£4* THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 



killed, may give you some insight into it ; old pradi? 

 tioners generally seizing by the neck, and seldom, if ever, 

 behind. This, like other vices, sometimes runs in the 

 blood : in an old hound it is, 1 believe, incorrigible : 

 the best way, therefore, will be to hang all those which, 

 after two or three whippings, cannot be cured of it. In 

 some countries, hounds are more inclined to kill sheep 

 than they are in others. Hounds may be steady in coun- 

 tries where the covers are fenced, and sheep are only to 

 be seen in flocks, either in large fields or on open downs j 

 and the same hounds may be unsteady in forests and 

 heathy countries, where the sheep are not less wild thari 

 the deer. However, hounds, should they stir but a step 

 a.fter them, should undergo the severest discipline ; if 

 young hounds do it from idleness, ihat^ and plenty of 

 work, may reclaim them : for old hounds guilty of this 

 vice, I know, as I said before, of but one sure remedy— 

 the halter* 



Though I so strongly recommend to you to mak^ 

 your hounds steady, from having seen unsteady packs ; 

 yet 1 must also add, that I have frequently seen the men 

 even more unsteady than the hounds. It is shocking to 



