3IO THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 



ing, and assured me, that he had better sport with them the 

 hist day than the first. 



I REMEMBER to have heard, tiiat a ccrtahi pack of fox- 

 hounds, since become famous, were many weeks, from a 

 mixture of indifferent hounds, bad management, and 

 worse luck, without killing a fox ; however, they killed 

 one at last, and tried to find another : — they found him, 

 and they lost him ; and were then, as you may well 

 suppose, another month without killing another fox : — 

 this was ill-judged : they should have returned home im- 

 mediately. 



When hounds are much out of blood, some men pro- 

 ceed in a method that nmst necessarily keep them so ; 

 they hunt them every day, as if tiring them out were a 

 means to give them strength and spirit : — this, however, 

 proceeds more fiom ill -nature and resentment, tlian 

 sound judgment*. As I know your temper to be the re- 

 verse, without doubt, you will adopt a different method j 



* It is r.ot the want of blood only that is prejudicial to hounds : tlie 

 trying long in vain to recover a lost scent, no less contributes to make 

 •jijsem slack. 



