^52 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 



after they have loft one fox for want of fcent to 

 hunt him by, will find another; this makes their 

 hounds flack, and fometimes vicious: it alfo 

 dilturbs the covers to no purpofe. Some fportf- 

 men are more lucky in their dnys than others. 

 If you hunt every other day, it is poffible they 

 may be all bad, and the intermediate days all 

 good ; an indifferent pack, therefore, by hunting 

 on good days, may kill foxqs without any merit ; 

 and a good pack, notwithfiianding all their ex- 

 ertions, may lofe foxes which they deferve to kill. 

 Had I a tiifficiency of hounds I would hunt on 

 every good day, and never on a bad one.* 



A perfecb knowledge of his country certainly 

 is of great help to a huntfman : if your's, as yet, 

 fliould have it not, great allowance ought to be 

 made. The trotting away with hounds to make 

 a long and knowing cafi:, is a privilege which a 

 new huntfman cannot pretend to : an experienced 

 one may fafely fay, a fox has made for fucli 

 a cover, when he has known, perhaps, that nine 



* On windy days, or fuch as are not likely to afford any fccnt 

 for hounds, it is better, I think, to fend them to be exercifed on 

 the turnpike road ; it will do them lefs harm than hunting with 

 them might do, and more good than if they were to remain 

 confined in their kenr>el; for though nothing makes hounds fa 

 handy, as taking them out often ; nothing inclines them fo 

 much to riot, as taking them out to hunt when there is little or 

 no fcent; and particularly on windy days, when they cannot 

 hear one another, 



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