o 



oS THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 



a pack of fox-hounds well in blood, like troops flushed 

 with conquest, are not easily withstood. What we call 

 /// luck, day after day, when hounds kill no foxes, may 

 frequently, 1 think, be traced to another cause, namely, 

 iheir being out of blood ; — nor can there be any other reason 

 assigned why hounds, which we know to be good, should 

 remain so long as they sometimes do without k'liing a 

 {o:!L^> — Large packs are least subjeft to this inconveni- 

 ence : hounds that are quite fresh, and in high spirits, 

 least feel the want of blood: — the smallest packs, there* 

 fore, should be able to leave at least ten or twelve couple 

 of hounds behind them, to be fresh against the next 

 hunting day. If your hounds be much out of blood, 

 give them rest ; take this opportunity to hunt with other 

 Lounds ; to see how they are managed j to observe what 

 stallion hounds they have j and to judge yourself, whether 

 they be such as it is fit for you to breed from.— If what 

 I have now recommended should not succeed ; if a little 

 rest, and a fine morning, do not put your hounds into blood 



* A pack of hounds that had been a month without killing a fox, at 

 last ran one to ground, which they dug, and killed upon the earth : the 

 Ticxt seven days that they hunted, they killed a fox each day. 



