafs 

 as pofiible.—— — It was a difficult undcitakiijg. — ■ 



* A hound that runs too hH for the reft, ought not tp be 

 kept. Some huntfmen load them with lieavy collars ; fome tie 

 a long ftrap round their necks ; a better way would be to part 

 with them. Whether they go tpoflow, or too faft, they ought 

 equally to be drafted* 



1 bred 



