2.1Z THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING^ 



" if I may be so bould, what sort of a looking creatiiref 

 " may he be ? Has he short ears and a long tail /"' — * 2^es* 

 *' Why, then, I can assure you, Sir, I have seen no such 

 " thing" 



We are agreed ^ that hounds oiiglit not to be cast, as long 

 as they are able to hunt ; and though the idea, that a hunt- 

 ed fox never stops, is a very necessary one to a fox-hunter, 

 that he may be adive and may lose no time 3 yet tired foxes 

 will stop, if you can hold them on; and I have known therrt 

 stop, even in wheel-ruts on the open down, and leap up in 

 the midst of the hounds. A tired fox ought not to be given 

 up ; for he is killed sometimes very unexpededly. If hounds 

 have ever pressed him, he is worth your trouble : perse- 

 verance may recover him, and, if recovered^ he most probably 

 will be killed ; nor should you despair whilst any scent re- 

 mains. The business of a huntsman is only difficult when 

 the scent dies quite away ; and it is then that he may shew 

 his judgment, when the hounds are no longer able to shew 

 theirs. The recovering a lost scent, and getting nearer to 

 the fox by a long cast, requires genius, and is therefore what 

 few huntsmen are equal to. When hounds are no longer 

 capable of feeling the scent, it all rests with the huntsman c 



