THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING, ^9 



LETTER V. 



THERE is an adive vanity in the minds of men 

 which is favourable to improvement ; and in every pursuit, 

 vvhile something remains to be a,t.tained, so long will it 

 Afford amusement : you will therefore find pleasure in the 

 breeding of hounds, in which expedation is never com- 

 pletely satisfied i and it is on the sagacious management 

 of this business that all your success will depend. Is it not 

 extraordinary, that no other country should equal us in 

 this particular, and that the very hounds procured froni 

 hence should degenerate in another climate? 



** In thee alone, fair land of liberty ! 

 Is bred the perfeft hound, in scent and speed 

 As yet unrivall'd, while in other climes 

 Their virtue fails, a weak degen'rate race." 



SOMERVILLE. 



Happy climate for sportsmen ! where Nature seems, as it 

 were, to give them an exclusive privilege of enjoying this 

 diversion. To preserve this advantage, however, care 

 should be taken in the breed : 1 shall, therefore,. according 



K 



