THOUGHTS UPON HUNTIls^G. 297 



you right in that particular. Pretty is an epithet im- 

 properly appUed to a fox-hound : we call a fox-hound 

 handsome, when he is strong, bony, of a proper size, and 

 of exadl symmetry ; and fitness is made essential to beauty. [ 

 A beagle may be pretty j but, according to my idea of 

 the word, a fox-hound cannot : bur, as it is not to be sup- 

 posed that you will keep a pack of fox-hounds for the 

 pleasure of looking at them, without doubt, you will think 

 goodness more necessary than beauty. Should you be 

 ambitious to have a handsome pack of hounds, on no ac- 

 count ought you to enter an ugly dog, lest you be tempted 

 to keep him afterwards. 



I ONCE heard an old sportsman say, that he thought a 

 fox, to shew sport, should run four hours at least ; and 

 I suppose lie did not care how slow his hounds went 

 after him. This idea, however, is not conceived in the true 

 spirit of fox-hunting — which is not to walk down a fox, or 

 starve him to death j but to keep close at him, and kill him 

 as soon as you can. I am convinced that a fox-hound may 

 hunt too much : if tender-nosed, and not over-hurried, he 

 will always hunt enough j whilst the highest-bred hounds may 



