290 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTINO. 



mine foxes are difficult to be killed, and not eafy 

 to be found ; and the gentlemen who hunt that 

 country are very well contented when they kill 

 a dozen brace of foxes in a feafon. My hounds 

 kill double that number ; ought it to be inferred 

 from thence that they are twice as good ? 



All countries are not equally fivourable to 

 hounds : I hunt in three, all as different as it is 

 poffible to be ; and the fame hounds that behave 

 well in one, fomctimes appear to behave indif- 

 ferently in another. Were the molt famous pack, 

 therefore, to change their good country for the 

 bad one I here allude to, though, without doubt, 

 they would behave well, they certainly would 

 meet with lefs fucccfs than they are at pre fen t ufed 

 to : our cold flinty hills would foon convince 

 them, that the difference of ftrength betweien 

 one fox and another — the difference of goodnefs 

 betwixt one hound and another — are yet but 

 trifie?^, when compared with the more material 

 difference of a good fccntlng country and a bad 

 one.* 



I can 



* Great Inequality of {cent is very unfavourable to h-ounds. 

 In heathy coiniirifs the fcent always lies, yet I have remarked 

 that the many roads that crofs them, and the many inclofures 

 of poor land that rurround them, render hunting in fuch coun-' 

 tries at times very difficult to houndc ; the fudden change from 

 a good fccnt to a bad one pu/.zlei tlicir uofes and cianfufes their 



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