OBSERVATIONS ON FOX-HUNTING 17 



unless you are quite certain he deserves it. We 

 are often too hasty in draughting young hounds ; 

 it is no uncommon thing with the Distemper 

 hanging about them, and when over-worked in 

 hot weather, for them to become noisy, or to 

 find them tire ; and when I have seen young 

 hounds do wrong that I knew had no vice in the 

 family, I have nursed and rested them ; if after- 

 wards they have continued their bad habits, I 

 of course draughted them. Never be in too great 

 a hurry to draught a young hoimd ; but a7i old 

 one, the first fault he commits, condemn him, 

 and never let him go out again if you wish to 

 have a perfect pack and the thing done as it 

 ought to be. 



Let me name three vices most common in 

 hounds, and which are considered incurable, viz. 

 skirting, running mute, and being noisy ; when a 

 hound is in the habit of skirting, draught him 

 immediately, for he will never be better, but get 

 worse and worse every time he is taken out. A 

 mute hound, like a person dumb, never can be 

 cured ; on the other hand, it is very vmpleasant 

 to hear a hovmd speak too much on a scent, or 

 to find him " throwing tongue to cry." One that 

 " throws his tongue " where the Fox has never 

 been, like a liar, is generally incorrigible. Hounds 

 ought never to speak but on a Fox scent, and 

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