-2. JOHNA.SEAVERNS ' '/ THOUGHTS UPON MU M T I JV Gl IN A SERIES OF FAMILIAR LETTERS TO A FRIEND. BY PETER BECKFORD, ESQ. -SI QUID NOVISTI RECTIUS ISTIS, CANDIDUS IMPERTi: SI NON, HIS UTERE MECUM. THE FOURTH EDITION. LONDON : PRINTED FOR J. DEBRETT, OPPOSITE BURLINGTON-HOUSEg PICCADILLY, 1802. fPrice 9^, in Boards.] PREFACE. A S the Author of the following Letters hath been charged with inhumanity, and yet conjedlured to be a clergyman ; it is now become necessary to publish his name : and, though it may not be usual to answer an anonymous writer, yet, as it is not im- possible that some readers may have adopted his sentiments, this consideration, and this alone, in- duces the Author to answer the obje6lions which the critic hath, so wantonly, made. Whatever may be the imperfe6lion of these Letters, the Author is desirous that it should fall, as it ought, upon him- self only. The obje6tions, which he thinks were VI PREFACE. unnecessarily made, he has endeavoured to remove. All intentional cruelty he entirely disclaims. His appeal from that accusation lies to those v^hom he addresses as his judges ; not (as the critic may think) because they are equally barbarous with him- self, but because sportsmen only are competent to decide. CONTENTS OF THE FOLLOWING LETTERS. LETTER I. Page 15. THE subjeB introduced — Hunting recommendedy not only as an entertaining, but also as a wholesome exercise — CervanteSy and the Spectator : their opinion of Hunting — For whom these Letters are intended — Explanation of the Frontispiece. LETTER II. Page 31. The Kennel describedy with all its parts — Plan and elevation of one : two Plates, page 360. LETTER III. Page 44. Of Hounds in general — Hounds of the middle size recommended . — A perfeEl Hound described — Skirters disapproved of-^ ObjeElions to a large pack* Viii ^ CONTENTS. LETTER IV. Page 55. Of feeding Hounds^ and managing them in the kennel — Of the Peeder — Cleanliness recommended — Time of feeding ill suited to severity. LETTER V. Page 59. Of breeding Hounds, and naming them — Of the treatment of Whelps, when first taken into the kennel — Of rounding them, and spaying Bitches — Of the number necessary to keep^ up the stock — A List of Names. LETTER VI. Page Zl, Of coupling young Hounds, and breaking them from sheep^-Of entering them— Best method to make them steady — Kennel- discipline objeded to» LETTER VII. Page 93. The same subjeB continued— Hounds made handy, by being taken out often — Different methods of entering young Fox-hounds, described — Entering them at the Martin-cat ^recotmnended — Entering them at Hare, censured. CONTENT?. ix LETTER VIII. Page 117. Of diseases and their remedies — A curious prescription for the (tire of the mange, either in man or beast — Observations on madness. LETTER IX. Page 133. Of the Huntsman, and Whipper-in — Observations on scent. LETTER X. Page 144, Hare -hunting described in all its parts — Of Hounds best suited tQ that diversion — Of the best method of hunting them — Sport synen not intentionally cruel — Of the trail in a morn^ ing — Of Hare-finders — A particular method of Hare-hnnting related — Curious advice about dressing a Hare. LETTER XI. Page 158. Hare-hunting continued — The many shifts zvhich a Hare makes^ described — A hint to such Sportsmen as continue talking when their Hounds are at fault — Chopping Hares, censured: direc-^ tions how to prevent it — Of the harmony of a pack — A hint to such Sportsmen as ride over their Hounds. CONTENTS. tETTER xii. Page i68. Of a Hare-warren — The Hares how caught — Best method of turning them out — How a Hare may be viade to run straight — Time to leave, off Hare-hunting — Of Stag-hunting at Turin, LETTER XIII. Page 174, The description of a Fox-chace attempted. LETTER XIV. Page 185. Remarks on the foregoing Letter — When an early hour // necessaiy — Some observations on the drawing of Hounds — Bad Sportsmen described — A genii email s extraordinary knowledge of Hunting — To make Hounds steady and draw- well, recommended — Much noise at the finding of a FoXy censured, LETTER XV. Page 197. J^eviarks on Letter XIII. continued — Sopie dire^ions to' the Hintsmafi, and Whipper-in — Of stile in killing a Fox* — Of changing from one Fox to another — Rules to be ob"' served when this happens — Some observations on the casting^, of Hounds — Riding too close upon theniy censured,- CONTENTS. Xl LETTER XVI. Page 20S. R.e7narks on Letter XIII. still continued — Of halloos — Some remarkable instances of them — IVhen a Fcx ought not to he given up — When a -pack of Fox-hounds may be suffered to try back — When Sportsmen ought to be silent — Method of treeing a Fox described — When it is the best time to eat him. LETTER XVII. Pagcziy. A digression in favour of Fox-hunting— Fiezv halloos^ ijuben too frequently given^ censured —Of stopping the tail Hounds^ and throning them in at head — Of Skirl ers, zvhen they do hurt — A hint to those zvho follow Hounds — When Foxes are in too great plenty^ how to disperse them — A French-- nhvi s opinion of a Fox-chace, LETTER XVIII. Page 228. When an excellent Whipper-in may he of more use than an eX' c client Huntsman — Barbarity defined — Unnecessary severity censured — F>uty of a IVhipper-in — A pcrfeEl one described — • Of steadiness — Of Hounds that kill sheep — Necessity of obe- dience— After Hounds are made steady, some caution re- quired to keep them so — A curious Letter from a Huntsman. B z XU CONTENTS. LETTER XIX. Page 248. Hozv a Huntsman should drazv bis Hounds — Placing Hounds advantageously^ a necessary part of Fox-hunting — When Hounds do not hunt^ hozv they should be fed — Of drafting Hounds — When a Huntsman should be after his time — Where Foxes like best to lie — When Gentlemen may be of service to Hounds — Long drags, the obje^ion to them — The sagacity of the Buck-hound accounted for — Correal ion of Hounds by the Huntsman, objeEled to — Hounds that will not leave a cover, how treated — Of the good management of a pack of Fox-hounds, . LETTER XX. Page 270. How a Huntsman should cast his Hounds — When Hounds had better be exercised on the turnpike road than hunted — When it may be right to stop the tail Hounds, and throw them in at head — Huntsmen that are slow, censured — When they should be careful not to run the heel — When Hounds have many scent Sy how they should be managed — Of the headiiig back of Foxes — What constitutes a perfect Huntsman, LETTER XXI. Page 293. A Hire-hunter an improper Huntsman to a pack of Fox-hounds — The Harrier^ and Fox-hound, in what they materially CONTENTS. XHl differ — Fitness essential to beauty — How Sportsmen may he pf service to tired Hounds — Of long days^ the disadvantage — The use — Why a Fox-hound should be above his work — Much encouragement to Hounds on bad scenting days, objeded to — Of Hounds that run false. LETTER XXII. Pag€ 307. Blood necessary to a pack of Fox-hounds — The likeliest method to procure it — Of accidents that haj>pen in Fox-hunting — Of the proper time to leave off Fox-hunting — A zuanton destruc- tion of Foxes censured — Inequality of scent unfavourable to Hounds — An extraordinary charaBer of a Huntsman, LETTER XXIII. Pa2;e ^26. Bag- Foxes : some objections to them — A Fox-court recommended — DireBions how Cubs should be treated — Some caution ne- cessary in buying Foxes — Of digging Foxes — Badgers objeEled to — A method to stink an earth — How Badgers may be caught — Of Terriers — Of destroying Foxes — A remarkable instance of the lex talionis. LETTER XXIV. Page 342. Subject concluded — Some observations concerning the managc- ment of a Hunter — Remarks upon Shoeing — Summer Hunt- XIV CONTENTS. ing; objected to — Virgily Horace , 'Pliny: their opinion of a country life — Hunting not so dangerous as it has been thought ' — Some quotations from other authors » THOU G H T S UPON HUNTING IN A SERIES OF LETTERS. LETTER I. Bristol Hot.Wells, March 20, 1779- XTOU could not, my friend, have chosen a better season than the present, to remind me of sending you my Thoughts upon Hunting j for the accident that brought me hither is likely to detain me some time : besides, I have no longer a plea for not obeying your commands. Hitherto, indeed, I had excused myself, in hopes that some publication on the subjed might have rendered these Letters needless ; but since nothing of the kind, although so much wanted, has appeared ; as I am now sufficiently unoccupied to undertake the task, I shall not i6 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTIKG. think, it a trifling subjed, if you think it a necessary one i and 1 wish that my own experience of the diversion may enable me to answer the many questions which you arc pleased to propose concerning il. Knowing your partiality to rhyme, I could wish to send you my tiioughts in verse ; but as this would take up more time, without answering your purpose better, I must beg you to accept them in humble prose, which, in my opinion, is better suited to the subjeA. Didadic essays should be as little clogged as possible : they should proceed regularly and clearly : should be easily written, and as easily understood ; having less to do with words than things. The game of crambo is out of fashion, to the no small prejudice of the rhyming tribe ; and before 1 could find a rhyme to porringer^ I should hope to finish a great part of these Letters. I shall, therefore, without further delay, proceed upon them : — this, however, I must desire to be first understood between us — that when, to save trouble to us both, I say a thing />, without tacking a salvo to the tail of it, such as, /;/ my opinion — to the best ef my judgment, &c. &c. — you shall not call my humility in question, as the assertion is not meant to be xnathema- THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 1 7 tically certain. When 1 have any better authority than my own, such as Somerville, for instance (who, by the bye^ is the only one that has written intelligibly on this subjed), I shall take the liberty of giving it you in his own words^. to save you the trouble of turning to him. You may remember, perhaps, that when we were hunting together at Turin, the hounds having lost the stag, and the piqueurs (still more at fault than they) being ignorant which way to try, the king bid them ask Milord Anglois i nor is it to be wondered at, if an Englishman should be thought to understand the art of hunting, as the hounds which this country produces are universally allowed to be the best in the world. Whence,* I think j this in- ference may be drawn — that although every man who follows this diversion may not understand it, yet it is extraordinary^ of the many who do, that one only, of any note, should have written on the subject. It is rathcfr unfortunate for me, that this ingenious sportsman should have preferred wa'iting an elegant poem to an useful lesson ; since, if it had pleased him, he might easily have Saved me the trouble of writing these Letters. Is it not strange, in a country where the press is in one continued € l6 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING^ labour with opinions of almost every kind, from the rriost serious and instrudive to the most ridiculous and trifling; a country, besides, so famous for the best hounds, and the best horses to follow them 5 whose authors sometimes hunt, and whose sportsmen sometimes write — that only the prac- tical part of hunting should be known ? — There is, however, no doubt, that the pradical part of it would be improved, were it to be accompanied by theory* France, Germanyj and Italy, are also silent, I believe, on this subjed j though each of these countries has had its sportsmen. Foxes, it is true, they never hunt, and hares but seldom ; yet the stag^ and wild boar, both in France :^nd in Germany, are still pursued with the utmost splen^ dour and magnificence. In Italy, there has been na hunting since the death of the Duke of Parma : he was very fond of it ; and, I apprehend, all hunting in that country ceased with him. The only sportsmen now re- maining, are gentlemen in green coats, who, taking their couteaux de chasse along with them, walk into the fields to catch small birds, v;hich they call andar a la caccia^ or, in plain English, going a-hunting : yet it has not been so with horsemanship j that has been treated scientifically by all— THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. I9 in Italy, by Pignatelii ; in Germany, by Isenbourg ; and in France, by La Gueriniere. Nor are the useful lessons of the Duke of Newcastle confined to this country only ; they are both read and pradlised every where : nor is he the onl}' noble lord who has written on the subjeorisma»3 to icud /ox.bufiier» THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 1.1 Situations -, such as a clear head, nice obser.yation, quick ap- prehension, undaunted courage, strength of constitution, axflivity of body, a good ear, and a good voice. There is not any one branch of knowledge, commoniy dignified with the title of art, which has not such rudi- ments or principles as may lead to a competent degree of skill, if not to perfedion, in it ; while hunting, the sole business of some, and the amusement of most of the youth in this kingdom, seems left entirely to chance. Its pursuit puts us both to greater expencc, and also to greater inconvenience, than any other ; yet, notwithstand- ing this, we trust our diversion in it to the sole guidance of a huntsman : we follow just as he shall choose to con- .duft us ; and we suffer the success, or disappointment, of the chace, to depend solely on the judgment of a fellow who is frequently a greater brute than the creature on which he rides. I would not be understood to mean by this, that a huntsman should be a scholar, or that every gentleman should hunt his own hounds. It is not necessary a huntsman should be a man of letters : but give me leave to observe, that, had he the best understanding, he would frequently find opportunities of exercising it, and intricacies whi^h 2% THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. might put it to the test. You will say, perhaps, there is ) something too laborious in the occupation of a huntsman, ' for a gentleman to take it upon himself; you may also think it is beneath him ; I agree with you in both ; yet I hope that he may have leave to understand it. — If he follow the diversion, it is a sign of his liking it ; and if he like it, surely it is some disgrace to him to be ignorant of the means most conducive to it, • I FIND there will be no necessity to say much to you in commendation of a diversion which you professedly ad- mire* : it would be needless, therefore, to enumerate the heroes of antiquity who were taught the art of hunting, or * Since the above was written, hunting has undergone a severe cen, sure (vide Monthly Review for September, 1781) ; nor will any thing satisfy the critic, less than its total abolition. He recommends feats of agility to be praftised and exhibited instead of it. Whether the amend* ment proposed by the learned gentleman be desirable or not, I shall for- bear to determine ; taking the liberty, however, to remind him, that as hunting hath stood its ground from the earliest times, been encouraged and approved by the best authorities, and praftised by the greatest men, it cannot now be supposed either to dread criticism, or to need support. Hunting originates in Nature itself; and it is in perfed correspondence with this law of Nature, that the several animals are provided with neces- sary jaieans of attack and defence. TflOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 23 the many great men (among whom was the famous Ga- len) who have united in recommending it. I shall, how- everj remind you, that your beloved hero, Henry the' Fourth of France, made it his chief amusement (his very love-letters, strange as it may appear, being filled with little else) ; and that one of the greatest ministers which our own country ever produced, was so fond of this diver- sion, that the first letter he opened, as 1 have been told, was generally that of his huntsman. — In most countries, from the earliest times, hunting has been a principal occu- pation of the people, either for use or amusement ; and many princes have made it their chief delight j a cir- cumstance which occasioned the following bon mot: Louis the Fifteenth was so passionately fond of this diversion, that it occupied him entirely. The King of Prussia, who never hunts, gives up a great deal of his time to music, and himself plays on the flute. A German, last war, meet- ing a Frenchman, asked him very impertinently, " 5/ son " maitre chassoit toujonrsf'" — *' Om, ctiiy' replied the other — " // ne joue jamais de la fluted — The reply was excellent ; but it would have been as well for mankind, perhaps, if that great man had never been otherwise employed.— 24 THOUGHTS UPOif HUNTING. Hunting is the soul of a country life : it gives health id the body, and contentment to the mind , and is one of the few pleasures that we can enjoy in society, without preju- dice either to ourselves or our friends. The Spedator has drawn with infinite humour the cliarader of a man who passes his whole life in pursuit of trifles ; and it is probable that other Will Wimbles mighfc still be found. 1 hope, however, that he did not thinls- they were solely confined to the country. Triflers there are of every denomination. Are we not all triflers ? — and are we not told that all is vanity ? — The Spedator, with^ out doubt, felt great compassion for Mr. Wimble j yet Mr. Wimble might not have been a proper obje<5l of it j i;ince it is more than probable that he was a happy man, if the employment of his time in obliging others, and pleasing, himself, can be thought to have made him so. Whether vanity mislead us or not in the choice of our pursuits, the pleasures or advantages which result from them will best determine. 1 fear that the occupation of few gentlemen will- admit of nice scrutiny : occupations therefore that amuse,* and are at the same time innocent ; that promote exercise,- and conduce to healthy though they may appear trifles THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 2C ill the eyes of others, certainly are not so to those who enjoy them. Of this number, I think I may reckon hunting; and I am particularly glad that the same author furnishes a quotation in support of it : " For my own. part," says this elegant writer, " I intend to hunt twice a week, during *' my stay with Sir Roger ; and shall prescribe the mode- " rate use of this exercise to all my country friends, as the " best physic for mending a bad constitution, and pre- " serving a good one." — The inimitable Cervantes also honourably mentions this diversion : he makes Sancho say — " Mercy on me, _ what pleasure can you find, any of " ye all, in killing a poor beast that never meant any *' harm !" that the Duke may reply — " You are mistaken, " Sancho: hunting wild beasts is the most proper exercise " for knights and princes ; for in the chace of a stout " noble beast, may be represented the whole art of war, " stratagems, policy, and ambuscades, with all other " devices usually pradised to overcome an enemy with " safety. Here we are exposed to the extremities of heat " and cold : ease and laziness can have no room in this " diversion. By this we are inured to toil and hardship; " our limbs are strengthened, our joints made supple, and '' our whole body hale and adive : in short, it is an exer- D 26 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. " else that may be beneficial to many, and can be preju^ '* clicial to none.'* — Small, indeed, is the number of those who, in the course of five thousand years, have employed themselves in the advancement of useful knowledge. Mankind have been blest with but one Titus, that we know of i and, it is to be feared, he has had but few imi- tators. Days and years fly away ; nor is any account taken of them : 'and how many may reasonably be supposed to pass, without affording even amusement to others, or satisfadion to ourselves? Much more, I think, might be s- id in favour of the Wimbles; but it must be confest, that the man who spends his whole time in trilles, passes it contemptibly, compared with those who are employed in researches after knowledge useful to mankind, or in professions useful to the state. I AM glad to find that you approve of the plan I pro- pose to observe in the course of these Letters ; wherein it shall be my endeavour not to omit any thing which it may be necessary for you to know ; at least, as far as my own observation and experience will give me leave. The ex- perience that I have had may be of use to you at present : others, perhaps, hereafter, may write more judiciously and THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING, i-J more fuHy on the subjed : you know it is my interest to wisii that they would. The few who have written on hunting,- refer you to their predecessorSj for great part of the infor- mation you might exped from them ; and who their pre- decessors were, I have yet to learn. Even Somerville is less copious than I could wishj and has purposely omitted what is not to be found elsewhere j I mean receipts for the cure of such diseases as hounds are subjecfl to : he holds such information cheap, and beneath his lofty muse; Prose has no excuse; and you may depend on every infor- mation that I can give. — The familiar manner in which my thoughts will be conveyed to you in these Letters, may sufficiently evince the intention of the author : they are written with no other design than to be of use to sportsmen. Were my aim to amuse, 1 would not endeavour to in- struct : a song might suit the purpose better than an essay. To improve health, by promoting exercise ; to 6xcite gentlemen who are fond of hunting to obtain the knowledge necessary to enjoy it in-perfedion ; and to lessen the punishments which are too often inlliiSted on an animal so friendly to man — are the chief ends intended by the following Letters. D Z 28 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. I SHALL not pretend to lay down rules which are to be equally good in every country; I shall think myself suf- ficiently justified in recommending such as have been tried with success in the countries where I have generally hunted. As almost every country has a different dialed, you will also excuse, 1 hope, any terms that may not be current with you : I will take the best care 1 can that the number sliall be small. It is needless, I think, to advise you not to adopt too easily the opinions of other men. You will hear a tail man say, It is folly to ride any but large; horses; and every little man in company will immedi- ately sell his little horses, buy such as he can hardly mount, and ride them in hilly countries, for which they are totally unfit. Pride induces some men to di6late ; indolence makes others like to be didated to ; so both parties find their account in it. You will not let this mislead you : you will dare to think for yourself. Nor ' will you believe every man, who pretends to know what you like better than you do yourself. There is a de- gree of coxcombry, I believe, in every thing. You have heard, I make no doubt, that greyhounds are either black, or white, or black and white ; and if you have any faith in those who say they know best, they will tell you that THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 29 there are no others*. Prejudice, however, Is by far too blind a guide to be depended on. I HAVE read somewhere, that there is no book so bad^ but a judicious reader may derive some advantage from the reading of it : 1 hope these Letters will not prove the only exception. Should they fall into the hands of such as are not sportsmen, 1 need not, Ithink, make any ex- cuses to them for the contents, since the title sufficiently shews for whom they were designed. Nor are they meant for such sportsmen as need not instruflion, but for those that do ; to whom, I presume, in some parts at least, they may be found of use. Since a great book has been long looked upon as a great evil, I shall take care not to sin that way at least j and shall endeavour to make these Letters as short as the extent of my subjedl will admit. You will rally me, perhaps, on the choice of my frontispiece ; but why should not hunting admit the * There is a fashion in greyhounds ; some coursers even pretend, that all not being of the fashionable colour, are curs, and not greyhounds. Greyhound seems to be a corruption from some other word j most pro- bably from gaze-hound. 