THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. I07 



deer, after once a fox is found. I cannot say that the experir 

 ence I have had of this diversion will in anywise justify the re- 

 mark : let me advise you, therefore, to seek a surer depend- 

 ance. Before you hunt your young hounds where hares are 

 in plenty, let them be awed and stopped from hare : before 

 you hunt amongst deer, let them not only see deer, but let 

 them draw covers where deer are ; for you must not be sur- 

 prized, if, after iheyare so far steady as not to run them in 

 view, they should challenge on the scent of them. Unless 

 you take this method with your young hounds before you 

 put them into the pack, you will run a risk of corrupting 

 the old ones, and may suffer continual vexation, by hunt- 

 ing with unsteady hounds. I have already told you, that, 

 after my young hounds are taken into the pack, I stili 

 take out but very few at a time when I hunt among 

 deer : 1 also change theni when I take out others ; for the 

 steadiness they may have acquired could be but little de- 

 pended on, v/ere they to meet with any encouragement to 

 be riotous. 



1 CONFESS, that I think first impressions of more conse^ 

 quence than they are in general thought to be : I not only 

 enter my young hounds to vermin on that account, but I even 



