THOinSHTS UPON HUNTING. 22'^ 



wards. Dogs are fenlible animals ; they fooa 

 find out what is required of them, wlieu we do 

 not confufe them by our own heedlelsnefs : when 

 we encourage them to hunt a fcent which they 

 have been rated tVom, and, perhaps, feverely 

 chaftifed for hunting, they muft needs think us 

 cruel, capriciojjs, and inconlillent.* 



If you know any pack that is very unfteady, 

 depend upon it, either no care has been taken in 

 entering the young hounds to make them fteady; 

 or elfe the men, afterwards, by hallooing them 

 on improperly, and to a wrong fcent, have forced 

 them to become fo. 



The iirft day of the feafon I advife you to take 

 out your pack where you have leaft riot, and 

 where you are mofl fure to find ; for, notwith- 

 ftanding their lleadinefs at the end of the lafl 

 feafon, long reft may have made them otherwife. 



* Though all hounds ought to be made obedient, none re- 

 quire it fo much as fox-hounds, for without it they will be 

 totally uncontroulable ; yet, not all the chaftifement that cruelty 

 can inflitft will render them obedient, unlefs they be made to 

 underftand what is required of them; when tl'at is efFe(5led, 

 many hounds will not need chaftifement, if you do not fufFer 

 them to be corrupted by bad example. Few packs are more 

 obedient than my own, yet none, I believe, are chaftifed lefs ; 

 for, as thofe hounds that are guilty of an offence, aje ?iever 

 fardoned^ fo thofe that are innocent, being by ttiis means lefs 

 Kable to be corrupted, are never ^unified. 



If 