3^ THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. patronage of a lady ? The ancients, you know, Invoked Diana at setting out on the chace, and sacrificed to her at their return : is not this enough to shew the propriety of my choice ? At all events, I assure myself that you will approve her attendants. Health, and Contentment. I SHALL now take my leave of you for the present. In my next Letter I shall proceed according to your desire, till I have answered all your questions. Remember, you are not to expe6t entertainment : I wish that you may find some instruftion : the dryness of the subjed may excuse your want of the one, and I cannot doubt of your indulgence whilst I am obeying your commands, though / should fail in the other. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. LETTER IL SINCE you intend to make hunting your chief amuse- ment in the country, you are certainly in the right to give it some consideration before you begin ; and not, hke Master Stephen in the play, first buy a hawk, and then hunt after a book to keep, it by. I am glad to find that you in- tend to build a new kennel 3 and, 1 flatter myself, the expe- dience that I have had may be of some use to you in build- ing it : it is not only the first thing that you should do, but it is also the most important. As often as your mind may alter, so often may you easily change from one kind of hound to another ; but your kennel will still remain the same 3 will still keep its original imperfeulions, uuless altered at a great expence j and be less perfect at last thap. jt might have been made at first, had you pursued a proper plan. It is true, hounds may be kept in barns and stables j but those who keep them in such places can best inform you, whether their hounds are capable of answering 32 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. the purposes for which they were designed. The sense of smelling, the odora canim vis, as Virgil calls it, is so ex- quisite in a hound, that I cannot but suppose every stench is hurtful to it. It is that faculty on which all our hopes depend ; it is that which must lead us over greasy fallows, where the feet of the game we pursue, being clogged, leave little scent behind ; as well as over stony roads, through watery meads, and where sheep have stained the ground. Cleanliness is not only absolutely necessary to the nose of the hound, but also to the preservation of his health. Dogs are naturally cleanly animals ; they seldom, < when they can, help it, dung wliere they lie : air, and fresk straw, are necessary to keep them healthy. They are sub- jeft to the m.ange , a disorder to which poverty and nastiness will very much contribute. This, though easily stopped at its first appearance, if suffered to continue long, may lessen the powers of the animal ; and the re- medies which are then to be used, being in themselves i violent, must injure his constitution. It had better be prevented : let the kennel, therefore, be an objed of your particular care. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 3^ /^* Upon some little eminence ereft. And fronting to the ruddy dawn, its courts On either hand wide opening to receive The svin's all-cheari;ig beams, whpn mild he seines. And gilds the mountain tops." Let such as Somerville direds be the situation : its size must be suited to the number of its inhabitants : the ar- chitedure of it may be conformable to your own taste. Use- less expence 1 should not recommend j yet, as 1 suppose you will often make it a visit, at least in the hunting season, I could wish it might have neatness without, as well as clean- liness within, the more to allure you to it. I should, for, the same reason, wish it to be as near to your house as you will give it leave. I know there are many objedions to its being very near : I foresee still more to its being at a distance. There is a vulgar saying. That it is the master's eye that makes the horse fat ; I can assure you, that it is even more necessary in the kennel, where cleanliness is not less essential than food. There are, I make no doubt, many better kennels than mine j some of which you should see before you begin to build. You can but make use of my plan, in case E «4 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. that you like no other better. If, in the mean time, I am to give you my opinion what a kennel ought to be, I must send you a description of my own, fori have not seen many others. I WOULD advise you to make it large enough at first, as any addition afterwards must spoil the appearance of it. 1 have been obliged to add to mine, which was built from a plan of my ov/n, and intended, at first, for a pack of beagles. My feeding-yard being too small, I will endea- vour to remedy that defect in the plan I send you; which plan may be still enlarged, or lessened, as you think fit, or as your occasions may require. The feeding-troughs should be wide at the bottom, and must have wooden covers, I THINK two kennels absolutely necessary to the well- being of the hounds : when there is but one, it is seldom sweet ; and, when cleaned out, the hounds, particularly in winter, suffer both whilst it is cleaning, and as long as it remains wet afterwards. To be more clearly understood by you, I shall call one of these the hunting-kennel ,- by which I mean that kennel into which the hounds intended THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 3^ to hunt the next day, are drafted. Used always to the same kennel, they will be drafted with little trouble ; they will answer to their names more readily ; and you may count your hounds into the kennel with as much ease as a shep- herd counts his sheep out of the fold. When the feeder first comes to the kennel in a morn- ing, he should let out the hounds into the outer court ; ■ :^nd, ia bad weather, he should open the door of the hunt- ing kennel, lest want of rest should incline them to go into it. The lodging-room should then be cleaned out, the doors and windows of it opened, the litter shaken up, and the kennel made sweet i^nd clean, before the hounds return to it again. The great court, and the other ken- nels, are not less to be attended to ; nor should you pass over in silence any omission that is hurtful to your hounds. The floor of each lodging-room should be bricked, and sloped on both sides, to run to the centre, with a gutter left to carry off the water ; that, when they are washed, they may be, soon dry. If water should remain, through any E 2 ^6 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. fault in the floor, it should be carefully mopped up ; for as warmth is in the greatest degree necessary to hounds after work, so damps are equally prejudicial. You will think me, perhaps, too particular in these diredions ; yet there can be no harm in your knowing what your ser- vants ought to do ; as it is not impossible but it may be sometimes necessary for you to see that it is done. In your military profession, you are perfectly acquainted with the duty of a common soldier; and though you have no farther business with the minutize of it, without doubt you still find the knowledge of them useful to you. Believe me, they may be useful here ; and you will pardon me, I hope, if I wish to see you a Martinet in the kennel, as well as in the field. Orders given without skill are sel- dom well obeyed ; and where the master is either ignorant or inattentive, the servant will be idle. I ALSO wish, that, contrary to the usual pradice in building kennels, you would have three doors ; two in the^ front, and one in the back ; the last to have a lattice- window in it, with a wooden shutter, which is constantly to be kept closed when the hounds are in, except in sum- THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 3^ nier, when it should be left open all the day. This door answers two very necessary purposes : it gives an oppor* tunity of carrying out the straw when the lodging-room is cleaned, and, as it is opposite to the window, will be a means to let in a thorough air, which will greatly con- tribute to keep it sweet and wholesome. The other doors will be of use in drying the room when the hounds are out ; and as one is to be kept shut, and the other hooked back (allowing just room for a dog to pass), they are not liable to any objedion. The great window in the centre should have a folding shutter ; half, or the whole, of which, may be shut at nights, according to the weather : and your kennels, by that means, may be kept warm or cool, just as you please to have them. The two great lodging-rooms are exactly alike, and, as each has a court belonging to it, are distindt kennels, situated at the opposite ends of the building; in the centre of which is the borling-house and feeding-yard ; and on each side a lesser kennel, either for hounds that are drafted off, hounds that are sick, or lame ; or for any other pur- poses, as occasion may require : at the back of which, as they are but half the depth of the two great kennels> 3'a THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. are places for coals, &c. for the use of the kennel : there is also a small building in the rear, for hot bitches : the plan will shew you the size of the whole. The floors of the inner courts, like those of the lodging- rooms, are bricked, and slo[)ed towards the centre j and a channel of water, brought in by a leaden pipe, runs through the middle of them. In the centre of each court, is a well, I'arge enough to dip a bucket, to clean the kennels : this must be faced with stone,, or it will- be often out of repair : — in the feeding-yard it should have a wooden cover. The benches, which must be open, to let the urine through, should have hinges and hooks in the wall, that they may fold up, for the greater conveniency in vv'ashing out the kennel : they should also be made as low as possi- ble, that a hound, when he is tired, may have no difficulty in jumping up, and at no time may be able to creep tinder*. Let me add, that the boiler should be of cast-iron. * Benches cannot be too low. If, owing to the smallncss of the hound, it should be difficult to render them low enough, a projefting ledge will answer the same purpose ; and the benches may be boarded at bottom, to prevent the hound from creeping under. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 39 The rest of the kennel consists of a large court in front, which is also bricked, having a grass-court adjoining, and a little brook running through the middle of it. The earth that was taken out of it, is thrown up into a mount, where the hounds, in summer, delight to sit. This court is planted round with trees, and has, besides, a lime-tree, and some horse-chesnut trees, near the middle of it, for the sakeof shade, A high pale incloses the whole ; part of which, to the height of about four feet, is close ; the other open ; the interstices are about two inches wide. The grass-court is pitched near ■ the pale, to prevent the hounds from scratching out. Grass is the dog's best emetic ; and in this he is his own physician. If jfou cannot guess the intention of the posts which you see in the courts, there is scarcely an inn window on any road, where the following line wiil not let you into the secret : " So dogs will p — where dogs have p — 'd before," This is done to save the trees, to which the urinary salts are prejudicial. If they be at first backward in coming to them, bind some straw round the bottom, and rub it with galbanum. — The brook in the grass-court may serve as a stew : your fish wiil be very safe*, * It may also be used as a cold bath, for such hounds as stand in need of it : for lameness in the stifle, and for strains, it will be found of service. 40 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. At the back of the kennel is a house, thatched and furzed up on the sides, big enough to contain at least ?, load of straw. Here should be a pit ready to receive the dung, and a gallows for the flesh. The gallows should have a thatched roof, and a circular board at the posts ot it, to prevent vermin from climbing up. If you can in- close a piece of ground adjoining to your kennel, for such dog-horses as may be brought to you alive, it will be of great use j as it might be dangerous to turn them out where other horses go ; for you may not always be able to discover their disorders, Hither you may also bring your hounds, after they have been fed, to empty them- selves; here you will have more opportunities of seeing them than in the kennel ; and will be enabled, therefore, to make your draft for the next day with greater accu- racy. A STOVE, I believe, is m.ade use of in some kennels; but, where the feeder is a good one, a mop, properly used, will render it unnecessary. — I have a little hay-rick in the grass-yard, which I think is of use, to keep the hounds^ clean, and fine, in their coats : you will find them fre- TilOUGIITS UPON HUNTING. 41 quently rubbing ther.selves against it : the shade of it also is useful to them in summer. If ticks at any time be trou- blesome in your kennel, let the walls of it be well washed : if that should not destroy them, the walls must then be white-washed. In the summer, when you do not hunt, one kennel will be sufficient : the other may then be set apart for the young hounds, who should also have the grass -court ad- joining to it. It is best, at that time of the year, to keep them separate; and it prevents many accidents which otherwise might happen ; nor should they be put toge- ther till the hunting season begins*. If your hounds be very quarrelsome, the feeder may sleep in a cot in the kennel adjoining; and, if they be well chastised at the first quarrel, his voice will be sufficient to settle all their differences afterwards -f. Close to the door of the kennel. * The dogs and the bitches may also be kept separate from each other during the summer months, where there are convenlencies for it. •f In a kennel in Oxfordshire, the feeder pulls a bell, which the hounds understand the meaning of: it silences them immediately, and saves him the trouble of getting out of his bed. 42 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. let there be always a quantity of little switches ; which three narrow boards, nailed to one of the posts, will easily contain*. My kennel is close to the road-side, but it was una- voidable. This is the reason why my front pale is close, and only the side ones open : it is a great fault : avoid it if you can, and your hounds will be the quieter. Upon looking over my Letter, I find that I begin by recommending, with Mr. Somerville, a high situation for the kennel, and afterwards talk of a brook running through the middle of it : ] am afraid that you will not be able to unite these two advantages ; in which case, without doubt, water should be preferred. The mount that I have mentioned will answ^er all the purposes of an eminence : besides, there should be moveable stages on wheels, for the hounds to lie upon ; at any rate, however, let your soil be a dry one. * When hounds are perfeftly obedient, whips are no longer necessary ; switches, in my opinion, are preferable. The whips I use are coach-whips, three feet long, . the thong half the length of the crop : they are more hiindy than horsewhips, corred the hounds as well, and hurt them less. < THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 43 You will, perhaps, think my lodging-rooms higher than is necessary. I know that they are considerably higher than is psual ; the intention of which is, to give more air to the Jiounds J and I have not the least doubt that they are the better for it. — I will no longer persecute you with this un- entertaining subjedl, buj: send you a plan frorp. my owji kennel, and take my leave of you. P. S, I send only the ground-plan and elevation, as tl)e size of the outer court, and grass-court, are perfedly mima- jterial j the one should not be small, and the other should be as large as you can conveniently make it. F 2 44 THOUGHTS UPON HUNIING. LETTER HI. i BEGIN this Letter with assuring you that I have done with the kennel: without doubt, you will think I JiaQ need. If 1 have made even the name frightful to you, comfort yourself with the thoughts that it will nofe appear again* Your criticism on my switches I think unjust. You tell me, that self-defence would of course m.ake you take that precaution. Do you always walk with a whip in your hand ? — or do you think that a walking-stick, which may be a good thing to knock a dog on the head with, would be equally proper to correcl him, should he be too familiar? You forget, however, to put a better substitute in the room of them. You desire to know what kind of hound I would re- commend. As you mention not for any particular chace, or country, I understand you generally j and shall answer. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 45 that I most approve of hounds of the middle size. I be- lieve all animals of that description are strongest, and best able to endure fatigue. In the height, as well as the co- lour of hounds, most sportsmen have their prejudices $ but in their shape, at least, I think they must all agree. I know sportsmen who boldly aflirm, that a small hound will oftentimes beat a large onej that he will climb hills better, and go through cover quicker s — whilst others are not less ready to assert, that a large hound will make his way in any country ; will get better through the dirt than a small one ; and that no fence, however high, can stop him. You have now three opinions i and I advise you to adopt that which suits your country best. There is, howeverj a certain size, best adapted for business ; which 1 take to be that between the two extremes ; and I will venture to say, that such hounds will not suffer them- selves to be disgraced in any country. Somerviile, I find^ is of the same opinion. -'* But here a mean Observe, nor the large hound prefer, of size Gigantic ; he in the thick-woven covert Painfully tugs, or in the thorny brake. Torn and embarrass 'd, bleeds : but if too small. 4.6 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. The pigmy brood in every furrow swims ; Moil'd in the clogging clay, panting they lag Behind, inglorious ; or else shivering creep, Benumb'd and faint, beneath the shelt'ring thorn ; For hounds of middle size, aftivc and strong, Will better answer all thy various ends, And crown thy pleasing labours with success." I perfedly agree with yon, that, to look well, they should be all nearly of a size ; and I even think that they should all look of the same family. ; " Facies non omnibus una. Ncc djversa tamen, qualem decet esse sororum.'* If handsome withal, they are then perfedl. With regard to their being sizeable, what Somerville says is so much in your own way, that I shall send it you. '* As some brave captain, curious and exafl, By his fix'd standard forms in equal ranks His gay battalion, as one man they move Step after step, their size the same, their arms Far gleaming, dart the same united blaze ; Reviewino; Q;cnerals his merit own. How regular ! how just ! — apd all his cares Are well repaid, if rnighty George approve. So model thou thy pack, if honour touch Thy gen'rous soul, and tj;e world's just applause." THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 47 There are necessary points in the shape of a hound, which ought always to be attended to by a sportsman ; for, if he be not of a perfedt symmetry, he will neither run fast, nor bear much work : he has much to undergo, and should have strength proportioned to it. Let his legs be straight as arrows ; his feet round, and not too large 5 his shoulders back ; his breast rather wide than narrow; his chest deepj his back broad ; his head small; his neck thin ; his tail thick and brushy ; if he carry it well, so much the better. This last point, however trifling it may appear to you, gave rise to a very odd question. A gentleman (not much acquainted with hounds), as we were hunting together the other day, said : " 1 observe, ** Sir, that some of your dogs* tails stand up, and some " hang down; pray, which do you reckon the best hounds?'^ Such young hounds as are out at the elbows, and such as are weak from the knee to the foot, should never be taken into the pack. I FIND that I have mentioned a small head, as one of the necessary requisites of a hound ; but you will under- stand it as relative to beauty only j for, as to goodness^ I be- 48. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. lieve large-headed hounds are in no wise inferior. Somer^ ville, in his description of a perfed hound, makes no men^ tjoji of the head, leaving the size of it to Phidias to de- termine ; he, therefore, must have thought it of little con- sequence. I send you his words. " See there, with countenance blythe, And with a courtly grin, the fawning hound Salutes thee cow'ring ; his wide-op'ning nose Upwards he curls, and his large sloe-black eyes Melt in soft blandishments, and humble joy : His glossy skin, or yellow-pied, or blue. In lights or shades, by Nature's pencil drawn, Refieds the various tints : his ears and legs. Fleck t here and there in gay enarael'd pride, Rival the speckled pard : his msh-grown tail O'er his broad back bends in an ample arch. On shoulders clean, upright and firm he stands : Kis round cat-foot, straight hams, and wide-spread thighs. And his low-dropping chest, confess his speed : His strength, his wind, or on the steepy hill. Or far-extended plains in every part So well proportion'd, that the nicer skill Of Phidias himself can't blame thy choice. Of such compose thy pack." The colour I think of little moment j and am of opi- nion with our friend Foote, respedling his negro friend,. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 49 that a good dog, like a good candidate, cannot be of a bad colour. Men ^re too apt to be prejudiced by the sort of hound which they themselves have been most accustomed to. Those who have been used to the sharp-nosed fox-hound, will hardly allow a large-headed hound to be a fox-hound; yet they both equally are : speed and beauty are the chief excellencies of the one J while stoutness, and tender- ness of nose, in hunting*, are charadleristic of the other. I could tell you, that I have seen very good sport with very unhandsome packs, consisting of hounds of various sizes, differing from one another as much in shape and look as in their colour; nor could there be traced the least sign of consanguinity amongst them. Considered separately, the hounds were good ; as a pack of hounds, they were not to be commended j nor would you be sa- tisfied with any thing that looked so very incomplete. — You will iind nothing so essential to your sport, as that * II parolt que la finesse de I'odorat, dans les chiens, depend de la grosseur plus que de la longueur du museau. — Buffon. 5© THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING* your hounds should run well together ; nor can this end be better attained, than b)^ confining yourself, as near as you can, to those of the same sort, size, and shape. A GREAT excellence in a pack of hounds, is the head they carry -, and that pack may be said to go the fastest, that can run ten miles the soonest ; notwithstanding the hounds, separately, may not run so fast as many others, A pack of hounds, considered in a coUedive body, go fast, in proportion to the excellence of their noses, and the head they carry; as that traveller generally gets, soonest to his journey's end who stops least upon the road. — Some hounds that I have hunted with, would creep all through the same hole, though they might have leapt the hedge, and would follow one another in a string, as true as a team of cart-horses. I had rather see them, like the horses of the sun, cill a-breast, A FRIEND of mine killed thirty-seven brace of foxes in one season : twenty-nine of the foxes were killed without any intermission. 