296 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTrNG". 



- given, would chill me more than a north-east wind j it 

 I w^ould damp 015^ spirits, and send me home. The en- 

 thusiasm of a fox-honter should not be checked in its- 



^ career ; for it is the very life and soul of fox-hunting. 

 If it be the eagerness with which you pursue your game 

 that makes the chief pleasure of the chase, fox-hunting 

 surely should afford the greatest degree of it ; since you 



) pursue no animal with the same eagerness that you pursue 



• a fox. 



Knowing your partiality to hounds that run in a good 

 stile, I advise you to observe strictly your own, when a fox 

 , is sinking in a strong cover : that is the time to see the 

 I true spirit of a fox-hound. If they spread not the cover, 

 but run tamely on the line of one another, 1 shall fear it 

 is a sort that will not please you long. A fox-hound that: 

 has not spirit and ambition to get forward at a tim.e like 

 this, is at no other likely to do much good. 



You mention, in your last Letter, pretty hounds : cer- 

 tainly I should net pretend to criticize others, who am so 

 incorred myself, yet, with your leave, I think I can set 



