THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. I99 



jior will a good whipper-in leave a cover while a single 

 hound remains in it : for this reason there should be two ; 

 one of whom should always be forward with the huntsman. 

 You cannot conceive the many ills that may happen to 

 hounds that are left behind. I do not know that I can 

 enumerate one half of them j but of this you may be 

 certain, that the keeping them together is the surest 

 means to keep them steady. When left to themselves, 

 they seldom refuse any blood they can get ; they acquire 

 many bad habits ; they become conceited j a terrible fault 

 in any animal ; — and they learn to tie upon the scent ; an 

 unpardonable fault in a fox-hound : — besides this, they 

 frequently get a trick of hunting by themselves ; and they 

 seldom are worth much afterwards. The lying out in the 

 cold, perhaps the whole night, can do no good to their 

 constitutions j nor will the being worried by sheep-dogs, or 

 mastiffs, be of service to their bodies : — all this, however, 

 and much more, they are liable to. I believe I mentioned 

 in my fourth Letter, that the straw-house door should be 

 left open when any hounds are missing. 



Every country is soon known ^ and nine foxes out often, 

 with the wind in the same quarter, will follow the same 