1 must tell you, at the same time, tl/at they were killed with hounds bred from a pack of harriers , TrtOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. Jl nor had the)', I believe, a single skirter belonging to them. There is a pack now in my neighbourhood, of all sorts and sizes, which seldom miss a fox ; when they run, there is a long string of them, and every fault is hit off by an old southern hound. However, out of the last eighteen foxes that they hunted, they killed seventeen , and I have no doubt, that, as they become more complete, more foxes will escape from them. Packs which are composed of hounds of various kinds, seldom run well together j nor do their tongues harmonize; yet they generally, I think, kill most foxes : but unless I like their stile of killing them, whatever may be their success, I cannot be com- pletely satisfied. I once asked the famous Will Crane, how his hounds behaved — " Fery well, Sir,'^ he replied : *' tbey never come to a fault but they spread like a sky-rockets^* Thus it should always be, A FAMOUS sportsman asked a gentleman what he thought of his hounds. " Your pack is composed, Sir," said he, " of dogs which any other man would hang: " they are all sklrters." — This was taken as a compliment. However, think not that I recommend it to you as such ; P a ii THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. for, though I am a great advocate for stile in the kilHng of a fox, I never forgive a professed skirter : where game is in plenty, they are always changing, and are the loss of more foxes than they kill. You ask me, how many hounds you ought to keep ? It is a question not easy to answer : from tvvcnty to thirty couple are as many, 1 think, as you should ever take into the field. The propriety of any number must de- pend upon the strength of your pack, and the country in which you are to hunt : the quantity of hounds necessary to furnish that number for a whole season, must also de- pend on the country where you hunt ; as some countries lame hounds more than others. The taking out too many hounds, Mr. Somerville very properly calls an useless incujii- brance. It is not so material what the number is, as it is that all your hounds should be steady, and as nearly as pos- sible of equal speed. When packs are very large, the hounds are seldom sufficiently hunted to be good. Few people choose to hunt every day 3 and, if they did, it is not likely that the wea- THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 53 tber in winter would give them leave. You would always be obliged, therefore, either to take out a very large pack, . or a great number of hounds must be left behind : in the first case, too many hounds in the field would probably spoil your sport ; in the second, hounds that remain long without work, always get out of wind, and oftentimes become riotous. About forty couple, I think, will best answer your purpose. Ft)rty couple of hunting hounds will enable you to hunt three, or even four, times in a week ; and, I will venture to say, will kill more foxes than a greater number. Hounds, to be good, must be kept ; constantly hunted ; and if I should hereafter say, a fox- hound should be above his work, it will not be a young fox- hound that I shall mean; for he should seldom be left at home, as long as he is able to hunt: the old and lame, and such as are low in fleshy you should leave -, and such as yoi^ are sure idleness cannot spoil. It is a great fault to keep too many old hounds. If you choose that your hounds should run well together, you should not continue any, longer than five or six sea- sons; though there is no saying, with certainty, what ^4 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING^ number of seasons a hound will last. Like us, some of them have better constitutions than others, and consequently wili bear more work ; and the duration of all bodies depends as much on the usage that they meet with, as on the ma- terials of which they are -made.- You ask, whether you had not better buy a complete pack at once, than be at the trouble of breeding one ? Cer- tainly you had, if such an opportunity should offer. It sometimes happens, that hounds are to be bought for less rnoney than you could breed them. The gentkman to whom my house formerly belonged, had a most famous pack of fox-hounds. His goods, &c. were appraised and sold ; which, when the appraiser had done, he was put in mind of the hounds, " Well, gentlemen," said he, "what *' shall 1 appraise them at? A shilling a-piecef' — 'Oh, it is * too little !' — " Is it so ?" said the appraiser — " why, it \% *' more than / "ucould give for them, I assure you'* Hounds are not bought so cheap at TattersaWs, THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. ^$ LETTEPv IV. I AM glad that you do not disapprove the advantage I have made of my friend Somerville. I was doubtful whether you would not have censured me for it, and have compared me to some of those would-be fine gentlemen, who, to cut a figure, tack an embroidered edging on their coarse cloth. I shall be cautious, however, of abusing your indulgence, and shall not quote my poet oftener than is necessary j but where we think the same thing, you had better take it in his words than mine. I shall now pror ceed to the feeding of hounds, and management of them in the kennel. A GOOD feeder is an essential part of your establish? ment. Let him be young and adlve, and have the re- putation at least of not disliking work : he should be good-tempered, for the sake of the animals entrusted to Jiis care 5 and who, however they may be treated by him, ^6 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING/ cannot complain. He should be one who will strictly obey any orders that you may give, as well with regard to the management as to the breeding of the hounds; and should not be solely under the diredion of your huntsman. It is true, I have seen it otherwise : I have known a pack of hounds belong, as it were, entirely to the huntsman .; a stable of horses belong to the groom ; while the master had little more power in the diredion of cither, than a perfed stranger. This you will not allow. 1 know that you choose to keep the supreme command in your own hands ; and, though you permit your servants to remonstrate, you do not suffer them to disobey. — He who allows a huntsman to manage iiis hounds without control, literally keeps them for the huntsman's amuse- ment.— You desire to know v>'hat is required of a feeder: 1 will tell you as well as 1 can. As our sport depends entirely on that exquisite sense of smelling so peculiar to the hound, care must be taken to preserve it ; and cleanliness is the surest means. The keeping your kennel szveet and clean, cannot therefore be too much recommended to the feeder ; nor should you on THOUGHTS UPON" HUNTING. «>4.^ any account, admit the least deviation from it. If he sees ^ou exadt, he will be so himself. This is a very essentiaJ. part of his business. The boiling for the hounds, mixing of the meat, and getting it ready for them at proper hours, your huntsman will of course take care of ^ nor is it ever likely to be forgotten. I must caution you not to let your dogs eat their meat too hot j I have known it attended with bad consequences ; you should also order it to be mixed up ^ thick as possible. When the feeder has cleaned his kennel in the morning, and pre- pared his meat, it is usual for him, on hunting days (in an establishment like yours), to exercise the horses of the huntsman and whipper-in ; and, in many stables, it is also the feeder who looks after the huntsman's horse, when he comes in from hunting; whilst the huntsman feeds the hounds. When the hounds are not out, the huntsman and whipper-in, of course, will exercise their own horses j and, that day, the feeder has little else to mind but the cleaning of his kennel. Every possible contrivance has been attended to in the plan that I sent you, to make that part of his work easy -, all the courts, except the grass-court, being bricked and sloped on purpose. There is also H *44 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. plenty of water, without any trouble of fetching it ; and a thorough air throughout the kennels, to assist in drying them again. Should you choose to increase your number of servants in the stable, the business of the feeder may be confined entirely to the kennel. There should be always two to feed hounds properly ; the feeder and the huntsman. SoMERviLLE strongly recommends cleanliness in the fol-* lowing lines : *' O'er all let cleanliness preside ; no scraps Bestrew the pavement, and no half-pick'd bones, To kindle fierce debate, Or to disgust That nieer sense, on which the sportsman's hope, And all his future triumphs, must depend. Soon as the growling pack with eager joy- Have lapp'd their smoking viands, morn or eve. From the full cistern lead the duftile streams. To wash thy court well pav'd ; nor spare thy pains. For much to health will cleanliness avail. Seek'st thou for hounds to climb the rocky steep. And brush th' entangled covert, whose nice scent O'er greasy fallows, and frequented roads, Can pick the dubious way ? — banish far off Each noisome stench ; let no offensive smell Invade thy wide inclosure, but admit The nitrous air and purifying breeze." THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. #4^ So perfectly right is the poet in this, that if you can make your kennel a visit every day, your hounds will be the better for it. When I have been long absent from mine, I have always perceived a difference in their looks. I shall now take notice of that part of the management of hounds in the kennel which concerns the huntsman, as well as the feeder. Your huntsman must always attend the feeding of the hounds, which should be drafted, according to the condition they are in. In all packs, some hounds will feed better than others : some there are that will do with less meat ; and it re- quires a nice eye, and great attention, to keep them all in. equal flesh : it is what distinguishes a good kennel- huntsman, and has its merit. It is seldom that huntsmen give this particular all the attention which it deserves : they feed their hounds in too great a hurry ; and not often, I believe, take the trouble of casting their eye over them before they begin i and yet to distinguish with any nicety the order that a pack of hounds are in, and the different degrees of it, is su;-ely no easy task ; and, to be done well, requires no small degree of circum- spection. You had better not expeft your huntsman to H 2 «46 THOUGHrS irpON HUNTING, be very exafl : where precision is required, he will tnasi probably fail. When I am present myself, I make several drafts. When my huntsman feeds them, he calls them all over by their names, letting in each hound as he is called : it has its use ; it uses them to their names, and teaches them, to be obedient. Were it not for this, I should disapprove of it entirely ; since it certainly requires more coolness and deliberation to distinguish with precision which are best entitled to precedence, than this method of feeding will admit of; and unless flesh be in great plenty, those that are called in last may not have a taste of it. To prevent this inconvenience, such as are low in flesh had better be all drafted off into a separate kennel * ; by this means, the hounds that require Jlesh will all have a share of it. If any be much poorer than the rest, they should • By thus separating from the rest such as are poor, you will proceed to the feeding of your hounds with more accuracy and less trouble ; and though they be at first drafted off in the manner above described, it is still meant that they should be let in to feed, one by one, as they answer to their names j or else, as it will frequently happen, they may be better fed than taught. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING". «47' bfe fed again: such hounds cannot be fed too often. If ^ any in the pack be too fat, they should be drafted off, and not suffered to fill themselves. The others should eat what they will of the meat. The days my hounds have greens, or sulphur, they generally are let in all together ; and such as require ^^i^, have it given to them afterwards. Having a good kennel-huntsman, it is not often that I take this trouble , yet 1 seldom go into my kennel, but I indulge myself in the pleasure of seeing food given to such hounds as appear to me to be in want of it. I have been told, that in one kennel, in particular, the hounds are under such excellent management, that they constantly are fed with the door of the feeding-yard open ; and the rough nature of the fox-hound is changed into so much politeness, that he waits at the door till he is invited in ; and, what perhaps is not less extraordinary, he comes out again,- whether he has satisfied his hunger or not, the mo* ment he is desired — the effed of discipline. However, as this is not absolutely necessary, and hounds may be good without it j and as I well know that your other amuse- jnents will not permit you to attend to so much ma- noeuvring— I would by no means wish you to give such #48 tHOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. power to your huntsman. The business would be inji^« diciousl)^ done, and most probably would not answer your expedatiQns. The hound would be tormented nml-a-prapos s $n animal so little deserving of it from our hands, that J should be sorry to disturb his hours of repose by unne- cessary severity. You will pefeeive that it is a nice affair j and, I assure you, I know no huntsmaa who is equal to it. The gentleman who has carried this matter to its utmost perfedion, has attended to it regularly himself j has con- stantly aded on fixed principles, from which he lias never deviated ^ and, I believe, has succeeded to the very utmost ^of his wishes. — All hounds (and more especially young ones) should be called over often in the kennel*; and most huntsmen pradise this lesson as they feed their hounds : they flog them while they feed them ; and if they have not always a belly-full one way, they seldom fail to have it the other f . It is not, however, my * There is no better method of teaching a hound obedience ; when you- call him he should approach you ; and when you touch him with your stick, he should follow you any where. + **Thus we find, eat or not eat, work or play, whipping is always !>i season.'* (Vide Monthly Review,) — The critic treats this passage THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. f^.^ intention to oppose so general a pradice, in which there may be some utility ; I shall only observe, that it should be used with discretion j lest the whip should faU heavily, in the kennel, on such as never deserve it in the field. My hounds are generally fed about deven o'clock * \ and, when I am present myself, I take the same opportunity to make my draft for the next day's hunting. I seldom, when I can help it, leave this to my huntsman ; though it is necessary that he should be present when the draft is made, that he may know what hounds he has out. with great severity. He would have spared it, without doubt, had he under- stood that it was introduced on purpose to correuncer Bouier Bravo Brag-"er Brawler Brazen Brilliant Br usher Brutal Burster Eusiler BITCHES. Baneful Bashful Bauble Beauteous Beauty Beldam Bellmaid Blameless ^lithsonie BIovvzv Bluebell Bkiemaid Bonny Bonnybell Bonnylass Boundless Bravery Brevity Brimstone Busy Buxom DOGS. Caitiff Call 1 baa Capital Captain Captor Carol Carver Caster Castwell -74 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. Catcher Coxcomb Crafty Dash away Catchpole Craftsman Crazy Dauntless Caviller Crasher Credible Delicate Cerberus Critic Credulous Desperate Challenger Critical Croney Destiny Champion Crowner Cruel Dian Charon Cruiser Curious Diligent Chaser Crusty Cryer Docile Chaunter Document Chieftain Curfew D Doubtful Chimer Currier Doubtless Chir|)er Choleric D0G9. Drpadiul BITCHES. Damper Dreadiess Claimant Danger Dulcet Clamorous Capable Captious Dangerous Dapper Clangor E Clasher Careless Dapster Climbank Careful Darter Clinker Carnage Dasher DOGS, Combat Caution Dashwood Eager Combatant Cautious Daunter Earnest Comiorter Charmer Dexterous Effort Comrade Chaun tress Disputant Elegant Comus Chearful Downright Eminent Cortfiid Cherriper Dragon Envious Conqueror Chorus Dreadnought Envoy Conquest Circe. Driver Errant Constant Clarinet Duster Excellent Conti-'st Coroner Clio C imely BITCHES. BITCHES Cottager Comfort Counsellor Comical Dainty Easy. Countryman Concord Daphne Echo Courteous Courtesy Darling Ecstacy THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. IB. Endkss Energy Enmity- Essay DOGS. Fador Facti-cus Fatal Fearnouglit Ferryman Fervent Finder Firebrand FlaOTant Flasher Fleece'ni Fleecer FJinger Flippant Flourisher Flyer Foamer Foiler Foreman Foremost Foresit^ht Forester Forward Fulminant Furrier BITCHES. Faithfpl r Fairmaid Fairplay Famous Fanciful Fashion Favourite Fearless Festive Fickle Fidget Fiery Fire away Firetail Flighty Flourish Flurry Forcible Fretful Friendly Frisky Frolic Frolicsome Funnylass Furious Fury G DOGS. Galliard Galloper Gam boy Gamester Garrulous Gazer General Genius Gimcrack Giant Glancer Glider Glorious Goblin Governor G rapier G rasper Griper Growler Grumbler Guardian Guider Guiler Gainer Gallant BITCHES. Gainful Galley Gambol Gamesome Gamestress Gayety Gayly Gaylass Ghastly Giddy Gladness Gladsome Governess Graceful Graceless Gracious Grateful Gray it y Guilesome Guilty Guiltless H DOGS. Hannibal Harbinger Hardiman Hardy FTarlequin HarasseF Havoc Hazard Headstrong Hearty Hector Heedful Hercules Hero Highflyer Hopeful M ,6 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING, Hotspur Humbler Hurlful B I T C H !■: S . Raety Haiidsome Harlot Hanirony Hazardous Heedkss Hellen Heroine Hideous Honesty Hostile I& J DOGS. Jerker Impetus jockey joJly Jollyboy jostler Jovial jubal Judgment Jumper BITCHES. Jealousy industry Jollity Joyful Joyous L DOG 3. Labourer Larum Lasher Laster Launcher Leader Leveller Liberal Libertine Lidor Lifter Lig'ntfoot Linguist Listener Lounger Lucirer Lunatic Lunger Lurker Lusty Laudable Lavish Lav.'Iess Lenity Levity Liberty Lightning Lis,htsome Likely Lissome Litigate Lively , Lofty Lovely Luckylass Lunacy M DOCS. BITCHES. Lacerate Manager Manful Marschal Marksman Mar} lot Martial Marvellous Match em Maxim Maxim us Meanwell Medler Menacer Mendall Mender Mentor Mercury Merlin Merry boy Merry man Messmate Methodist Mighty Militant Minikin Miscreant Mittimus Monarch Monitor Motley Mounter Mover Mungo Musical Mutinous Mutterer Myrmidon BITCHES. Madcap Mad ri gat Magic Maggoty Matchless Melody Merry lass THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 77 Merriment Notion Premier R Mindful Novelty Piesident Minion Novice Presto DOGS. Miriam Prevalent Primate Racer Mischief P Rager Modish Principal Raiiywood Monody Prodig-al Rambler Music D0G5. Prowler Ramper Pa?an Prompter Rampant Pageant Prophet Rancour N Pa\;Agon Prosper Random Paramount Prosperous Ranger DOGS. Partner Pryer Ransack Nervous Nestor Partyman Pealer Rantaway K enter Penetrant Perfecl; BITCHES. Nettler Newsman Passion Rapper ■ Rattier Perilous Pertinent ' x> • Nimrod Noble rastmie Patience Ravager Ravenous Nonsuch Novel Noxious Petulant Phoebus Phoenix. Phrenetic Ravisher Reacher Piercer Phrenzy Reasoner Pilgrim Placid Redor BITCHES. Pillager Pilot Playful Playsome Regent Render Narratii^e Pincher Pleasant Resonant Neatness Piper Pliant Restive Needful Playful Positive Reveller Negative Plodder Precious Rifler Nicety Plunder Pretty lass Rigid Nimble Politic Previous Rigour Noisy Potent Priestess Ring wood Notable Prater Probity Rioter Notice Prattler Prudence Risker M 2 78 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. Rockwood Riot Social Romper Rival Solomon Rouscr Roguish Solon Router Ruin Songster Rover Rummage Sonorous Rudesby Ruthless Soundvvell Ruffian Spanker Special Rufflcr S Rummager Specimen Rum bier DOGS. Speedwell Rumor Salient Spinner Runner Sampler Splendor Rural Sampson Splenetic Rusher Sand ion Spoiler Rustic Sapient Spokesman Saucebox Saunter Scalper Sportsman BITCHES. Squabbler Squeaker Racket Scamper Statesman Rally Schemer Steady Rampish Sct)urer Stickler Rantipole. Scrambler Stinger Rapid Screamer Stormier Rapine Screecher Stranger Rapture Scuilier Stripling Rarity Searcher Striver P.ashness Settler Strivevvell Rattle Sharper Stroker Ravish Shifter Stroller Reptile Resolute Si2:nal Singer Struggler Sturdy Restless Singvvell Subtile Rhapsody Skirmish Succour Riddance Smoker Suppler Surly Swaggerer Sylvan BITCHES. Sanguine Sappho Science Scrupulous Shrewdness Skilful Songstress Specious Speedy Spiteful Spitfire Sportful Sportive Sport !y Sprightly Stately Stout aess Strenuous Strumpet Surety Sybil Symphony DOGS. Tackier Talisman THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 79 Tamer Tangent Tartar Tattler Taunter Teaser Terror Thrasher Threatner Thumper Thunderer Thwacker Thwarter Tickler Tomboy- Topmost Topper Torment Torrent Torturer Tosser Touchstone Tracer Tragic Trampler Transit Transpoit Traveller Trimbush Trimmer Triumph Trojan Trouncer Truant Trueboy Trueman Trudger Trusty Trial Tryer Trj'well Tuner Turbulent Tvvanger Twig' em Tyrant Tunable Tuneful BITCHES. Tattle Telltale Tempest Tentative Termagant Terminate Terrible Testy Thankful Thoughtful Tidings Toilsome Tradable Tragedy Trespass Trifle Trivial Trollop Troublesome Truelass Truemaid DOGS. Vagabond Vagrant Valiant Valid Valorous Valour Vaulter Vaunter Venture Venturer Venturous Vermin Vexer Vjftor Vigilant Vigorous Vigour VillaH,er Viper Volant Voucher BITCHES. Vanquish Vehenienee Vehement Vengeance Vengeful Venomous Venturesome Venus Verify Verity Vicious Vidiory Viftrix Vigilance Violent Viperous Virulent Vitiate Vivid Vixen Vocal Volatile Voluble W DOGS. Wanderer Warbler Warning Warrior Warhoop Wayward Wellbred Whipster Why not Wiidair Wildmaa 8o THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. Wilful Wisdom Woodman Worker Workman Worthy V/rangler Wrestler BITCHES. Waggery Waggish Wagtail War. ton Warfare Warlike Waspish Wasteful W\^rchful Welcome Weildone Whimsey Whirligig Wildrire Willing Wishful Wonderful Worry Wrathful Wrcakful I m mi THOUGHTS UPO\N HUs^TtNO. 8l L E T T E AFTER the young hounds have been rounded and are well reconciled to the kennel, know the huntsman, and. begin to know their names, they should be put into couples, and walked out amongst sheep. If any be particularly snappish and troublesome, you should leave the couples loose about their necks in the kennel, till you find they are more reconciled to them. If any be more stubborn than the rest, you should couple them to old hounds rather than to young onesj and you shculd not couple two dogs together, when you can avoid it. Young hounds are aukward at first j I should there- fore advise you 'to send out a few only at a time, with your people on foot ; they will soon afterwards become handy enough to follow a horse ; and care should be taken that the couples be not too loose, lest they should S2 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. slip their necks out of the collar, and give trouble in catch' ing them again. When they have been walked often in th/is manner amongst the sheep, you may then uncouple a few at a time, and begin to chastise such as offer to run after them ; but you vv'ill soon find tliat the cry of ware shreP, will stop them suf^ciently without the whip; and the less this is used the better. With proper care and attention, you will soon make them ashamed of it ; but if once suffered to taste the blood, ycu may find it difficult to reclaim them. Various are the methods used to break such dogs from sheep ; some will couple them to a ram, but that is breaking them with a vengeance : you had better hang them. — A late lord of my acquaintance, who had heard of this method, and whose whole pack had been often guilty of killing sheep, determined to punish them, and to that intent put the largest ram he could find into his kennel. The men with their whips and voices, and the ram with his horns, soon put the whole kennel into con- fusion and dismay ; and the hounds and the ram were then left together. Meeting a friend soon after, " Come," says THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. S^ he, " come with me to the kenn&l, and see what rare sport " the ram makes among the hounds : the old fellow lays " about him stoutly, I assure you. Egad he trims them : '* there is not a dog dares look him in ,the face." — His friend, who is a compassionate man, pitied the hounds exceedingly, and asked, if he was not afraid that some of them might be spoiled ? " No ; d — n them," said he, " they deserve it, and let them suffer." — On they went : all was quiet : they opened the kennel door, but saw neither ram nor hound. The ram by this time was entirely eaten up, and the hounds, having filled their bellies, were retired to rest. Without doubt it is best, when you air your hounds, to take them out separately; the old ones one day, another day the young* : but as 1 find your hounds are to have their whey at a distant dairy, on those days both old and young may be taken out together, observing only to take * It would be better still, to take out your hounds every day, the old and young separately, when it can be done without inconvenience; when it cannot, a large grass-court will partly answer the same purpose. N 84 THOUGHTS UPOIT HUNTlfJG. the young hounds in couples when the old ones are along with them* Young hounds are always ready for any kind of mischief, and idleness might make even old ones too apt to join them in it. Besides, should they break off from the huntsman, the whipper-in is generally too ill mounted at this season of the year, easily to head and bring them back. Run no such risk. My hounds were near being spoiled, by the mere accident of a horse's fall- ing: the whipper-in was thrown from his horse; the horse ran away, and the whole pack followed : a flock of sheep, which were at a little distance, took fright, began to run, and the hounds pursued them : the most vicious set on the rest, and several sheep were soon pulled down and killed. 