ii$- THOUGHTS UfON HUNTING-. 



LETTER XVm. 



BEFORE I proceed on my subjed, give me leave td 

 set you right in one particular, where 1 perceive you have mis«* 

 understood me. You say, that you Httle expeded to see the 

 abilities of a liuntsman degraded beneath those of a whip- 

 per-in. This is a serious charge against me, as a sports-* 

 man j and, though I cannot admit that 1 have put the cart 

 before the horse in the manner you are pleased to men- 

 tion, yet you have made it necessary for me to explain my- 

 self farther. 



I MUST therefore remind you, that I speak of my OWR 

 country only ; a country full of riot, where the covert 

 are large, and where there is a chase full of deer and full 

 of game. In such a country as this, you that know so 

 well how necessary it is for a pack of fox-hounds to be 

 steady, and to be kept together, ought not to wonder 

 that I should prefer an excellent whipper-in to an excel- 



