THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 53 



tber in winter would give them leave. You would always 

 be obliged, therefore, either to take out a very large pack, . 

 or a great number of hounds must be left behind : in 

 the first case, too many hounds in the field would probably 

 spoil your sport ; in the second, hounds that remain long 

 without work, always get out of wind, and oftentimes 

 become riotous. About forty couple, I think, will best 

 answer your purpose. Ft)rty couple of hunting hounds 

 will enable you to hunt three, or even four, times in a 

 week ; and, I will venture to say, will kill more foxes than 

 a greater number. Hounds, to be good, must be kept ; 

 constantly hunted ; and if I should hereafter say, a fox- 

 hound should be above his work, it will not be a young fox- 

 hound that I shall mean; for he should seldom be left at 

 home, as long as he is able to hunt: the old and lame, and 

 such as are low in fleshy you should leave -, and such as yoi^ 

 are sure idleness cannot spoil. 



It is a great fault to keep too many old hounds. If 

 you choose that your hounds should run well together, 

 you should not continue any, longer than five or six sea- 

 sons; though there is no saying, with certainty, what 