1 mention this, to shew you what caution is necessary while hounds are idle 3 for though the fall of the horse was not to be attributed to any fault of the man, yet had the old hounds been taken out by themselves, or had all the young ones been in couples, it is probable that so common an accident would not have produced so extraor- dinary an efifed:. It is now time to stoop them to a scent. — You had THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 85 better enter them at their own game : it will save you much trouble afterwards. Many dogs, 1 believe, like that scent best which they were first blooded to; but be that as it may, it is certainly most reason- able to use them to that which it is intended ihey should hunt. It may not be amiss, when they first begin to hunt, to put light collars on them. Young hounds may easily get out of their knowledge ; and shy ones, after they have been much beaten, may not choose to return home : collars, in that case, may prevent th9ir being lost. You say, you should like to see your young hounds run a trail-scent. I have no doubt that you would be glad to see them run over an open down, where you could so easily observe their a for faults which you yourself have encouraged them to commit. In your last letter you seem very anxious to get your young hounds well blooded to fox, at the same time that you talk of entering them at hare. How am I to reconcile such contradidions ?— If the blood of fox be of so much use, surely you cannot think the blood of hare a matter of indifference, unless you should be of opinion that a fox is better eating. You may think, perhaps, it was not intended they should hunt sheep -, yet we very well know, that when once they have killed sheep, they have no dislike to mutton afterwards. 114 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. You have conceived an idea, perhaps, that a fox-hound is designed by Nature to hunt a fox : yet, surely, if that were your opinion, you would not think of entering him at any other game. I cannot, however, suppose Nature designed the dog which we call a fox-hound to hunt fox only, since we very well know that he will also hunt other animals. That a well bred fox-hound may give a pre- ference to vermin, cceteris paribus, I will not dispute : it is very possible he may ; but of this 1 am certain, that every fox-hound will leave a bad scent of fox for a good one of either hare or deer, unless he has been made steady from them ; and in this I shall not fear to be con- tradided. But, as I do not wish to enter into abstruse reasoning with you, or think it in anywise material to our present purpose, whether the dogs we call fox-hounds were originally designed by Nature to hunt fox, or not, we will drop the subjeft. I must, at the same time, beg leave to observe, that dogs are not the only animals in Vv'hich an extraordinary diversity of species has happened since the days of Adam. Yet a great naturalist tells us, that man is nearer, by eight degrees, to Adam, than is the dog to the first dog of his race; since the age of man is four- score years, and that of a dog but ten. It therefore fol- THOUCIHTS UPON HUNTING. ll^ lows, that if both should equally degenerate, the alteration would be eight times more remarkable in the dog than in man. The two most necessary questions which result fron;i the foregoing premises, are. Whether hounds entered at hare are perfedlly steady afterwards to fox ? — and, Whether steadiness be not attainable by more reasonable means ?— - Having never hunted with gentlemen who follow this prac- tice, 1 must leave- the first question for others to determine : but, having always had my hounds steady, I can myself an- swer the second. The objedions that I have now made to the treatment of young hounds by some huntsmen, though addressed, my friend, to you, are general objeftions, and should not personally offend you, I know no man more just or more humane than yourself. For the disapprobation which you so strongly marked in your last letter, of the severity used in some kennels, the noble animal that we both admire is m.uch beholden to you : your intention of being pre- sent yourself the first time a hound is flogged, to see how your new whipper-in behaves himself, is a proof R Il6 THOUGRrS UPON HUNTING. of benevolence, which the Italian author of tlie most hu- jpane book* could not fail to commen.'l you for. llunts- men and whippcvs-in are seldom so unlucky as to have your feelings ^ yet custom, which authorises them to fiog hounds unmercifully, dees not do away the barbarity of it. — A gen- tleman seeing a girl skinning eels alive, asked her, " if it *' was not very cruel ?" — ' O, not at all, Sir,' replied the girl i ' tbn' he used to it' * Dei delitti eddlepcnc. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. II7 LETTER VIIL YOU desire to kaow if there be any remedy for the distemper among dogs : I shall therefore mention all the disorders that my hounds have experienced, and point out the remedies which have been of service to them. The distemper that you inquire about, is, I believe, the most fatal (the plague only excepted) that any animal is sub- ie(5l to : thou2;h not ions; known in this country, it is almost •J CD ■O J ^ inconceivable what numbers have been destroyed by it in so short a period ; several hundreds I can myself place to this mortifying account. It seems happily to be now on the decline; at least, is less frequent, and more mild; and probably. In time, may be entirely removed. The efFeds of it are too generally known, to need any description of them here — 1 wish the remedies were known as well I A BROTHER sportsman communicated to me a remedj% from which, he said, his hounds had found great benefit, R 2 IlS THOUGHTS UPOU HUNTING. viz. an ounce of Peruvian bark in a glass of Port wine, taken tzvice a-day. It is not infallible, but, in some stages' of this disorder, is certainly of use. The hound most infefted that ever 1 knew to recover, was a large stag- hound : he lay five days, without being able to get off the bench, receiving little nourishment during the whole time of the disorder, except this medicine, with which he drank three bottles of Port wine. — You may think, perhaps, that the feeder drank his share ; and, probably, he might, had it not been sent ready mixed up with the bark, — I once tried the poiidre unicjue, thinking it a proper medicine for a disorder which is said to be putrid ; but I can- not say any thing in its favour, with regard to dogs at least. — Norris'b drops I have also given, and with success. I o-ave a large table spoonful of them in an equal quantity of Port wine, three times a-day : as the dog grew better, I lessened the quantity. — Y/hen dogs run much at the nose, nothing will contribute more to the cure of them than keeping that part clean : when that cannot conve- niently be done, emetics will be necessary : the best that I know is, a large spoonful of common salt, dissolved in three spoonfuls of warm water*. — The first symptom of * The quantity of salt must be proportioned to the size of the dog, and to the difficulty there may be to make him vomit. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTIKG» it^ this disorder, generall}^ is a cough. As soon as it is per- ceived among my young hounds, great attention is paid to them. Tliey have plenty of clean straw, and are fed oftener and better than at other times : so long as they continue to eat the kennel meat, they are kept together ; as soon as any of them refuse to feed, they are removed into another kennel j the door of the lodging-room is left open in the day, and they are only shut up at night: being out in the air, is of great service to them. To such as are very bad, I give Norris's drops j to others, emetics ^ while some only require to be better fed than ordinarj^, and need no other remedy*. They should be fed from the kitchen, when they refuse the kennel meat. Sometimes they will lose the use of their hinder parts : bleeding them, by cutting off the last joint of the tail, may per- haps be of service to them. I cannot speak of it with, any certainty ; yet I have reason to think that I once saved a favourite dog by this operation. In short, by one method or another, I think they may sometimes be recovered. The likeliest preservative for those that are well, is * Hounds that have the distemper upon them have but little appetite. By feeding two or three together, they eat more greedily. J20 rnoUGHTS upon HUNIlKd. keeping them warm at night, and feeding them high. This disorder being probably infedious, it is better to provide an hospital for such as are seized with it, which should be in the back part of the kennel. There is no doubt that some kennels are healthier than others, and consequently his liable to it. 1 apprehend mine to be one of those; for, in a dozen years, I do not believe that I have lost half that number of old hounds, although I lose so great a number of whelps at their walks. Neighbouring ken-nels have not been ec.ual'y fortunate: 1 have observed m some of them a disorder unknown in mine ; I mean a swelling in the side, which sometimes breaks, but soon after forms again, and generally proves fatal at last. — 1 once hear'd a friend of mine say, whose kennel is subjctfl to this com.plaint, that he never knew but one instance of a dog that recovered from it. I have, however, since known another, in a dog that 1 had from him, which I cured by frequently rubbing with a digestive ointment: the tumor broke and formed again several times, till at last it entirely disappeared. The disorder that we have now been treating of lias this, I think, in common with the putrid sore throat, that it usually attacks the weakest. Women are more apt to catch the sore tliroat than men ; children THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 12J than women ; and young hounds more readily catch this disorder than old. When it seizes whelps at their walks, or young hounds when first taken from them, it is then most dangerous. I also think that madness, their inflam- matory fever, is less frequent than it was before this dis- order was known. There are few disorders to which dogs are so subjecfl as the mange. Air and exercise, wholesome food, and cleanliness, are the best preservatives against it. Your feeder should be particularly attentive to it j and, when he perceives any spot upon them, let him rub it with the following; mixture : A pint of train oil, Three quarters of a pint of turpentine. Three quarters of a pound of sulphur, Two ounces of sulphur vivus. Mixed well together, and kept in a bottle. If the disorder should be bad enough to resist tbaf^ three mild purging balls (one every other day) should be given, and the dog laid up for a little while afterwards. — For th^ red mange, you may use the following : 5?2 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTINa|» Four ounces of quicksilver, Two ounces of Venice turpentine. One pound of hog's. lard. The quicksilver and turpentine are to be rubbed together till the globules all disappear. When you apply it, you must rub an ounce (once a day) upon the part afFeded, for three days successively. This is to be used when the hair comes off, or any redness appears. How wonderful is the fatigue which a fox-hound under- goes ! Could you count the miles that he runs, the number would appear almost incredible. This he undergoes cheer- fully, and perhaps three times a week through a long season : his health, therefore, well deserves your care j nor should you suffer the least taint to injure it. Hunts- men are frequently too negligent" in this point. I know one in particular, a famous one too, whose kennel was never free from the mange ; and the smell of brimstone was oftentimes stronger, I believe, in the noses of his hounds than the scent of the fox. — If you choose to try a curious prescription for the cure of the mange, in the Phil. Trans. No. 25, p. 451, you will find the following: THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 7-)') ~ o " Mr. Cox procured an old mongrel cur, all over " mangy, of a middle size j and having some hours be- " fore fed him plentifully with cheese-parings and milk, " he prepared his jugular vein; then he made a strong " ligature on his neck, that the venal blood might be " emitted with the greater impetus j after this, he took *^ a young land spaniel, about the same bigness, and pre- " pared his jugular vein likewise, that the descendant " part might receive the n angy dog's blood, and the " ascendant discharge his own into a dish : he transfused " about fourteen or sixteen ounces of the blood of the '* infe5led into the veins of the sound dog. By this experi- " ment there appeared no alteration in the sound one ; " but the mangy dog was, in about ten days or a fort- " night's time, perfectly cured j and possibly this is the '* quickest and surest remedy for that disease, either in *' man or beast." Hounds sometimes are bitten by vipers. Sweet-oil has been long deemed a certain antidote: some should be applied to the part, and some taken inwardly ; though a friend of mine informs me, that the common cheese- s ii^ THOtJGHTS UPON HUNTING. rennet, externally applied, is a more efficacious remedy tharf oil, for the bite of a viper. — They are also liable to wounds and cuts : Friar's balsam is very good, if applied immediately y yet, as it is apt to shut up a bad wound too soon, the follow- ing tindure, in such cases, may perhaps be preferable, at least after the first dressing or two : Of Barbadoes aloes, two ounces ; Of myrrh, pounded, three ounces ; Mixed up with a quart of brandy. The bottle should be well corked,^ and put into a bark- bed, or dunghill, for about ten days or a fortnight. — The tongue of the dog, in most cases, is his best surgeon; where he can apply that, he will seldom need any other re- medy. A green, or seton, in the neck, is of great relief in most disorders of the eyes ; and I have frequently known dogs, almost blind, recovered by it : it is also of service when dogs are shaken in the shoulders, and has made many sound*. In the latter case, there should bc^ * Turning a hound out of the kennel will sometimes cure a lameness iri the shoulders. An attentive huntsman will perceive, from the manner of a hound's galloping, when this lameness takes place; and the hound should be turned out inamediately. Care should be taken, that a hound turned- cut do not become fatr THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 125 two, one applied on each side, and as near to the shoulder as it is possible. The following ointment may be lased to disperse swellings : Of fresh mutton. suet, triedy two pounds | Of gum-elemi, one pound ; Of cx)mmon turpentine, ten ounces. The gum is to be melted with the suet, and, when taken from the fire, the turpentine is to be mixed with it, strain- ing the mixture while it is hot. — Dogs frequently are stub:- bed in the foot. The tindure before mentioned, and this, or any digestive ointment, will soon recover them*. — For strains, I use two-thirds of spirits of wine, and one of tur- pentine, mixed up together : the; British oil is also good. Hounds, from blows, or other accidents, are often lame in the stifle : either of these, frequently apphed, and long rest, are the likeliest means that I know of to recover them. — The following excellent remedy for a strain, with which I have cured myself and many others, 1 have also found of benefit to dogs, when strained in the leg or foot : Dissolve two ounces of camphire in half apint of spirits * An obstinate lameness is sometimes increased by humours : physip, in that case, may be necessary to remove it, S Z 126 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. of wine, and put to it a bullock's gall. The part afFeded must be rubbed before the fire three or four times a day. Sore feet are soon cured with brine, pot-liquor, or salt and vinegar; a handful of salt to a pint of vinegar : if nei- ther of these will do, mercurial-ointment may then be ne- cessary.— A plaster of black pitch is the best cure for a thorn, in either man, horse, or dog ; and I have known it succeed after every thing else had failed. If the part be much inflamed, a common poultice bound over the plaster will assist in the cure. — Hounds frequently are lame in the knee, sometimes from bruises, sometimes from the stab of g. thorn : digestive ointment rubbed in upon the part, will generally be of service*. I have also known good effe ,^Sr^ '^*7 - .* ,.-^ ^- 1^4 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING, With regard to the whipper-in, as you keep two of them (and no pack of fox-hounds is complete without), the first may be considered as a second huntsman, and should have nearly the same good qualities. It is necesr sary, besides, that he should be attentive and obedient to the huntsman j and, as his horse will probably have most to do, the lighter he is, the better ; though, if he be a good horseman, the objedion of his weight will be sufEciently overbalanced. He must not be conceited. I had one formerly, who, instead of stopping hounds as he ought, would try to kill a fox by himself. This fault is unpar- donable : he should always maintain to the huntsman's halloo, and stop such hounds as divide from it. When stopped, he should get forward with them after the huntsman. He must always be contented to aft an under part, except when circumstances may require that he should a6t otherwise*; and the moment they cease, he must not fail to resume his former station. You have heard me * When the huntsman cannot be up with the hounds, the whipper-in should ; in which case, it is the business of the huntsman to bring on th? tail hounds along with him. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. I^t sa3% that where there is much riot, I prefer an excellent whipper-in to an excellent huntsman. The opinion, I believe, is new j I must, therefore, emleavour to explain it. My meaning is this : That I think I should have better sport, and kill more foxes, with a moderate huntsman, And an excellent whipper-in, than with the best of hunts- men without such an assistant. You will say, perhaps, that a good huntsman will make a good v.'hipper-in j not such, however, as I mean ; his talent must be born with- him, My reasons are, that good hounds (and bad I w^ould not keep) oftener need the one than the other j and genius, which, in a whipper-in, if attended by obedience, his first requisite, can do no hurt — in a huntsman is a dangerous, though a desirable, quality; and if not ac- companied with a large share of prudence, and, I may say, humility, will oftentimes spoil your sport, and hurt your hounds. A gentleman told me, that he heard the farnous Will Dean, when his hounds were running hard in a line with Daventry, from whence they were at that time many miles distant, swear exceedingly at the whipper-in, saying ^* fFhai business have you bereft — the man was amazed at the question, " IVhy, don't you know^^ said l^e, *^ and he «* d — d to you, tl^at the great earth at Daventry is openf''-^ Io6 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. The man got forward, and reached the earth just time enough to see the fox go in. — If, therefore, whippers-in be left at liberty to ad as they shall think right, they are much less confined than the huntsman himself, who must follow his hounds j and, consequently, they have greater scope to exert their genius, if they have any. I HAD a dispute with an old sportsman, who contended, that the whipper-in should always attend the huntsman, to obey his orders (a stable-boy, then, would make as good a whipper-in as the best) j but this is so far from being the case, that he should be always on the opposite side of the cover from him, or I am much mistaken in my opinion : if within hearing of his halloo, he is near enough ; for that is the hunting signal he is to obey. — The station of the second whipper-in may be near the huntsman ; for which reason, any boy that can halloo, and make a whip smack, may answer the purpose. Your first whipper-in being able to hunt the hounds occasionally, will answer another good purpose; — it will keep your huntsman in order.— -They are very apt to be impertinent, when they think you cannot do without tliem. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. I37 When you go from the kennel, the place of the first whipper-in is before the hounds j that of the second whip- per-in should be some distance behind them ; if not, I doubt if they will be suffered even to empty themselves, let their necessities be ever so great j for as soon as a boy is made a whipper-in, he fancies that he is to whip the hounds whenever he can get at them, whether they deserve it or not. I HAVE always thought a huntsman a happy man : his office is pleasing, and at the same time flattering : we pay him for that which diverts him, and he is enriched by his greatest pleasure*; nor is a general, after a vid:ory, more proud than is a huntsman who returns with his fox's head. I HAVE heard that a certain duke, who allowed no vails to his servants, asked his huntsman what he generally made of his field-money, and gave him what he asked instead of it. This went on very well for some time, till at last the huntsman desired an audience. " Your grace," said he " is very generous, and gives me more than ever I " got from field-money in my life ; yet I come to beg <& * The field-mon-y which is collefted at the death of a fox. 1^8 THOUGHTS ITFON HUNTING. *< favottr oi*your grace — that you would let me take field- ** money again ; for 1 have not half the pleasure now in *' killing a fox that I had before/' As you ask my opinion of scent, I think I had better give k you before we begin on the subjedt of huntings I must* at the same time, take the liberty of telling you, that you have puzzled me exceedingly ; for scent is, 1 believe, what we sportsmen know least about j and, to use the words of a great classic writer^ Hoc su:ii (ontentus, quod etiarti si qui quiJque fiat ignorentj quid fiat hitelligo, Gi c. de Div< SoMERviLLE, who, as I have before observed, is the only one that 1 know of who has thrown any light on the sub- ject of hunting, sJlys, I tliink, but little about scent. I send you his words : I shall afterwards add a few of my own, •* Should some more cjrious sportsmen here inquire^ Whence this sagacity, this wond'rous power Of tracing step by step or man or brute ? What guide invisible points out their way O'er the dank marsh, bleak hill, and sandy plain ? "The courteous Muse shall the dark cause reveal. