24© THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING.' 



they were draft-hounds ; it is true, they were so ; hixi 

 they were three or four years hunters j an age when they 

 might be supposed to have known better. — I advise 

 you, unless a known good pack of hounds are to be dis- 

 posed of, not to accept old hounds. I mention this, to" 

 encourage the breeding of hounds, and as the likeliest 

 means of getting a handsome^ good, and steady pack. Though 

 I give you this advice, it is true, I have accepted draft-, 

 hotinds riiyself, and they have been very good j but they 

 were the gift of the friend mentioned by me in a former 

 Letter*, to whom I have already acknowledged many 

 obligations ; and unless you meet with such a one,- 

 old hounds will not prove worthy your acceptance : be- 

 sides, they may bring vices enough along with them to 

 spoil your whole pack. If old hounds should be un- 

 steady, it may not be in your power to make them other- 

 wise j and I can assure you from experience, that an un- 

 steady old hound will give you more trouble than all your 

 young ones : the latter will at least stop ; but an obsti- 

 nate old hound will frequently run mute, if he find that 

 he can run no other way : besides, old hounds that are 



♦ The Hon. Mr. Booth Grey, brother to the Earl of Stamford, The 

 kouncU here alluded to, were from Lord Stamford's kennel. 



