THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. I39 



jaccount. I always thought hare-hunting fhould 

 be taken as a ride after brcakfail, to get us an 

 appetite to our dinner. If you make a ferious 

 bulinefs of it, you fpoil it. Hare-finders, in this 

 cafe, are necefiary : it is agreeable to know where 

 to go immediately for your diverfion, and not 

 beat about, for hours perhaps, before you find. 

 It is more material with regard to the fecond hare 

 than the firfl ; for if you are warmed with your 

 gallop, the waiting long in the cold afterwards 

 is, I believe, as unwholefome as it is difagreeable. 

 Whoever does not mind this, had better let his 

 hounds find their own game ; they will certainly 

 hunt it with more fpirit afterwards, and he will 

 have ^ pleafure himfelf in expe6lation which no 

 certainty can ever give. Hare-finders make hounds 

 idle ; they alfo make them wild. Mine knew 

 the men as well as I did myfelf, could fee them 

 as far, and would run, full cry, to meet them. 

 Hare-finders are of one great nfe ; they hinder 

 your hounds from chopping hares, which they, 

 otherwife, could not fail to do. I had in my 

 pack one hound in particular that was famous for 

 it ; he would challenge on a trail very late at 

 noon, and had a good knack at chopping a hare 

 afterwards; he was one that liked to go the 

 ihorteft v/ay to Vv^ork, nor did he choofe to take 

 more trouble than was necefiary. — Is it not won- 

 derful, that the trail of a hare fhould lie after fo 



many 



