^•jd THOUGHTS UPON HUNTINq. 



lie should not, you will be likely to change at the first 

 cover you come into. \Vhen a fox has been hard pressed, 

 you have already my opinion, that he never should be 

 given up. 



When you would recover a hunted fox, and have no 

 longer scent to hunt him by, a long cast to the first cover 

 which he seems to point for, is the only resource that yoi^ 

 have left. Get thither as fast as you can, and then let 

 your hounds try as slowly and as quietly as possible. If 

 hunting after him be hopeless, and a long cast do not 

 succeed, you had better give him up. I need not remind 

 you, when the scent lies badly, and you find it impos- 

 sible for hounds to run, that you had better return home ; 

 since the next day may be more favourable. It surely is 

 a great fault in a huntsman to persevere in bad weather, 

 when hounds cannot run, and when there is not a pro- 

 bability of kilhng a fox*. Some there are, who, after 

 they have lost one fox, for want of scent to hunt him by, 

 will find another : — this makes their hounds slack, and 

 sometimes vitious : it also disturbs the covers to no pur- 



* Though I would not go out on a very windy day, yet a bad-scent- 

 ing day is sometimes of service to a pack of fox-hounds: they acquire 

 t)atience from it, and method of hunting. 



