THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 357 



Biighella tells him, that the hares eat up all his master's 

 green wheat, and that he knows not how to kill them. 

 -" Nothing more easy," replies Harlequin — " I will engage 

 " to kill them all with two-pennyworth of snuff. They 

 " come in the night, you say, to feed on the green wheat : 

 *' strew a little snuff over the field before they come: it 

 " will set them all a-sneezing : nobody will be by to say 

 " God bless you! — and, of course, they will all die." 



I BELIEVE that, during our present correspondence, I 

 have twice quoted the Encyclopedic with some degree of 

 ridicule : I must, notwithstanding, beg leave to say, in 

 justice to myself, that I have great esteem for that valu- 

 able work. 



On opening a very large book, called the Gentleman s 

 Recreation^ 1 met with the following remarkable passage : — 

 " Many have -written of this subjedV, as well the ancients 

 " as moderns, yet but fewof our countrymen to any pur- 

 " pose; and had one all the authors on this subjedl (as i.i- 

 ** deed on any other), there would be more trouble to pass 

 " by than to retain ^ most books being fuller of words 



q A 2 



