216 HUNTING DIRECTORY. 



The Hound best calculated for Hare Hunting. 



other, too lively, too light, and too fleet. The first, it 

 is true, have most excellent noses, and I make no doubt 

 will kill their game at last, if the day be long enough ; 

 but you know the days are short in winter, and it is bad 

 hunting in the dark. The others, on the contrary, fling 

 and dash, and are all alive ; but every cold blast affects 

 them ; and if your country is deep and wet, it is not im- 

 possible but some of them may be drowned. My hounds 

 were a cross of both these kinds, in which it was my en- 

 deavour to get as much bone and strength in as small a 

 compass as possible. It was a difficult undertaking. I 

 bred many years, and an infinity of hounds, before I 

 could get what I wanted : I, at last, had the pleasure to 

 see them very handsome ; small, yet very bony : they 

 ran remarkably well together ; ran fast enough ; had all 

 the alacrity you could desire ; and would hunt the coldest 

 scent. 



" It may be necessary to unsay, now I am turned hare- 

 hunter again, many things I have been saying as a fox- 

 hunter ; as I hardly know any two things of the same 

 genus (if I may be allowed the expression) that differ so 

 entirely. What I said in a former letter, about the 

 huntsman and whipper-in, are among the number : as to 

 the huntsman, I think, he should not be young : I should 

 most certainly prefer one, as the French call it, cVun 

 certain age, as he is to be quiet and patient ; for patience, 



rendered more pointed and sharp ; and he has thus exhibited (as indeed 

 must be the case) inferior organs of smell, and a harsh and less musical 

 voice : yet, under any circumstances, the beagle could never be calculated 

 for the pursuit of the fox ; it would therefore appear that the term /ox 

 engfe is not well applied to this little liound. 



