TltOUGHTS UPON HUNTINd. 22£ 



great plenty, I never remember to have feen him 

 run one Hep after them. 



A change of country alfo will fometimes oc- 

 cation a difference in the fteadinefs of hounds. 

 My hounds hunt frequently in Cranborn Chace, 

 and are Heady from deer, yet I once knew them 

 run an outlying deer, which they unexpecledly 

 found in a diftant country. 



I am forry to hear fo bad an accident has hap- 

 pened to your pack as that of killing fheep ; but, 

 I apprehend, from your account of it, that ft 

 proceeded from idlenefs rather than vice. The 

 manner in which the llieep were kiUed may give 

 you fome inlight into it ; old practitioners gene- 

 rally feizing by the neck, and leldom, if ever, 

 behind. This, like other vices, fometimes runs 

 in the blood ; in an old hound it is, I believe, 

 incorrigible ; the bcft way, therefore, will be to 

 hang all thofe which, after two or three whip- 

 pings, cannot be cured of it. In fome countries 

 hounds are more inclined to kill llieep than they 

 are in others. Hounds may be fteady in coun- 

 tries where the covers are fenced, and fh^ep are 

 only to be feen in flocks. eiiht*r in larg- fields, or 

 on open downs ; and the fame hound? may be 

 unfteady in forefts and heathy countries where 

 the Iheep are not lefs wild than the deer. How- 

 ever hounds, lliould they fiir but a ftcp after 

 3 iheuD 