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTINCc 13^ The blood that from the heart incessant rolls In many a crimson tide, then here aiid there In smaller rills disparted, as it flows Propell'd, the serous particles evade, Thro* th' open pores, and with the ambient air jEntangling mix. As fuming vapours rise, And hang upon the gently.purling brook, There, by the incumbent atmosphere compress'd. The panting chase grows v/arraer as he flies, And thro' the net-work of the skin perspires ; Leaves a long — steaming — trail behind ; which by The cooler air condens'd, remains, unless By some rude storm dispers'd, or rarefied By the meridian sun's intenser heat. To every shrub the warm effluvia cling, Hang on the grass, impregnate earth and skies. .With nostrils opening wide, o'er hill, o'er dale The vig'rous hounds pursue, with ev'ry breach Inhale the grateful steam, quick pleasures sting Their tingling nerves, while they their thanks repay. And in triumphant melody confess The titillating joy. Thus, on the air Depend the hunter's hopes,'* I CANNOT agree with Mr. Somerville, in thinking that scent depends on the air only : it depends also on the soil. Without doubt, the best scent is that which is occasioned by the effluvia, as he calls it, or particles of scent, which are constantly perspiring from the game as it runs, and are j^O THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING, strongest and most favourable to the hound, when kept by the gravity of the air to the height of his breast ; for then it neither is above his reach, nor is it necessary that he should stoop for it. At such times, scent is said to lie breast- high. Experience tells us, that difference of soil occasions difference of scent ; and on the richness and moderate mois- ture of the soil does it also depend, I think, as well as on the air. At the time when leaves begin to fail, and before they are rotted, we know that the scent lies ill in cover. This alone would be a sufficient proof that scent does not depend on the air only. A difference of scent is also occasioned by difference of rnotion : the faster the game goes, the less scent it leaves. When game has been ridden after, and hurried on by imprudent sportsmen, the scent is less fa- vourable to hounds : one reason of which may be, that the particles of scent are then more dissipated : but if the game should have been run by a dog not belonging to the pack, , seldom will any scent remain. I BELIEVE it is very difiicult to ascertain exactly what scent is : I have known it alter very often in the same day, I believe, however, that it depends chiefly on two things—f THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING, I41 *^ the condition the ground is in, and the temperature of tjje ,, " air r both of which, I apprehend, should be moist, with- out being wet. When both are in this condition, the scent is then perfedl j and vice versa, when the ground is hard and the air dry, there seldom will be any scent. It scarcely ever lies with a north, or an east wind : a southerly wind without rain, and a westerly wind that is not rouo-h, are the most favourable. Stotms in the air are great ene- mies to scent, and seldom fail to take it entirely away^ A fine sun-shiny day is not often a good hunting day 5 but what the French call jour des dames, warm without sun, is generally a perfeft one : there are not many such in a whole season. In some fogs, I have known the scenfe lie high i in others, not at all; depending, I beheve, or^ the quarter the wind is then in, I have known it lie very high in a mist, when not too wet ; but if the wet should hang on the boughs and bushes, it will fall upon the scent, and deaden it» When the dogs roll, the scent, I have fre- quently observed, seldom lies ; for what reason, I know not : but, with permission, if they smell strong when they first come out of the kennel, the proverb is in their favour J and that smell is a prognostic of good luck. When cobwebs hang on the bushes, there is seldom much u 2 l^i THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. scent. During a white frost the scent lies high j as it alsd does when the frost is quite gone. At the time of it^ going off, scent never lies : it is a critical minute for hounds, in which, their game is frequently lost. In a great clewj the scent is the sam.e. In heathy countries, wher^e the game brushes as it goes along, scent seldom fails. Where the ground carries, the scent is bad, for a very evident reason, which hare-huntersj who pursue their game over greasy fallows and through dirty roads, have great cause to complain of. A wet night frequently produces good chaces, as then the game neither like to run the cover nor the roads. It has been often remarked, that scent lies best in the richest soils; and countries which are favourable to horses, are seldom so to hounds. I have also observed, that, in some particular places, let the tempe- rature of the air be as it may, scent never lies. Take not out j'our hounds on a very windy. or bad day,' ** These inauspicious days, on otlier cares Employ thy precious hours ; th' improving friend With open arms embrace, and from his lips Glean science, season'd with good-natur'd wit | Bat if th* inclement skies, and angry Jove, THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. ■43 Forbid the pleasing intercourse^ thy books Invite thy ready hand ; each sacred page Rich with the wise remarks of heroes old." The sentiments of Mr. Somerville always do bim ho.- nour, but on no occasion more than on this. In reading over my Letter, I find that I have used the word smell, in a sense that, perhaps, you will criticize. — A gen- tleman, who, I suppose, was not the sweetest in the world, sitting in the front boxes at the playhouse on a crowded iiight, his neighbour very familiarly told him that he smelt strong. — " No, Sir," replied he, with infinite good humour ; ** it is you that smell — I stink,^^ t44 THOtGHTS UPON HUNTING^ LETTER X. i THOUGHT that I had been writing all this time to a fox-hunter ; and hitherto my Letters have had no other objed. I now receive a letter from 3'ou, full of questions about hare-hunting j to all of which you expedl an answer. I must tell you, at the same time, that, though I kept har- riers many years, it was not my intention, if you had not asked it, to have written on the subje<51;. By inclination I Vv'as never a hare-hunter : I followed this diversion more for air and exercise than for amusement ; and if i could have persuaded myself to ride on the turnpike-road to the three-mile stone, and back again, 1 should have thought that I had had no need of a pa<:k of harriers. — Excuse me, brother hare-hunters! — I mean not to offend; 1 speak but relatively to my ov/n particular situation in the country, where hare-hunting is so bad, that it is more extraordinary that 1 should have persevered in it so long, than that I should forsake it now. I respedl hunting, in whatever shape it appears : it is a manly and a whole- THOUGHTS UPON HUNTINQ. I4J; some exercise, and seems by Nature dejiigned to be the amusement of a Briton. You ask, How many hounds a pack of harriers should consist of? — and. What kind of hound is best suited to that diversion ?-^You should never exceed twenty couple in the field : it might be difficult to get a greater number to run well together ; and a pack of harriers cannot be complete if they do not*: besides, the fevv'er hounds you have, the less you foil the ground, which you otherwise would find a great hindrance to your hunting. Your other question is not easily ansv>rered. The hounds, I think, most likely to shew you sport, are between the large slow- hunting harrier and the little fox-beagle : the former are too dull, too heavy, and too slow j the latter too lively, too light, and too fleet. The first species, 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 hunt- * A hound that runs too fast for the rest, ought not to be kept. Some huntsmen load them with heavy collars ; some tie a long strap round their necks ; a better way would be, to part with them. Whether .they go too slow, or tpo fast^ they ought eqvjally to be drafted. 146. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. ing in the dark : — the otheiv on the contrary, fling an4 dash, and are all alive ; but every cold blast afFeds them j and if your country be deep and wet, it is not impossible that some of them may be drowned. My hounds were a ) cross of both these kinds, in which it was my endeavour' 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 bony : they ran remarkably well |:ogether ; ran fast enough ; had all the alacrity that you could desire -, and would hunt the coldest scent. When they w^ere thus perfeft, 1 did as many others do — I parted ^ith them. It may be necessary to unsay (now that I am turned hare-hunter again) many things that I have been saying as a fox-hunter j as I hardly know any two tilings 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, is in the number. As to the huntsman, he should not be young : I should, most cer- tainly, prefer one, as the French call it, d'wt certain age. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING, ^A-"] as he is to be quiet and patient ; for patience, be siiouM be a very Grizzle ; and the more quiet he is, the better. He should have infinite perseverance ; for a hare should never be given up while it is possible to hunt her : she is sure to stop, and therefore may always be recovered^ Were it usual to attend to the breed of our huntsmer^ a? well as to that of our hounds, J knov/ no family that would furnish a better cross than that of the si/eni gentleman mentioned by the Spedator : a female of his line, crossed with a knowing huntsman, would probably produce a perfed hare-hunter. The whipper-in also has little to do with him whom I before described : yet he may be like the second whipper- in to a pack of fox-hounds; the stable-boy who is to follow the huntsman : but 1 w^ould have him still more confined, for he should not dare even to stop a hound, or smack a whip, without the huntsman's order. Much noise and rattle is diredly contrary to the first principles of hare-hunting, which is, to be perfedly quiet, and to let your hounds alone. I have seen few hounds so good as town packs, that have no professed huntsman to follow them. If they have no one to assist them, they have at X 148 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. \ the same time no one to interrupt them ; which, I be- lieve, for this kind of hunting, is still more essential. I should, however, mention a fault that 1 have observed, and which such hounds must of necessity sometimes be guilty of i that is, running hack the heel. Hounds are naturally ! fond of scent; if they cannot carry it forward, they will turn, and hunt it back again : hounds that are left to themselves, make a fault of this ^ and it is, I think, the only one they commonly have. Though it be certainly best to let your hounds alone, and thereby to give as much scope to their natural instind as you can ; yet, in this particular instance, you should check it mildly ; for, as it is almost an invariable rule in all hunting to nake the head good, you should encourage them to try brward first j which may be done without taking them off their noses, or without the least prejudice to their -■ huntiiig. If trying forward should not succeed, they may then be suffered to fry back again, which you will find them all ready enough to do -, for they are sensible how far they brought the scent, and where they left it. The love of scent is natural to them, and they have infinitely more sa- gacity in it than we ought to pretend to : I have no (foubt that they often think us very obstinate, and very foolish. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING, X49 Harriers, to be gooci, like all other hounds, must be kept to their own game : if you run fox with them, you spoil them. Hounds cannot be perfedl, unless used to one scent, and one stile of hunting. Harriers run fox in so dif- ferent a stile from hare, that it is of great disservice to them when they return to hare again : it makes them wild, and teaches them to skirt. The high scent which a fox leaves, the straightness of his running, the eagerness of the pursuit, and the noise that generally accompanies it, all contribute to spoil a harrier. i HOPE you agree with me, that it is a fault in a pack of harriers to go too fast; for a hare is a little timorous ani- mal, which we cannot help feeling some compassion for at the very time when we are pursuing her destruction : we should give scope to all her little tricks, nor kill her foully, and over-matched*. Instind instruds her to make * The critic terms this, " a mode of destruftion somewhat beyond brutal," (vide Monthly Review). I shall not pretend to justify that conventional cruelty, which seems go universally to prevail — neither will I ask the gentleman, who is so severe on roe, why he feeds the lamb, and afterwards cuts his throat ; I mean only to consider cruelty under the narrow limits which concern hunting — if it may be defined to be, a pleasure which results from giving pain ; then, certainly, a sports » man is much less cruel than he is thought. X 2 t^O "iHOtTGHTS UPON HUNTING. a good defence, when not unfairly treated ; and 1 will ven* tuve to say, that, as far as her own safety is concerned, she has more cunning than the fox, and makes many shifts to save her life far beyond all his artifice. Without doubt, you have often heard of hares, who, from the miraculoiiis escapes they have made, have been thought witches ; but, I believe, you never heard of a fox that had cunning enough to be thought a zvizzard. They who like to rise early, have amusement in seeing the hare trailed to her form. It is of great service to hounds : it also shews their goodness to the huntsman more than any other hunting, as it discovers to him those who have the most tender noses. But I confess I sel- dom judged it worth while to leave my bed a moment sooner on that account. 1 always thought hare-hunting should be taken as a ride after breakfast, to get us an ap- petite to our dinner. If you make a serious business of it, you spoil it. Hare-finders, in this case, are necessary ; it is agreeable to know where to go immediately for your diversion, and not beat about, for hours perhaps, before you find. It is more material with regard to the se- cond hare than the first j for if you are warmed with THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. l^t your gallop, the waiting long in the cold afterwards, is, I believe, as unwholesome as it is disagreeable. Whoever does not mind this, had better let his hounds find their own^ game * they will certainly hunt it with more spirit after- wards ; and he will have a pleasure himself in expeflation, which no certainty can eVer give. Hare-finders make hounds idle : they also make them wild. Mine knew the men as well as I did myself ^ could see them almost as far 5 and would run, full cry, to meet them. Hare- finders are of one great use : they hinder your hounds from chopping hares, which they otherwise could not fail to do. 1 had in my pack one hound in particular, that was famous for it : he would challenge on a trail very late at noon, and had a good knack at chopping a hare after- wards : he was one that liked to go the shortest way to work J nor did he choose to take more trouble than was necessary. Is it not wonderful that the trail of a hare should lie after so many hours, when the scent of her dies away so soon ? Hares are said (I know not with what truth) to fore- see a change of weather, and to seat themselves accord- ingly. This is, however, certain, that they are seldom 152 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING^ found in places much exposed to the wind. In inclosures, they more frequently are found near to a hedge than in the middle of a field. They who make a profession of hare-finding (and a very advantageous one it is in some countries) are directed by the wind where to look for their game. Vv'ith good eyes and nice observation, they are enabled to find them in any weather. You may makd- forms, and hares will sit in them. I have heard that it is a comm.on pradice with shepherds on the Wiltshire downs 5 and, by making them on the side of hills, they can tell at a distance off, whether there are hares in them or not. Without doubt, people frequently do not find hares from not knowing them in their forms. A gentleman coursing v,'ith his friends, v/as shewn a hare that was found sitting. *' Is that a hare?'' he cried — " Then, by Jove, I found two " this jnorning as we rode along /" ■ Though the talent of hare-fiinding is certainly of use, and the money colledled for it, when given to shepherds, is money well bestowed by a sportsman, as it tends to the preservation of his game — yet I think, that when it is indiscriminately given, hare-finders often are too well paid. I have known them frequently get more than a THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. I_53 guinea for a single hare. I myself have paid five shillings in a morning, for hares found sitting. To make our com- panions pay dearly for their diversion, and oftentimes so much more than it is worth ; to take from the pockets of men, who oftentimes can ill afford it, as much as would pay for a good dinner afterwards, is, in my opinion, an ungenerous custom ; and this consideration induced me to collecfl but once, with my own hounds, for the hare- finders. The money was afterwards divided amongst them; and if they had less than half-a-crown each, i myself sup- plied the deficiency. — An old miser who had paid his shil- ling, complained bitterly of it afterwards ; and said, " He ** bad been made to pay a shilling for two ■pennyworth of *' spcrt''' When the game is found, you cannot be too quiet. The hare is an animal so very timorous, that she is fre- quently headed back, and your dogs are liable to over- run the scent at every instant. It is best, therefore, to keep a considerable way behind them, that they may have room to turn, as soon as they perceive they have lost the scent s and, if treated in this manner, they will seldom wer-run it much. Your hounds, through the wl^le 1^4 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. ^ chase, should be left almost entirely to themselves; nor \ should they be hallooed much. When the hare doubles, they should hunt through those doubles ^ nor is a hare hunted fairly when hunted otherwise. — They should fol- ' low her every step she takes, as well over greasy fallows as through flocks of sheep ; nor should they ever be cast, but when nothing can be done without it. I know a gentleman, a pleasant sportsman, but a very irregular hare-hunter, who does not exaass, because he wanted a counter^ tenor ; yet I am of opinion, that if we attended more to the variety of notes frequently to be met with in the tongues of hounds, it might greatly add to, the harmony of the z 2 1.66 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. pack. I do not know that a complete concert could be attained -, but It would be easy to prevent discordant sounds. Keep no hound that runs false : the loss of one hare is more than such a dog is worth. It is but reasonable to give your hounds a hare some- times : I always gave mine the last they killed, if I thought they deserved her. It is too much the custom, first to ride over a dog, and then cry, ^ware horse! — Take care not to ride over your hounds : 1 have known many a good dog spoiled by it. In open ground, caution them first j you may afterwards ride over them, if you please ; but, in roads and paths, they frequently cannot get out of your way : it surely, then, is your business, either to stop your horse, or break a way for them ; and the not doing it, give me leave to say, is not less absurd than cruel ; nor can that man be called a good sportsman, who thus wantonly destroys his own sport. Indeed, good sportsmen seldom ride on the line of the tail hounds. THQUGHTS UPON HUNTING. id^ An acquaintance of mine, when he hears any of his ser- yants say, ^ware horse! — halloos out, 'ware horse! \vare dog! and be hang'd lyS tHOUdHTS UPON HUNTING. Mark how he runs the cover's utmost hmits, yet dares not venture forth : the hounds are stili too near ! — That check is luck)'. Now, if our friends head him not, he will soon be off. Hark, they halloo I— l|^ilfe,«^44ifo's gone \ -H~jrk ! what load shoufi Re-echo through the groves ! he breaks away : Shrill horns proclaim his flight. Each straggling hound Strains o'er the lawn to reach the distant pack. 'Tis triumph all, and joy." SaMERViLLE". Now, huntsman, get on with the head hounds ^ the whip- per-in will bring on the others after you: keep an att'en- tive eye on the leading hounds, that, should the scent fail them, you may know at least how far they brought it. Mi^D Galloper, how he leads tlum ! — It is difficult to distinguish which is first, they run in such a stile ; yet he is the foremost hound : the goodness of his nose is not less excellent than his speed. How he carries the scent ! and, wlien he loses it, see how eagerly he flings to recover it again ! — There, now he's at head again l^See how they top the hedge ! — Now, how they mount the" hill ! — Observe what a head they carry j and shew me, if thou can'st, one shuffler or skirter amongst them all. Are they THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. I^p not like a parcel of brave fellows, who, when they engage in an undertaking, determine to share its fatigue and its dan- gers equally among them ? -Far o'er the rocky hills we range, And dangerous our course j but in the brave True courage never fails. In vain the stream In foaming eddies whirls ; in vain the ditch. Wide gaping, threatens death. The craggy steep. Where the poor dizzy shepherd crawls with care. And clings to ev'ry twig, gives us no pain ; !feut down we sweep, as stoops the falcon bold To pounce his prey. Then up th' opponent hill. By the swift motion slung, we mount aloft : So ships, in winter seas, now sliding sink Adown the steepy wave, then toss'd on high. Ride on the billows, and defy the storm." SOMERVILLK, It was then the fox I saw, as we came down the hill : those crows diredied me which way ' to look, and the sheep ran from him as he passed along. The hounds are now on the very spot ; yet the sheep stop them not, for they dash beyond them. Now see with what eagerness they cross the plain ! — Galloper no longer keeps his place. Brasher takes it : see how he flings for the scent, and how impetuously he runs ; how eagerly he took the lead, and Bb l8o THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. how he strives to keep it ! — yet ViBor comes ep apace : he reaches him ! — Observe what an excellent race it is between them \ — It is doubtful v/hich will reach the cover firsts How equally they run ! — ^how eagerly they strain !— Now Victor, Vidor!