2,78 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING^ 



LETTER XXir. 



ARE not 5^our expectations fomewhat too fan- 

 guine, when you think that you fliall have 

 no occalion for bag-foxes to keep your hounds in 

 blood the firil feafon ? It may be as well, per- 

 haps, not to turn them all out till you can be 

 more certain that your young pack will keep good 

 and fieady without them. When blood is much 

 wanted, and they arc tired with a hard day, one 

 of thefe foxes will put them into fpirits, and 

 give them, as it were, new llrength and vigour. 



You dcfire to know what I call hei?ig out of 

 hloodP In anfwer to which, I mufl tell you, 

 that, in my judgment, no fox-hound can fail of 

 killing more than three or four times following, 

 without being vilibly the worfe for it. When 

 hounds arc out of blood, there is a kind of evil 

 genius attending all they do; and though they 

 may fcem to hunt as well as ever, they do not 

 get forward; whilil a pack of fox-hounds, well 

 in blood, like troops flufhed with conquefl, are 

 not eafily withftood. What we call ill luck, day 

 after day, when hounds kill no foxes, may fre- 

 quently, I think, be traced to another caufe, 



2 namely. 



