THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 2^5 



ward to the oppofite lide cf it : fhould the fox 

 break before the hounds reach the cover, Hop 

 them, and get them nearer to him. 



When a fox perlilis In running in a ftrong 

 cover, lies down often behind the hounds, and 

 they are flack in hunting him, let the huntf- 

 man get into the cover to them : it may make the 

 fox break, it may keep him olF his foil, or may 

 prevent the hounds from giving him up. 



It is not often that flow huntfmen kill many 

 foxes ; they are a check upon their hounds, which 

 feldom kill a fox but with a higli fcent, when it 

 is out of their power to prevent it. What avails 

 it to be told which way the fox is gone, when he 

 is fo far before, that you cannot hunt him ? A 

 Newmarket boy, with a good underfianding and 

 a good voice, might be preferable, perhaps, to an 

 indifferent and llack buntfman ; he would prefs 

 on his hounds, while the fcent was good, and the 



foxes he killed he would kill handfomely. ■ 



A perfect knowledge of the intricacies of hunting 

 is chiefly of ufe to flow huntfmen and bad 

 hounds ; fmce they more often ftand in need of 

 it. A6livity is the firft requifite in a huntfman to 

 a pack of fox-hounds ; a want of it no judgment 

 can make amends for ; while the moft difficult 

 of all his tmdertakings is the diftinguifliing be- 

 twixt different fcenl^, and knowing, with any* 



certaintv, 