—Ah, Brusher, thou art beaten, Vidor first tops the hedge ! — See there ; see how they all take it in their strokes! The hedge cracks with their weight, so many jump at once ! Now hastes the whipper-in to the other side of the cover: he is right, unless he head the fox. " Heav'ns ! what melodious strains ! how beat our hearts Big with tumultuous joy ! the loaded gales Breathe harmony ; and as the tempest drives From wood to wood, thro* ev'^ry dark recess The forest thunders, and the mountains shake." Somerv. Listen ! the hounds have turned : they are now in tv;a parts. The fox has been headed back, and we have changed at last. Now, my lad, mind the huntsman's halloo, and stop to those hounds which he encourages. He is right I — that, doubtless, is the hunted fox. Now they are off THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. Jjil >■ "vVhat lengths we pass I where will the wand'ring Chase Lead us bewildered ! Smooth as swallows skim 'ilic new-shorn mead, and far more swift, we Hy. See my brave pack 1 how to the head they press. Jostling in close array, then more diffuse Obliquely wheel, while from their op'ning mouths The vollied thunder breaks. ; Look back and view The strange confusion of the vale below, Where soar vexation reigns ; Old age laments His vigour spent ; the tall, plump, brawny youth Curses his cumbrous bulk ; and envies now The short pygmean race, he whilome kenn'd With proud insulting leer. A chosen few Alone the sport enjoy, nor droop beneath Their pleasing toils." SOMERVILLE. Hal a check. Now for a moment's patience ! — We press ; ( too close upon the hounds ! — Huntsman, stand still ! — as i ' yet they want you not. How admirably they spread ! — how wide they cast ! — Is there a single hound that does not try? — If there be, ne'er • shall he hunt again. There, Trueman is on the scent : he feathers, yet still is doubtful. 'Tis right ! — how readily they join him! — See those wide- casting hounds, how they fly forward to recover the ground they have lost ! — Mind Lightnings how she dashes; B b 2 /' l8z THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. and MungOj how he works ! — Old Frantic, too, now pushes forward : she knows as well as we the fox is sinking. " Ha ! yet he flies, nor yields To black despair. But one loose more, and all His wiles are vain. Hark ! through yon village now The rattling clamour rings. The barns, the cots, And leafless elms, return the joyous sounds. Thro' ev'ry homestall, and thro' ev'ry yard. His midnight walks, panting, forlorn, he flies." SOMERVILLE. Huntsman ! at fault at last } — How far did you bring the scent ? — Have the hounds made their own cast ? — Now make yours. You see that sheep-dog has coursed the fox : get forward with your hounds, and make a wide cast. Hark! that halloo is indeed a lucky one. If we can hold him on, we may yet recover him ; for a fox so much distressed must stop at last. We shall now see if they will hunt as well as run ; for there is but little scent, and. the impending cloud still makes that little less. How they en- joy the scent ! — See how busy they ail are, and how each in his turn prevails [ Huntsman, be quiet! Whilst the scent was good, you THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 183 press'd on your hounds : it was well done : — when they came } to a check, you stood still and interrupted them not; — they ' were afterwards at fault ; you majie your cast with judg- I ment, and lost no time. You now must let them hunt. With such a cold scent as this you car) do no good : they must do it all themselves. Lift them now, and not a • hound will stoop again. Ha! a high road at such a ( time as this, when the tenderest-nosed hound can hardly * own the scent ! — Another fault ! That man at work^ then, has headed back the fox. Huntsman ! cast not your I hounds now j you see they have over-run the scent : have a little patience, and. let them, for once, try back. We now must give them time. See where they bend towards yonder furze brake ! — I wish he may have stopped there ! — Mind that old hound, how he dashes o'er the furze ; 1 think he winds him ! — Now for a fresh entapisl—' Hark ! they halloo ! — Aye, there he goes ! It is nearly over with him : had the hounds caught view, he must have died. He will hardly reach the cover. See how they gain upon him at every stroke ! — It is ai^ admirable race i — yet the cover saves him. 184 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. Now be quiet, and he cannot escape us : we have the wind of the hounds, and cannot be better placed. How short he runs ! — He is now in the very strongest part of the cover. What a crash ! — every hound is in, and every hound is running for him. That was a quick turn ! — Again ano- ther ! — he's put to his last shifts. Now Mischief is at his heels, and death is not far off. Ha ! they all stop at once : all silent, and yet no earth is open. Listen ! now they are at him again ! — Did you hear that hound catch view ? — They over-ran thi? scent, and the fox had laid down behind them. Now, Reynard, look to yourself! — How quick they all give their tongues ! — Little Dreadnought, how he works him ! — The terriers, too, they now are squeaking at him. How close Vengeance pursues ! — how terribly she presses ! — It is just up with him ! — Gods ! what a crash they make ! — the whole wood resounds ! — That turn was very short ! — There ! now — aye, now they have him ! — Who-hoop ! •^*j? THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING, LETTER XIV. FOX-HUNTING, however lively and animating it may be in the field, is but a dull, dry subjedl to write upon j and 1 can now assure you from experience, that it is much less difficult to follow a fox-chase than to describe one. You will easily imagine, that to give enough of variety to a sin- gle adlion, to make it interesting, and to describe in a few minutes the events of, perhaps, as many hours j though it pretend to no merit, has at least some difficulty and trouble: and you will as easily conclude that I am glad they are over. You desire me to explain that part of my last Letter, which says, if ive can hold him on^ we may now recover him. It means, if we have scent to follow on the line of him, it is probable that he will stop, and we may hunt up to him again. You also obje<5l to my saying, catch a fox : you call it a bad expression, and say that it is not sportly, 1 believe 186 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING?. that I have not often used it ; and when I have, it has been to distinguisli between the hunting a fox down as you do a hare, and the killing of him with hard running. You tell me, J should always JdU a fox : 1 might answer, I must catch him first. You say, that I have not enlivened my chase with fliany halloos : it is true, I have not ; and, what is v/orse, I fear I am never likely to meet your approbation in that, particular; for should we hunt together, then I make no doubt you will think that I halloo too much ; a fault which every one is guilty of, who really loves this ani- mating sport, and is eager in the pursuit of it. Believe me, I never could halloo in my life, unless after hounds j and the writing a halloo appears to me almost as difficult as to pen a whisper. Your friend A , you say, is very severe on us fox-hunters : no one is more welcome. However, even he might have known, that the profession of fox-hunting is much -altered since the time of Sir John Vanburgh ; and the intemperance, clownishness, and ignorance of the old fox-hunter, are quite worn out: a much truer defi- THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. iBy nitlon of one might now be made than that which he has left. Fox hunting is now become the amusement oi geti' tlemen ; nor need any gentleman be ashamed of it. I SHALL now begin to answer your various questions as they present themselves. Though I was glad of this expedient to'methodize, in some degree, the variety that we have to treat of, yet I was well aware of the irripossibihty of sufficiently explaining myself in the midst of a fox- chase, whose rapidity, you know very well, brooks no delay. Now is the time, therefore, to make good that deficiency ; what afterwards remains on the subje6t of hunting, will serve as a supplement to the rest ; in which I shall still have it in my power to introduce whatever may be now forgotten, or give a further explanation of such parts as may seem to you to require it ; for, since my principal view in writing these Letters is, to make the instrudion that they contain of som.e use to you, if you should want it ; if not, to others — the being as clear and as explicit as I can, will be far beyond all other considera- tions. Repetitions, we know, are shocking things ; yet, in writing so many Letters on the same subjed, 1 fear it will be difficult to avoid them, c c lS8 TH0UGPIT3 UPON HUNTING. First, then, as to the early hour recommended in my former Letter — I agree with you, that it requires explana- tion: but you will please to consider, that you desired me to fix the hour most favourable to the sport, and, without doubt, it is an early one*. You say, that I do not go out so early myself. It is true, I do not. Do physicians always follow their own prescriptions ? — Is it not sufficient that their prescriptions be good ? — However, if my hounds should be out of blood, 1 go out early ; for then it becomes necessary to give them every advantage. At an early hour, you are seldom long before you find. The morning is the part- of the day that generally affords the best scent ; and the animal himself, which, in such a case, you are more than ever desirous of killing, is then least able to run away from you. The want of rest, and perhaps a full belly, give hounds a great advantage over him. I expccl, my friend, that you will reply to this, " a fox- " hunter, then, is not a fair sportsman,''' — He certainly is iiot ; and, what is more, would be very sorry to be mis- taken for one. He is otherwise from principle. In his opinion, a fair sportsman, and a foolish sportsman, are * An early hour is only necessary wbeie you are not likely to find "witkout a drag. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 1C9 synonymous : he therefore takes every advantage that he can of the fox. You will think, perhaps, that he may some- times spoil his own sport by this : it is true, he some-r times docs, but then he j/iakes his hounds ; the whole art of fox-huating being to keep the hounds well in blood. Sport is but a secondary consideration with a true fox- hunter. The firit is ihe killing of the fox: hence arises the eagerness of pursuit — chief pleasure of the chase. I confess, I esteem blood so necessary to a pack, of fox- hounds, that, with regard to myself, I always return home better pleased with but an indifferent chase, with death at the end of it, than with the best chase possible, if it end with the loss of the fox. Good chases, generally speaking, are long chases ; and, if not atteuded wiih sue- cess, never fail to do more harm to hounds than good. Our pleasures, I believe, for the most part, are greater during the expedation than the enjoyment. In this case, reality itself warrants the idea, and your present success is almost a sure fore-runner of future sport, I REMEMBER to have heard an odd anecdote of the late Duke of R , who was very popular in his neighbourhood : — A butcher at Lyndhurst, a lover of c c 2 igo THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. the Sport, as often as he heard the hounds return from hunt- ing, came out to meet them, and never failed to ask. the duke, " What sport he had?" — ' Very .good, 1 thank you, * honest friend.' — " Has your grace killed a fox?" — ' No: * we have had a good run, but we have not killed.' — «' Pshazv r' cried the butcher, looking archly, and pointing at him with his finger. — This was so constantly repeated, that the duke, when he had not killed a fox, was used to say, that be was afraid to meet the butcher. You ask, Why the huntsman is to draw so quietly .^— ^nd. Why up the wind ? — With regard to his drawing quietly, that may depend on the kind of cover before him, and also on the season of the year. If your covers be small, or such from which a fox cannot break unseen, then poise can do no hurt ; if you draw at a late hour, and when there is no drag, then the niore the cover is dis- turbed the better — the more likely you are to find. Late in the season, foxes are wild, particularly in covers ,that are often hunted. If you do not draw quietly, he ^ will sometimes get too much the start of you. When you have any suspicion of this, send on a whipper-in to the opposite side of the cover, before you throw in your THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. I9I hounds. With regard to the drawing up the wind — that is much more material. You never fail to give the wind to a pointer and setter — why not to a hound ? Besides, the fox, if you draw up the wind, does not hear you coming ; and your hounds, by this means, are never out of your liearing ; besides, should he turn down the wind, as most probably he will, it lets them all in. Suppose yourself acling diredlly contrary to this, and then se? what is likely to be the conse- quence. You think I am too severe on my brother-sportsmen: if more so than they deserve, I am sorry for it. 1 know many gentlemen who are excellent sportsmen ; yet I am sorry to say, the greater number of those who ride after hounds are not : and it is those only to whom I allude. Few gentlemen will take any pains ; few of them will stop a hound, though lie should run riot close beside them ; or will stand quiet a moment, though it be to halloo a fox. It is true, they will not fail to halloo if he should come in their way ; and they will do the same to as many foxes as they see. Some will encourage hounds , which they do not know : this is a great fault. Were every 1^2 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. gentleman who follows hounds to fancy himself a hunts^ man, what noise, what confusion, would ensue ! I consider \ many of them as gentlemen riding out -, and 1 am never ' so well pleased, as when I see them ride home again. You may perhaps have thought that I wished them all to be huntsmen — most certainly not : — but the more assist- ants a huntsman has, the better, in ail probability, his hounds will be. Good sense, and a little observation, will SQon prevent such people from doing amiss ; — and I hold it as an almost invariable rule in hunting, that those who do not know how to do good, are a!wa3's liable to do harm*. There is scarcely an instant during a whole chase, when a sportspian ought not to be in one particular place -, and I will venture to say, that if he be not ihere, he might as well be in his bed. * This is a better reason, perhaps, why gentlemen ought to under- stand this diversion, than for the good they may do in it ; since a pack of 'hounds that are well manned will seldom need any other assistance. I A gentleman, perceiving his hounds to be much confused by the fre- / quent halloos of a stranger, rode up to him, and thanked him with great I civility for the trouble he was taking ; but, at the same time^ acquainted him, that the t\vo men he saw in green coats, were paid so much a-year OK purpose to halho ; it would be needless for him, therefore, to givg him- '/ self any _/>/r/.?'i-;- trouble. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. ig :> i MUST give you an extraordinary instance of a gen- tleman's knowledge of hunting : — He had hired a house in a fine hunting country, with a good kennel belonging to it, in the neighbourhood of two packs of fox-hounds, of which mine was one; and, that he might not offend the owner of either, intended, as he said, to hunt with both. He offered me the use of his kennel, which, for some reasons, I chose to decline : it was afterwards offered to the other gentleman, who accepted it. The first day that the hounds hunted his country, he did not appear : the second day, the hounds were no sooner at the cover-side, than my friend saw an odd figure, strangely accoutred, riding up, with a spaniel following him. " Sir," said he, " it gave me great concern not to be able to attend you " when you was here before : I hope you was not offend- *^ ed at it; for, to shew you how well I am inclined to *' assist your hunt, you see, — I have brought my little dog.^* I WILL now give you an instance of another gentleman's love of hunting: — We were returning from hunting over a very fine country ; and, upon its being remarked that we had a pleasant ride, he replied — " The best part of the " sporti in my opinion, is the riding home to dinner 3^4 tHOUGHTS UPON HtJNTING<, *' aftefA^^ards." — He is, without doubt, of the same opinion with a fat old gentleman that I one day overtook upon the road, who, after having asked me, " How many foxes " we usually killed in one day ?" and ** Why I did not hunt ** hare rather than fox, as she was better to eat ?" — con- cluded with saying, '* There is but one part of hunting I " likes^ — // fnakes one very hungry, ^^ There are two things which I particularly recommend to you; — the one is, to make your hounds steady j the other, to m.ake them all draw. Many huntsmen are fond of having them at their horse's heels ^ but, believe me, they never get so well, or so soon, together, as when they spread the cover : besides, I have often known, when there have been only a few fmders, that they have found their fox, gone down the wind, and been heard of no more that day. Never take out an unsteady old hound : young ones, properly awed from riot, and that will stop at a rate, may be put into the pack, a few at a time ; but an old hound that is vitious should not escape hanging : let him be ever so good in other respeds, 1 will not excuse him ; for THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. I9C a pack must be wretched indeed, that can stand in need of such assistance. There is infinite pleasure in hearing a fox well found. When you get up to his kennel with a good drag, the [ chorus increasing as you go, it inspires a joy, more easy to be felt than described. With regard to my own sen- ' sations, I would rather hear one fox found in this lively man- ner, than ride the best hare-chase that was ever run. Much depends on the first finding of your fox : dimi- dinmfa£iij qui bene ccepit, habet^ which we learned at West- minster, is verified here ; for I look upon a fox well found to be half killed. I think people generally are i in too great a hurry on this occasion. There is an enthu- siasm attending this diversion, which, in this instance in particular, ought always to be restrained*. The hounds are always mad enough when they find their fox ; if the men be also mad, they make mad work of it indeed. — A gentleman of my acquaintance, who hunts his own * There are but few instances where sportsmen are not too noisy and too fond of encouraging their hounds, which seldom do their business so well as when little is said to them. Dd IpS THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. hounds, and is not less eager than the rest of us, yet very ■well knows the bad consequences of being so — to prevent this fault in himself, always begins by taking a pinch of BnufF; he then sings part of an old song, ^' Some say that ^' care killed the cat^' &c. — By this time his hounds get to- / gether, and settle to the scent. He then halloos, and rides as if the d — 1 drove. If the fox break cover, you will sometimes see a young sportsman ride after him. He never fails to ask such a ' one, " Do you think you can catch him. Sir?'' — ' No' — " Why, then, be so good as to let my hounds try if they « can:' THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING, LETTER XV. 197 I LEFT off just as I had found the fox : I now, there- fore, with your leave, will suppose that the hounds are run- ning him. You desire that 1 would be more particular with regard to the men : it was always my intention.— To begin, then — The huntsman ought certainly to set off with his foremost hounds, and I should wish him to keep as close to them afterwards as.he conveniently can j nor can any harm arise from it, unless he should not have common sense. No hounds then can slip down the wind, and get out of his hearing : he will also see how far they carry the scent ; a necessary requisite ;-^for, without it, he never can make a cast with any certainty. You will find it not less necessary for your huntsman to be adive in pressing his hounds forward*, while the * Pressing hounds on, is perhaps a dangerous expression ; as more harm may be done by pressing them beyond the scent, when it is good, than when it is bad. However, it means no more than to get forward the tail hounds, and to encourage the others to push on as fast as they can while the scent serves them. ■ D d a iq8 thoughts upon hunting. scent is good, than to be prudent in not hurrying them beyond it v/hen it is bad. Your's, you say, is a good horseman : it is of the utmost consequence to your sport ; nor is it possible for a huntsman to be of much use who is not ; for the first thing, and the very sine qua non, of a fox-hunter, is to ride up to his headmost hounds. It is his business to be ready at all times to lend them that assistance which they so frequently need, and which, when they are first at a fault, is then most critical. A fox-hound at that time will exert himself most : he afterwards cools, and becomes more indifferent about his game. Those huntsmen who do not get forward enough to take advan- tage of this eagerness and impetuosity, and dired it pro- perly, seldom know enough of hunting to be of much use to them afterwards. You will perhaps find it m.ore difficult to keep your v;hipper-in back, than to get your huntsman forward ; at least, 1 always have found it so*. It is, however, necessary ; * Though a huntsman cannot be too fond of hunting, a whipper-in easily may. His business will seldom allow him to be forward enough with the hounds to see much of the sport. His only thought, therefore, sheuld be to keep the hounds together, and to contribute as much as he can to the killing of the fox. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. I99 jior will a good whipper-in leave a cover while a single hound remains in it : for this reason there should be two ; one of whom should always be forward with the huntsman. You cannot conceive the many ills that may happen to hounds that are left behind. I do not know that I can enumerate one half of them j but of this you may be certain, that the keeping them together is the surest means to keep them steady. When left to themselves, they seldom refuse any blood they can get ; they acquire many bad habits ; they become conceited j a terrible fault in any animal ; — and they learn to tie upon the scent ; an unpardonable fault in a fox-hound : — besides this, they frequently get a trick of hunting by themselves ; and they seldom are worth much afterwards. The lying out in the cold, perhaps the whole night, can do no good to their constitutions j nor will the being worried by sheep-dogs, or mastiffs, be of service to their bodies : — all this, however, and much more, they are liable to. I believe I mentioned in my fourth Letter, that the straw-house door should be left open when any hounds are missing. Every country is soon known ^ and nine foxes out often, with the wind in the same quarter, will follow the same 200 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. track. It is easy, therefore, for the whipper-in to cut shorty and catch the hounds a^ain j at least, it is so in the country where 1 hunt. With a high scent, you cannot push on hounds too much. Screams keep the fox forward, at the same time that they keep the hounds together, or let in the tail hounds* 5 they also enliven the sport, and, if dis- creetly used, are always of service ; bat, in cover, they should be given with the greatest caution. Most fox-hunters wish to see their ho^:nds run in a good stile. I confess I am myself one of those. 1 hate to see a string of them ; nor can I bear to see them creep where they can leap. It is the dash of the fox-hound which distinguishes him^ as truly as the motto of William of Wickham distinguishes us. A pack of harriers, if they have time, may kill a fox j but I defy them to kill -him in the stile in which a fox ought to be killed: they must hunt him down. If you intend to tire him out, you must exped to be tired also yourself. Inever wish a chase * Halloos seldom do any hurt, when you are running up the wind ; for then, none but the tail hounds can hear you : when you are running down the wind, you should halloo no more than may be necessary to brine the tail hounds forward ; for a hound that knows his business sel- dom wants encouragement when he is upon a scent. