" LITTLE riGS MAKE THE BEST OF BACON." 141 



tunate enough to be permitted to try, I could manu- 

 facture a lot of Princes with less labour, and certainly 

 by a more agreeable process. Of one thing I am 

 certain, it is much easier to make what will do well 

 enough for a Prince than it is to make a pack of fox- 

 hounds — at least a good pack. 



If a man happens to come into a large property, it 

 is very easy to say, "I will have a pack of fox-hounds; 

 and such he may readily get; that is, he may get thirty- 

 five or forty couples of dogs, and those fox-hounds ; 

 and probably, if he is weak enough to accept them, he 

 may get a great proportion of those given liim. He 

 may also get twenty hunters in his stable, and these 

 may be really good ones, if he gives money enough. 

 As to his pack (unless he finds some one giving up a 

 country), at the end of three or four seasons I should 

 like to see how he was getting on ; but till then I 

 should excuse myself hunting with him, unless, which 

 God forbid, all the Masters of long-standing packs 

 were to give up hunting. This need not deter any 

 one from feeling confident that by patience, perse- 

 verance, and the help of si'good head, he will in tim.e 

 get together a good pack of hounds. " We must all 

 make a beginning ; and here goes," as the flea said 

 when he gave the elephant his first nibble on his 

 breech, fully intending to pick his bones. I do not 

 mean that forming a pack of fox-hounds amounts 

 quite to this ; but the tyro will find it a matter of 

 more difiiculty than he probable anticipated. Of all 

 wretches in the shape of dogs, none are more so than 

 sporting dogs when bad ones ; a fox-hound or grey- 

 hound particularly so : a bad pointer sometimes makes 

 a capital watch-dog. This, by-the-by, brings to my 

 recollection an acquaintance of mine who hunted with 



