THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 309 



again, I know of nothing else that will ; and you must 

 attribute your ill success, I fear, to another cause. 



You say, that you generally hunt at a late hour : after a 

 tolerably good run, do not try to find another fox. Should 

 you be long in finding, and should you not have success 

 afterwards, it will hurt your hounds : should you try a 

 long time, and not find, that also will make them slack* 

 Never try to find a fox after one o'clock; you had better 

 return home, and hunt again on the next day : — not that 1, 

 in general, approve of hunting two days following with 

 the same hounds : the trying so many hours in vain, and 

 the being kept so long off their food, both contribute to 

 make them slack; and nothing, surely, is more contrary to 

 the true spirit of fox-hunting; for fox-hounds, I have 

 already said, ought always to be above their work. This 

 is another particular, in which hare-hunting and fox- 

 hunting totally differ ; for harriers cannot be hunted too 

 muclj, as long as they are able to hunt at all : the slower 

 they go, the less likely they will be to over-run the scent, 

 and the sooner, in all probability, will they kill their 

 game. I have a friend, who hunted his five days follow- 



5 8 2^ 