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 201 to be less than one hour, or to exceed two : it is sufHciently long, if properly followed : it will seldom be longer, unless there be a fault somewhere ; either in the day, in the hunts- man, or in the hounds. What Lord Chatham once said of a battle, is particularly applicable to a fox-cha?e : it shoyld be short, sharp, and decisive. There is, 1 believe, but litile difference in the speed of hounds of the same size : the great difference is in the head they carry ; and, in order that they may run well together, you should not keep too many old hounds : after five or six seasons, they generally do more harm than good. If they tie ^upon the scent, and come hunting after, hang them up immediately, let their age be what it may : there is no getting such conceited devils on; they will never come to a halloo, which every hound that is off the scent, or behind the rest, should not fail to do ; and they are always more likely to draw you back than help you forward*. -* From this passage, the critic endeavours to prove the sportsman's ingratitude ; and yet common sense, I believe, ir.duces most men to rid themselves of that, which, if kept, would be prejudicial to them. The critic seems to allude to a well known fable of JEsop, but is not very 202, THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. You think me too severe on skirters. I must confess, that 1 have but one objeftion to them, and it is this — 1 havs constantly seen them do more harm than good. Changing from the hunted fox to a fresh one, is as bad an accident as can happen to a pack of foj^-hounds, and requires all the observation and all the ingenuity that man is capable of, to guard against it. Could a fox-hound distinguish a hunted fox as the deer-hound does the deer that is blown, fox-hunting would then be perfed. There are certain rules that ought to be ob- served by huntsmen. A huntsman should always listen to his hounds while they are running in cover ; he should be particularly attentive to the headmost hounds, and should be constantly on his guard against a skirter ; for, if there be two scents, he must be w^rong. Generally speak- ing, the best scent is least likely to be that of the hunted fox ', and as a fox seldom suffers hounds to run up to him happy in the application. He has also misquoted the passage — the author does not say tire, but tie upon the scent. — Good hounds, when they be- come aged, are liable to the first ; bad ones only, are guilty of the last. In either case, death is not meant as a punishment, nor is it considered as a misfortune. — Vide_Mon When hounds are at a check. Jet every one be silent and ' stand still : but as I have already said so much on that head in my eleventh Letter, on hare-hunting, I beg leave to refer you to it. Whippers-in are frequently at this time coming on with the tail hounds : they should never halloo to them when the hounds are at fault : the least thing does hurt at such a time, but a halloo more than any other. The hunts^- man, at a check, had better let his hounds alone, or content himself with holding them forward, without taking them off their noses. Hounds that are not used to be cast, a tout bout de champy will of themselves acquire a better cast than it is in the power of any huntsman to give them ; will spread more, and try better for the scent j and, if in health and spirits, will want no encouragement. Should they be at fault, after having made their own cast (which the huntsman should always first encourage them to do), it is then his business to assist them farther j but, except in some particular instances, I never approve of their being cast, as long as they are inclined to hunt. The •THOUGHTS UPON HUNTIN6. 20^ first cast I bid my huntsman make, is generally a regular one J not choosing to rely entirely on his judgment: if that should not succeed, he is then at liberty to follow his own opinion, and proceed as observation and genius may direift. When such a cast is made, I like to see some mark of good sense and meaning in it j whether down the wind, or to- wards some likely cover, or strong earth : however, as it is, at best, uncertain, and as the huntsman and the fox may be of different opinions, I always wish to see a regular cast be- fore I see a knowing one ; which, as a last resource, should not be called forth till it be wanted. The letting hounds alone is but a negative goodness in a huntsman j whereaSj it is true, this last shews real genius j and, to be perfed", it must be born with him. There is a fault, however, which a knowing huntsman is too apt to commit : — he will find a fresh fox, and then claim the merit of having recovered the hunted one. It always is dangerous to throw hounds into a cover to retrieve a lost scent, and, unless they hit him in, is not to be depended on. Driven to the last extremity, should a knowmg cast not succeed, your huntsman is in no- wise blameable. Mine, 1 remember, lost me a good chase, by persevering too long in a favourite cast j but he gave me so m.any good reasons why the fox (.tight to have gone that E e 2 to6 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING, way, that I returned perfedly well satisfied, telling him at the same time, that, if the fox was a fool ^ he could not help id Gentlemen, when hounds are at fault, are too apt them- \ selves to prolong it : they should always stop their horses ' some distance behind the hounds j and, if it be possible to remain silent, this is the time to be so : they should be care- ful net to ride before the hounds, or over the scent ^ nor should they ever meet a hound in the face, unless with a de- , sign to stop him. Should you at any time be before the ^ hounds, turn your horse's head the way they are going, get out of their track, and let them pass by you. In dry weather, foxes, particularly in heathy countries, will run the roads. If gentlemen, at such times, will ride close upon the hounds, they may drive them miles without any scent*. High-mettled fox-hounds are seldom inclined , to stop while horses are close at their heels. An acquaintance of mine, a good sportsman, but a very warm one, when he sees the company pressing too close * No one should ever ride in a direftion which, if persisted in, would carry him amongst the hounds, unless he be at a great distance behind them. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 207 iipon his hounds, begins with crying out as Joud as he can, hold hardl-^\i any one should persist after that, he begins / moderately at first, and says, / beg. Sir, you will stop your horse — Fray, Sir, stop — God bless you. Sir, stop! — God d — it your blood. Sir, stop your horse! I AM now, as you may perceive, in a very violent passion | so I will e'en stop the continuation of this subjed till I b© cool again. 2oS THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING^ LETTER XVI. I ENDED my last Letter, I think, in a violent pas- sion. The hounds, I believe, were at fault also. I shall now continue the further explanation of my thli'teenth Letter from that time. The first moment that hounds are at fault, is a critical one for the sport : people then should be very attentive.- Those who look forward, perhaps, may see the fox ; or the' running of sheep, or the pursuit of crows, may give them some tidings of him. — Those who listen, may sometimes take a hint which way he is gone, from the chattering of a magpie, or perhaps be at a certainty from a distant halloo i nothing, that c^n give any intelligence at such a time, is to be negleded. — Gentlemen are too apt to ridg all together : were they to spread more, they might sometimes be of ser- vice, particularly those who, from a knowledge of the sport. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 2O9 keep down the wind : it would then be difficult for either hounds or fox to escape their observation *, You should, however, be cautious how you go to a halloo. The halloo itself must, in a great measure, diredl you 5 and though it afford no certain rule, yet you may frequently guess by it whether it may be depended on or not. At the sowing time, when boys are bird-keeping, if you be not very much on your guard, their halloo will sometimes de- ceive you. It is best, when you are in doubt, to send on a whipper-in to know : the worst, then, that can befall you, is the loss of a little time ; whereas, if )'ou gallop away with the hounds to the halloo, and are obliged to return, it is a chance if they try for the scent afterwards : on the other hand, if, certain of the halloo, you intend going to it, then the sooner you get to it the better. I have been more angry with my huntsman for being slow at a time like this, than for any other fault whatsoever. Huntsrnen who are slow at getting to a halloo, are void of common sense. They frequently commit another fault, by being in too \ * Those sportsmen only who wish to be of service to the hoimds, and ' knpw how, should ride wide of them. / 2IO THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. great a hurry when they get there. It is hardly credible how much our eagerness is apt, at such a time, to mislead our judgment; for instance, when we get to tlie halloo, the ^rst questions are natural enough — Did you see the fox ? Which way did he go ? — The man points with his finger, ' perhaps, and then away you all ride as fast as you can, and ^ in such a hurry, that not one will stay to hear the answer to V the cjuestion which all were so ready to ask : the general ^ consequence of which is, you mistake the place, and are oblic^ed to return to the man for better information. De- ^ pend upon it, the less you hurry on this occasion, the more 1 time you save ; and wherever the fox was seen for a certainty, whether near or .distant, that will not only be the surest, but also the best, place to take the scent; and, besides the cer- tainty of going right, you probably will get on faster than ■ you would by any other means. That halloos are not always to be depended on, will be sufficiently evinced by the following instances ; My hounds being at a long fault, a fellow halloo'd to them from the top of a rick at some distance off. The huntsman, as you inay believe, stuck spurs to his horse, THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. Ill balloo'd till he was almost hoarse, and got to the man as quickly as he could : the man still kept hallooing; and, as the hounds got near him, " Here" said he — " btre — here the " fox f's gone." — * Is he far before us ?' cried the hunts- man— ' How long ago was it that you saw him ?' — " No " master, 1 have not seen him ; but / smelt biiii here this *' morning, when I came to serve my sheep." Another instance was thisi — We were trying with some deer-hounds for an out-lying stag, when we saw a fellow running towards us in his shirt : we immediately concluded that we should hear some news of the stag, and set out joy- fully to meet him. Our first question was, If he had seen the stag? — "No, Sir, I have not seen him, hut my wife *' dreamt as hoiu she sazv him f other nigjjt" Once a man halloo'd us back a mile, only to tell us that tve zvere right before, and v/e lost the iox by it. A gentleman, seeing his hounds at fault, rode up to a man at plough, and with great eagerness asked him, If he had seen the fox. " The fox, Sir ?" — * Yes, d — n ' you, the fox ! — did you never see a fox ?' — ** Pray, Sir, F f 2.1Z THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING^ " if I may be so bould, what sort of a looking creatiiref " may he be ? Has he short ears and a long tail /"' — * 2^es* *' Why, then, I can assure you, Sir, I have seen no such " thing" We are agreed ^ that hounds oiiglit not to be cast, as long as they are able to hunt ; and though the idea, that a hunt- ed fox never stops, is a very necessary one to a fox-hunter, that he may be adive and may lose no time 3 yet tired foxes will stop, if you can hold them on; and I have known therrt stop, even in wheel-ruts on the open down, and leap up in the midst of the hounds. A tired fox ought not to be given up ; for he is killed sometimes very unexpededly. If hounds have ever pressed him, he is worth your trouble : perse- verance may recover him, and, if recovered^ he most probably will be killed ; nor should you despair whilst any scent re- mains. The business of a huntsman is only difficult when the scent dies quite away ; and it is then that he may shew his judgment, when the hounds are no longer able to shew theirs. The recovering a lost scent, and getting nearer to the fox by a long cast, requires genius, and is therefore what few huntsmen are equal to. When hounds are no longer capable of feeling the scent, it all rests with the huntsman c THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. ^.IJ cither the game is entirely given up, or is only to be reco- vered by him, and is the effeA of real genius, spirit, and ob- servation. When hounds are at cold hunting with a bad scent, it may then be a proper time to send a whipper-in forward : if he can see the fox, a little mobbing, at such a time as this, may reasonably be allowed. When hounds are put to a check on a high road, by the fox being headed back, if, in that particular instance, you suffer them to try back, it gives them the best chance of hitting off the scent again, as they may try on both sides at once. ; When hounds are running in cover, you cannot be too ' quiet. If the fox be running short, and the hounds arc } catching him, not a word should then be said : it is a difi- cult time for hounds to hunt him, as he is continually turn^ ' ing, and will sometimes lie down and let them pass him^ I 1 HAVE remarked, that the greatest danger of losing a ' fox is at the first finding of him, and when he is sinking j F f 2 214 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING.. at both of vviiich times he frequentiy will run short ^ an4 the eagerness of the hounds is too apt to carry them beyond the scent. When a fox is first found^ I wish every one would keep behind the hounds till they are well settled to the scent ; and when the hounds are catching him, i wish ' them to be as silent as they can. When he is caught, I like to see hounds eat him ea- gerly. In some countries, I am told, they have a method of ireeiu^ him * : it is of use to make the hounds eager j it lets them all in ; they recover their wind, and eat him more readily. I should advise you, at the same time, not to keep him too long, as 1 do not imagine the hounds have any appetite to eat him, longer than whilst they are angry with him. When two packs of fox- hounds run together, and tlicy kill the fox, the pack that found him is entitled to the head. Should both have found, how is it to be deter- mined then ? — 1 he huntsman who gets in first, seems, in * The intention of it is, to make the hounds more eager, and to let in the tail hounds. The fox is thrown across the branch of a tree, and the hounds are suffered to bay at him for some minutes before he is thrown amongst them. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. £15 my opinion, to have the best right to it ; j'ct, to prevent a dispute (which, of course, might be thought a wrong- headed one), would he not do well to cut off the head, and present it to the other huntsman ? The same author, whom 1 quoted in my tenth Letter, and who tells us how we should not e.it a harc^ is also kind enough to tell us when we should ^at a fox : I wish he had also added the best manner of dressing him. We are obliged to him, however, for the following infor- mation : — " La chair dii renard €st moins vmuvaise que " c'eile du hup ; les chiens ct meme les Honimcs rn mange nt " en aulomne^ surtoiit hrsqiCil s'est nourri et engraisse de " raisins^ — You would have been better pleased, 1 make no doubt, if the learned gentleman had instrudled you hozv to hunt him^ rather than zvhen to eat him. I SHALL end this Letter with an anecdote of a late huntsman of mine, who was a great slip-slop, and always called successively successfully : — One day, when he had been out with the young hounds, I sent for him in, and asked him What sport he had had ? and. How the hounds behaved ? — *' Very great sport, Sir, and no hounds could jl6 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING, «' behave any better." — * Did you run him long ?*— r ** They ran him, and please your honour, upwards of ** three hours successfully ^ — * So, then, you did)d\\ him V—^ ♦* Ob, no, Sir, we lost him at lastC\ tHOUGHTS UPON HUNTING, 21^ LETTER XVIL FOX-HUNTING, an acquaintance of mine says, is Only to be followed because you can ride hard, and do less harm in that than in any other kind of hunting. There riiay be some truth in the observation ; but, to such as love the riding part only of hunting, would not a trail- scent be more suitable ? Gentlemen who hunt for the sake of a ride, who are indifferent about the hounds, and know little of the business, if they do no harm, fulfil as much as we have reason to expect from them ; whilst those of a contrary description do good) and have much greater pleasure. Such as are acquainted with the hounds, and can at times assist them, find the sport more interest- ing, and frequently have the satisfadion to think, that they themselves contribute to the success of the day*. This is a pleasure that you often enjoy ; a pleasure without any regret attending it. I know not what effed it may have on you ; but I know that my spirits are always good * It is not by a foolish attempt to hunt the hounds that gentlemen can be of service. It is not by riding close upon them, but by keeping wide of thcxo ; when by so doing they may hear a halloo, or view the fox. fiS" TilOUGIITS UPON HtJNTING. after good sport in hunting; nor is the rest of the day ever disagreeable to me. What are other sports, com- pared vvilh this, which is full of enthusiasm ! — Fishing is, in my opinion^ a dull diversion ; shooting, though it admit of a companion, will not allow of many : — both, therefore, may be considered as selfish and solitary amusements, compared v;ith hunting} to which as many as please are welcome : — the one might teach patience to a philosopher 5. and the other, though it occasion great fatigue to the body, seldom affords much occupation to the mind ; whereas fox-huntijig is a kind of warfare; its uncertain- ties, its fatigues, its difficulties, and its dangers, rendering, it interesting above all other diversions. — That you may more readily pardon this digression, I return to answer your letter now before me. I AM glad to hear that your men have good voices ; mine, unluckily, have not. There is a friend of miner who hunts his own hounds : his voice is the strangest^ ^nd his halloos the oddest, I ever heard. He has,, how- ever, this advantage — no dog can possibly mistake his halloo for another's. Singulurity constitutes an essential part of a huntsman's halloo :, it is for that reason alone,," THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. Sip I prefer the horn, to which, I observe, hounds fly more readily than to the huntsman's voice. Good voices cer- tainly are pleasing; yet it might be as well, perhaps,, if those who have them were less fond of exerting them* When a fox is halloo'd, those who understand this business and get forward may halloo him again* 3 yet let them, be told, if the hounds go the contrary way, or do not seem to come on upon the line of him, to halloo no more. With regard to its being the hunted fox — the fox which every man halloos, is the hunted fox in. his own opinion, though he seldom has a better reason for it than because he saw him. Such halloos as serve to keep the hounds together, and to get on the tail hounds, are always of use : halloos of encouragement to the leading hounds, if in- judiciously given, may spoil your sport. I am sorry to say, * Should a fox be halloo'd in cover, whiL^ the hounds are at fault ; if they be long in coming, by getting forward, you. may halloo the fox again ,; perhaps, before; the hounds are laid on ; by which means you will get nearer to him. In cases like this, ai good sportsman may be of .great use to hounds. There are days, when hounds will do their busi. ness best if let quite alone ; and there are days, when they can do no- thing without assistance. — Let them be assisted at no other time. Of a bad scenting day, or when hounds may be over-matched, you cannot assist them too much. 226 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING^. view hatloos frequently do more harm than good : they ^e pleasing to sportsmen, but prejudicial to hounds. If a strong> cover be full of foxes, and they be often halioo'd, hounds seldom take much pains in hunting them : — hence arises that indifference which sometimes is to be perceived in fox- hounds while pursuing their game. You ask me. If I would take off my hounds to a halloo ? f If they be running with a good scent, I most certainly would I not ; if otherwise, and I coukl depend upon the halloo, in I some cases I would ; — for instance, when the fox is a great way before them, or persists in running his foil ; for such foxes are difficult to kill, unless you endeavour to g€t nearer to them by some means or other. — When you hunt after them it will frequently happen, that the longer you run,: the further you will be behind. If hounds be out of blood, and a fox run his foil, you need not scruple to stop the tail hounds, and throw them in at head -, or,, if the cover have any ridings cut in it, and the fox be often seen, your huntsman, by keep- ing some hounds at his horse's heels, at the first halloo- THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 221 daat he hears, may throw them in dose at him*. This will put him out of his pace, and, perhaps, put him off his foil. It will be necessary, when you do this, that the whipper-in should 5top the pack from hunting after, and get forward with them to the huntsman. — 1 have already given it as my opinion, that hounds may be halloo'd too much. If they should have been often used to a halloo, they will expedt it, and may trust, perhaps, to their ears and eyes, more than to their noses. If they be often taken from the scent, it will teach them to shuffle, and probably will make them slack in cover : it should be done, therefore, with great caution ; not too often ; and always should be well-timed. Famous huntsmen, I think, by making too frequent a use of this, sometimes hurt their hounds. I have heard of a sportsman who never suffers his hounds to be lifted : he lets them pick along the coldest scent, through flocks of sheep : — this is a particular * Nothing is meant more than this — ** that the huntsman should get the tail hounds off the line of the scent (where they do more harm than good), and encourage them forward j if he should hear a halloo whilst these hounds are off the scent, he should lay them on to it ; if he should not, the tail hounds, by this means, may still stand a chance of getting to the head hounds by the ear, which they never could do, if they coho tinued to run by the ?iosi:," Gga 222 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. srile of fox-hunting, which, perhaps, may suit the country in which that gentleman hunts. I confess to you, 1 do not think that it would succeed in a bad-scenting country, or, indeed, in any country where foxes are wild. While hounds can get on with the scent, it cannot be right to take them off from it ; but when they are stopped for want of it, it cannot then be wrong to give them every ?idvantagQ in your power. It is wrong to suffer hounds to hunt after others that are gone on with the scent, particularly in cover ; for how are they to get up to them with a worse scent ? — Besides, it makes them tie on the scent, teaches them to run dogj and destroys that laudable ambition of getting forward which is the chief excellence of a fox-hound. A good huntsman will seldom suffer his head hounds to run away from him : if it should so happen, and they be still within his hearing, he will sink the wind with the rest of the pack, and get to them as fast as he can. — Though I suffer not a pack of fox-hounds to hunt after such as V may be a long way before the rest, for reasons which I have just givep j yet, when a single hound is gone on with the scent, 1 send a whipper-in to stop him. Were THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 22^ tlie hounds to be taken off the scent to get to him, an4 he should no longer have any scent when they find him, the fox might be lost by it. This is a reason why, in. Jarge covers, and particularly such as have many roads ia them, skirting hounds should be left at home on windy days. Skirters, I think, you may find hurtful, both in mer^. and dogs. Such as skirt to save their horses, often head the fox. Good sportsmen never quit hounds but to be of service to them ; with men of this description, skirting becomes a necessary part of fox-hunting, and is of the greatest use. — Skirters, beware of a furze-brake! If you head back the fox, the hounds, most probably, wi)l kill him in the brake. Such as ride after the hounds, at the same time that they do no good, are least likely to do harm : — let such only as understand the business, an4 mean to be of service to the hounds, ride wide of them. I cannot, however, allow, that the riding close up to hounds is always a sign of a good sportsmari j if it were, a 7non^ key, upon a good horse, would be the best sportsman in the field. — Here must I censure (but with resped) that eager spirit which frequently interrupts, and some- 224 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. times is fatal to, sport in fox-hunting i for though I can- not subscribe to the dodrine of my friend ****, " that a " pack of fox-hounds would do better without a hunts- " man than with one, and that, if left to themselves, « they would never lose a fox ;" — yet, allowing them their usual attendants, had he objected only to the sports- men who follow them, I must have joined issue with him. AVhoever has followed hounds, must have seen them fre- quently hurried beyond the scent j and whoever is conver- sant in hunting, cannot but know, that the steam of many horses, carried by the wind, and mixed with a cold scent, is prejudicial to it. It sometimes will happen, that a good horseman is not so well in with hounds as an indifferent one; because he seldom will condescend to get off his horse. 