^^2 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING, 



cessary and affeded application of a foreign language, that 

 is deserving of censure. 



To those who may think the danger which attends upon 

 hunting a great objedion to the pursuit of it, I must 

 beg leave to observe, that the accidents which are occa- 

 sioned by it are very few. I will venture to say, that 

 more bad accidents happen to shooters in one year, than 

 to those who follow hounds in seven. You will remind 



me, perhaps, of the death of T k, and the fall of 



D 1; but do accidents never happen on the road?-*- 



The most famous huntsman and boldest rider of his time, 

 after having hunted a pack of hounds for several years, 

 unhurt, lost his life at last by a fall from his horse, as 

 he was returning home. — A surgeon of my acquaintance 

 has assured me, that, in thirty years pradice in a sporting 

 country, he had not once an opportunity of setting a 

 bone for a sportsman, though ten packs of hounds were 

 kept in the neighbourhood. This gentleman, surely, must 

 have been much out of luck, or hunting cannot be so 

 dangerous as it is thought : — besides, they are all timid 

 animals that we pursue ; nor is there any danger in attack- 

 ing them ; — they are uot like the furious beast of the G^- 



