THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 21^ 



evil communications corrupt good 7}ia?iners, holds 

 good with regard to hounds ; they are eafily cor- 

 rupted. The leparatlng of the riotous ones froia 

 thofe s^'hich are fleady anfwers many good pur- 

 pofes : it not only prevents the latter from getting 

 the blood which they fhould not, but it alfo pre- 

 vents them from being over-aw-ed by the fmacking 

 of whips, which is too* apt to obflruft drawing 

 and going deep into cover. A couple of hounds, 

 which I received from a neighbour laft year, were 

 hurtful to my pack. They had run with a pack 

 of harriers, and, as I foon found, were never af- 

 terwards to be broken from hare. It was the be- 

 ginning of the feafon, covers were thick, hares ia 

 plenty, and we feldom killed lefs than five or lix 

 in a morning. The pack at lafi: got i^o much 

 blood, that they would hunt them as if they were 

 deiigned to hunt nothing elfe. I parted with 

 that couple of hounds, and the others, by proper 

 management, are become as fteady as they were 

 before. You will remind me, perhaps, that they 

 were draft-hounds. It is true, they v/ere fo ; but 

 they were three or four years hunters, an age 

 when they might be fuppofed to have known 

 better. I advife you, unlefs a knov/n good pack, 

 of hounds are to be difpofed of, not to accept old 

 hounds. I mention this to encourage the breed- 

 ing of hounds, and as the likcliefl means of get- 

 ting a handfome, good, ?iX\d Jieady pack : though 

 1 give you this advice, it is true, I have accepted 

 9, drafi^ 



