1^2 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 



gentleman who follows hounds to fancy himself a hunts^ 

 man, what noise, what confusion, would ensue ! I consider 

 \ many of them as gentlemen riding out -, and 1 am never 

 ' so well pleased, as when I see them ride home again. 

 You may perhaps have thought that I wished them all to 

 be huntsmen — most certainly not : — but the more assist- 

 ants a huntsman has, the better, in ail probability, his 

 hounds will be. Good sense, and a little observation, will 

 SQon prevent such people from doing amiss ; — and I hold it 

 as an almost invariable rule in hunting, that those who do 

 not know how to do good, are a!wa3's liable to do harm*. 

 There is scarcely an instant during a whole chase, when a 

 sportspian ought not to be in one particular place -, and I 

 will venture to say, that if he be not ihere, he might as well 

 be in his bed. 



* This is a better reason, perhaps, why gentlemen ought to under- 

 stand this diversion, than for the good they may do in it ; since a pack 

 of 'hounds that are well manned will seldom need any other assistance. 

 I A gentleman, perceiving his hounds to be much confused by the fre- 

 / quent halloos of a stranger, rode up to him, and thanked him with great 

 I civility for the trouble he was taking ; but, at the same time^ acquainted 

 him, that the t\vo men he saw in green coats, were paid so much a-year 

 OK purpose to halho ; it would be needless for him, therefore, to givg him- 

 '/ self any _/>/r/.?'i-;- trouble. 



