THOUGHTS UPOK HUNTING, igt 



LETTER XVI. 



T ENDED my lafl letter, I think, in a riolent 

 ■*■ paffion. The hounds, I behcve, were at 

 fault alio. I fhall now continue the further ex- 

 planation of my thirteenth letter from that time. 



The iirll moment that hounds are at fault is a 

 critical one for the fport : people then fhould be 

 very attentive. Thofe who look forward perhaps 

 may fee the fox, or the running of fheep, or the 

 purfuit of crows, may give them fome tidings of 

 him. Thofe who liflen may fomctimes take a 

 hint which way he is gone, from the chattering of 

 a magpie; or, perhaps, be at a certainty, from a 

 diilant halloo : nothing that can give any intelli- 

 gence, at fuch a time, is to be negletled. Gen - ^ 

 tlemen are too apt to ride all together: were they 

 to ij^read more, they might fometimes be of fer- 

 vice; particularly thofe who, from a knowledge 

 of the fport, keep down the wind: it would then 

 be difficult for either hounds, or fox, to efcape 

 their obfervation. 



You fliould, however, be cautious how you 

 go to a halloo. The halloo itfelf mufl, in a 

 great meafure, dire6l you ; and though it aiTord 



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