1 believe, that the best way to follow hounds across a countr)^, is to keep on the line of them, and to dismount at once, when you come to a leap which you do not choose to take ; for in looking about for easier places, much time is lost. In following hounds, it n:ay be useful to you to know, that, when in cover they run up the wind, you cannot in rea- son be too far behind them, as long as you have a perfedt tHOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 12^ hearing of them, and can command them 3 and, on the con- trary, when they are running down the wind, you cannot keep too close to them. You complain that foxes are in too great plenty : be- lieve me, it is a good fault. I should as soon have ex- pe6ted to have heard our old acquaintance. Jack R , complain of having too much money : however, it is not without a remedy — hunt the same covers constantly, and you will soon disperse them. If your pack be strong enough, divide it ; hunt every day, and you will catch, many tired foxes. I remember to have killed a brace in one morning in the strongest season ; the first in ten minutes, the second in half an hour. If your own pack be not strong enough to hunt more than every other day, get a pack of harriers to hunt hare in the cover the in- termediate day. Foxes, thus disturbed, will shift their quarters : they know their enemies, and smell in the night where they have been in the day, and will not stay where they are likely to be disturbed by them. Follow them for one w^ek in this manner, and I do not think you will have any reason, afterwards, to complain that they are in too great plenty. 2i6 THOUGHTS UPOlJ HUNTING. When covers are much disturbed, foxes will sometimes break as soon as they hear a hound. Where the country round is very open, the fox least likely to break, is that which you are hunting : be will be very unwilling to quit the cover, if it be a large one, unless he can get a great distance before the hounds. Should you be desirous to get a run over such a country, the likeliest means will be to post a quiet and skilful person to halloo one off, and lay on to him. The further he is before you, the less likely he will be to return. The best method, however, to hunt a cover like this, is to stick constantly to it, not suffering the hounds to break, so long as one fox shall re- main : do this two or three hunting days following; foxes will then fly, and you will have good chases. Nothing Is more hurtful to hounds, than the frequent thanging of their country : should they change from a good- scenting country to a bad one, unless they have luck on their sides, they may be some time without killing a fox; whereas, hounds have always a great advantage in a country which they are used to : they not only know bet- ter where to find their game, but they will also pursue it with more alacrity afterwards. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING; 227 This Letter began by a digression in favour of huntingj it will end with the opinion of a Frenchman, not so fa- vourable to it. This gentleman was in my neighbourhood, on a visit to the late Lord Castlehaven, who, being a great sportsman, thought he could not oblige his friend more, than by letting him partake of an amusement which he him- self was so fond of j he therefore mounted him on one of his best horses, and shewed him a fox-chase. The French- man, after having been well shaken, dirtied, tired, run away with, and thrown down, was asked on his return, " Cojji- ** ment il avoit trouve la chasse r"' — * Morbleu ! Milord,* said he, shrugging up his shoulders, * voire chasse est une chasss * diabolique* Hh ii$- THOUGHTS UfON HUNTING-. LETTER XVm. BEFORE I proceed on my subjed, give me leave td set you right in one particular, where 1 perceive you have mis«* understood me. You say, that you Httle expeded to see the abilities of a liuntsman degraded beneath those of a whip- per-in. This is a serious charge against me, as a sports-* man j and, though I cannot admit that 1 have put the cart before the horse in the manner you are pleased to men- tion, yet you have made it necessary for me to explain my- self farther. I MUST therefore remind you, that I speak of my OWR country only ; a country full of riot, where the covert are large, and where there is a chase full of deer and full of game. In such a country as this, you that know so well how necessary it is for a pack of fox-hounds to be steady, and to be kept together, ought not to wonder that I should prefer an excellent whipper-in to an excel- THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING.' 5t2b lent huntsman. No one knows better than yourself, how essential a good adjutant is to a regiment : believe me, a good whipper-in is not less necessary to a pack of fox- hounds : — but I must beg you to observe, I mean only, that I could do better with mediocrity in the one than in the other. If I have written any thing in a former Letter that implies more, 1 beg leave to retrad it in this. Yet I must confess to you, that a famous huntsman 1 am not very am?> bitious to have, unless it necessarily followed that he must htLYc famous hounds; a conclusion that I cannot admit, as long las these so famous gentlemen will be continually attempting themselves to do, what would be much better done if left to their hounds : besides, they seldom are good servants, are always conceited, and sometimes impertinent, I am very well satisfied if my huntsman be acquainted with his country and his hounds j if he ride well up to them ; and if he have some knowledge of the nature of the animal which he is in pursuit of j — but so far am I from wishing him to be famous, that I hope he will still continue to think his hounds know best how to hunt ^ fox, You say you agree with me, that a huntsman should Stick close to his hounds. If, then, his place be fixed, and H h 3, 2,30 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. fhat of the first whipper-in (where you have two) be noti I cannot but think genius may be at least as useful in one as in the other : for instance, while the huntsman is riding to his headmost hounds, the whipper-in, if he have ge- nius, may shew it in various ways : he may clap forward to any great earth that may, by chance, be open ; he may sink the wind to halloo, or mob a fox, when the scent fails; he may keep him off his foil; he may stop the tail hounds, and get -them forward ; and has it frequently in his power to assist the hounds, without doing them any hurt, provided he should have sense to distinguish where he may be chiefly wanted. Besides, the most essential part of fox-hunting, the making and keeping the pack steady, de- pends entirely upon him ; as a huntsman should seldom rate, and never flog, a hound. In short, I consider the first whipper-in as a second huntsman j and, to be perfedl, he should be not less capable of hunting the hounds than the huntsman himself. You cannot too much recommend to your whipper-in to get to the head of his hounds before he attempts to stop them. The rateing behind is to little purpose, and, if they should be in cover, may prevent him from knowing THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 23 1 who the culprits are. When your hounds are running a fox, he then should content himself with stopping such as are riotous, and should get them forward. They may be condemned upon the spotj but the punishment should be deferred till the next day, when they may be taken out on purpose to commit the fault, and suffer the punishment. I agree with you, that young hounds cannot be awed too much i yet suffer not your punishment of them to exceed their offence. I could wish to draw a line betwixt justice and barbarity*. A WHIPPER-IN, while breaking-in young hounds, some? times will rate them before they commie the fault : this may, perhaps, prevent them for that time i but they will be just as ready to begin the next opportunity. Had he not better let them quite alone, till he see what they v/ould be at ? — The discipUne then may be proportioned to the ^ I am sorry that it should be necessary to explain what I mean by hnrharity : I mean that punishment which is either unnecessarily inflidl^: ed, which is inflidled with severity, or from which no possible good can. arise. Punishment, when properly applied, is not cruelty, is not je- yenge — it is justice, it is even mercy. The intention of punishment is to prevent crimes, and consequently to prevent the necessity of punishing. ^3* THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING, degree of the offence. Whether a riotous young hound ruft }ittle or much, is of small consequence, if he be not encou-* raged : it is the blood only that signifies, which in every Jtind of riot should carefully be prevented*. My general orders to my whipper-in are, if, when he rate a hound, the hound does not mind him, to take hini Up immediately, and give him a severe flogging. Whip-- pers-in are too apt to continue rateing, even when they ^nd that rateing will not avail. There is but one way to Stop such hounds, which is, to get to the heads of them, I also tell him» never, on any account, to strike a hound, unless the hound be at the same time se.nsible what it is for. What think you of the whipper-in who struck a hound as he was going to cover, because he was likely to be noisy afterwards — saying, " you will be noisy enough by ^* and bye, I zvarrant you .?" — Whippers-in, when left to themselves, are rare judges of propriety. 1 wish they • It is not meant that hounds should be suffered to continue on a wrong scent longer than may be necessary to know that the scent is a wrong one. This passage refers to page 95, where the author's mean- ing is more fully explained. It is introduced here more strongly, to >nark the danger of encouraging hounds on a wrong scent, and indulging . iJiem afterwards in the blood of it. TliOUGliTS UPON HUNTING. 23J would never strike a hound that does not deserve it, and would strike those hard that do* They seldom distinguish sufficiently the degrees of offence which a dog may have committed, to proportion their punishment accordingly; and such is their stupidity, that, when they turn a hound after the huntsman, they will rate him as severely as if he liad been guilty of the greatest fault. It is seldotn necessary to flog hounds to make them obe° dient, since obedience is the first lesson that they are taught ^ yet, if any should be more riotous than the rest, they may receive a few cuts in the morning, before they leave the kennel. When hounds prove unsteady, every possible means should be taken to make them otherwise : — a hare, or a deer, put into the kennel amongst them, may then be necessary. Huntsmen are too fond of kennel-discipline: you already know my opinion of it : 1 never allow it but in cases of great necessity : 1 then am always present myself, to prevent excess* To prevent an improper and barbarous use of such discipline, I have already told you, is one of the chief objeds of these Letters. If what 234 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING/ Montaigne says be true, *' that there is a certain general " claim of kindness and benevolence which every creature " has a right to from us" — surely we ought not to suffer unnecessary severity towards an animal to vvhom we are obliged fof so much diversion : and what opinion must Vve have of the huntsman who inflids it on one to whom be owes his daily bread*? If any of my hounds be very riotous, they are taken but by themselves on the days when they do not hunt, and properly punished; and this is continued whilst my patience lasts, which, of course, depends on the value of the dog. It is a trial between the whipper-in and the dog, which will tire first ; and the whipper-in, 1 think, * " Perhaps it is not the least extraordinary circumstance in these " flogging ledures, that they should be given, with Montaigne, or any ** other moral author whatever, in recolieftion at the same instant !'* (vide Monthly Review.) — Perhaps it is not the least extraordinary cir- cumstance in these criticisms, that fhis passage should have been quoted as a proof of the author's inhumanity. — The critic ends his striflures ■u* disked. THOTJGHTS UPON HUNTING. 24^ The first day that you hunt in the forest, be equally- s:autious what hounds you take out. All should be steady from deer: you may afterwards put others to them, a few at a time. I have seen a pack draw steadily enough, and yet, wher» running hard, -fall on a weak deer, and rest as contented as if they had killed their fox. These hopnds were not chastised, though caught in the fadt, but were suf- fered to draw on for a fresh fox : I would rather they had unr dergone severe discipline. The finding of another fox with them afterwards, might then have been of service ; otherr vvise, in my opinion, it could only serve to encourage thenn in the vice, and rnake them worse and wojrse. I MUST mention an instance of extraordinary sagacity in a fox-beagle that once belonged to the Duke of Cumber- land. 1 entered him at hare, to which he was immediately so steady, that he would run nothing else. When a fox was found by the beagles, which sometimes happened, he would instantly come to the heels of the huntsman's horse. Some years aftervv^ards I hunted fox only, and, though I parted with most of the others, I kept him. He went out constantly with the pack ; and, as hares were scarce in the country that I then hunted, he did no hurt : the moment a fox was fourjd, K k 2 «»46 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. he came to the horse's heels. This continued some time, till, catching view of a fox that was sinking, he ran in with the rest, and was well blooded. He, from that time to the day of his death, was not only as steady a hound to fox as ever I knew, but became also our very best finder. 1 bre4 some buck-hounds from him, and they ^re remarkable for never changing from a hunted deer. Your huntsman's weekly return is a very curious one i he is particularly happy in the spelling. The following letter, which is in the same style, may make you laugh, ancj is, perhaps, no unsuitable return for yours. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING, Z^f SIRi HONORED* • — ^— J have been out with the hounds this day to ayer the frost is very bad the -hounds are all pure well at present an4 horses shepard has had a misfortln with his mare she hung harself with the hoiter and throd har self and broak har neck and frac tard skul so we was forsd to nock har In the head from your ever dutyful Humbel Sarvant **** ****** Wednesday evening * The lines omitted, were not upon the subjeft of hunting. 248 THOUGHTS UPON HUNT1N^= LETTER XIX. FINDING, by your last letter, that an early hour does not suit you, I will mention some particulars wliioh may be of use to you when you hunt late :.7— An early hour is only necessary where covers ^re large and foxes scarce : vv'here they are in pipnty, you may hunt at. any hour you please. When foxes are weak, by hunting late you have better chases: when they are strong, give me leave to tell you, you must hunt early, or you will not always kill them. I think, hovv^ever, when you go out late, you should go immediately to the place where you are most likely to find, which, generally speaking, is the cover that hounds have been least in. If the cover be large, you should draw only such parts of it as a fox is likely to kennel in : it is useless to draw any other at a late hour : besides, though it be always right to find as , soon jas you can, yet it can never be so necessary as when the is far advanced. If you do not find soon, a long and THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING^ 249 tiresome day is generally the consequence. Where the co- ver is thick, you should draw it as exidly as if you were trying for a hare, particularly if it be furzy ; for when there isno drag, a fox, at a late hour, will lie till the hounds come close upon him. Having drawn one cover, let your huntsman stay for his hounds, and take them along with him to another : I have known hounds find a fox after the. huntsman had left the cover. The whippers-in are not to be sparing of their whips or voices on this occasion, and arc to come through the middle of the cover, to be certain that they leave no hounds behind. A HUNTSMAN Will complain of hounds, for staying be- hind in cover : it is- a great fault, and m.akes the hound addided to it of but little value ; yet this fault fre- quently is occasioned by the huntsman's own mismanage- ment. Having drawn one cover, he hurries away to another, and leaves the whipper-in to bring on the hounds after him; but the whfpper-in is seldohi less desirous of getting forward than the huntsman ; and, unless they come off easily, it is not often that he v/iil give himself much concern about them. Hounds also that are left too long at their walks, will acquire this trick from hunting by them-* i,£0 THOUGHTS UPON HUi^^TlNe. selves, and are not easily broken of it. — Having said all thai 1 can at present recollect of the duty of a whipper-in, X shall now proceed to give you a further account of thai of a huntsman. What has already been said on the subje unless there be a reason for it ; it is therefore that I say, great nicety is required to draft hounds propi'vlj. Many huntsmen, I believe, think it of no great conse. quence which they take out, and which they leave, provided they have the number requisite. A perfed knowledge in feeding and fi drafting hounds, are the two most essential parts of fox-hunting : good ' hounds will require but little assistance afterwards. By feedings I mean ' the bringing the hound into the field in his highest vigour ; by / ^rgftitig, I particularly mean the taking out no unsteady hound, nor », ahy that are not likely to be of service to the pack. When you intend to hunt two days following, it is then that the greatest nicety will be requisite to make the most of a small pack. Placing hounds to the greatest advantage, as mentioned page 250, may also be considered as a necessary part of fox-hunting. Hounds that arc intended to hunt the next day, and are drafted off into the hunting-kennel as soon as they are fed, should be let out again into the outer court in the evening : my hounds have generally some thin mtat given them at this time, while the feeder cleans out their kennel. (Vi-ic note, p, *49.j — I have already said, that cleanliness is not less «sscnt;al than food. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. ^53 When the place and time of meeting are fixed, every huntsman ought to be as exad: to them as it is possible,, On no account is he to be before the time ; yet, on some occasions, it might be better, perhaps, for the diversion, were he permitted to be after it^ , — The course that your huntsman intends to take in drawing, ought also to be weU understood before he leaves the kennel. If your huntsman, without inconveriiency, can begin drawing at the farthest cover down the wind, and so draw from cover to cover up the wind till you find, let him do it. It will have many advantages attending it : he will draw the same covers in half the time; your people cannot fail of being in their proper places ; you will have less difficulty in getting your hounds off; and, as the fox will most probably run the covers that have been already drawn, you are less likely to change. If you have a string of small covers, and plenty of foxes in them, some caution may be necessary, to prevent your hounds from disturbing them all in one day. Never * When there is a white frost, for instance j at the going oiFof which the scent never lies. L 1 2 a_54 THOUGHTS UPOK HUNTING. hunt your smq.ll covers till you have well rattled the large ones first ^ for, until the foxes be thinned and dispersed v,'here they were in plenty, it must be bad policy to drive ethers there to increase the number. If you would thin your foxes, you must throw off at the same cover as long as you can find a fox. If you come off with the first fox that breaks, you do not disturb the cover, and may expedl to find there again the next day ; but where they are scarce, you should never draw the sa,me cover two days following. Judicious huntsmen will observe where foxes like best to lie. In chases and forests, where you have a great trad of cover to draw^ such observation is necessary, or you will lose much time in finding. Generally speaking, I think they are fondest of such as lie high, and are dry and thick at bottom j such also as lie out of the wind, and such as are on the sunny side of hills*. The same co- ver where you find one fox, when it has remained quiet any time, will probably produce another. * This must of course vary in different countries : a huntsman who has fecen used to a country, knows best where to find his game. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 2^5 Jt is to little purpose to draw hazle coppices at the 'time when nuts are gathering ; furze-covers, or two or three-years coppices, are then the only quiet places that a ■fox can kennel in : they also are disturbed when pheasaxnt- shooting begins, and older covers are more likely. The season when foxes are most wild and strong, is about Christmas : a huntsman then must lose no time in draw- ing ; he must draw up the wind, unless the cover be very large; in which case it may be better, perhaps, to cross it, giving the hounds a side-wind, lest he should be obliged to turn down the wind at last : — in either case, let him draw as quietly as he can. Young coppices, at this time of the year, are quite bare : the most likely places are, four or five-years cop- pices, and such as are furzy at bottom. It is easy to perceive, by the account you give of your hounds, that they do not draw well ; your huntsman, therefore, must be particularly attentive to them after a wet night. The best drawing hounds are shy of searching a cover when it is wet : yours, if care be not taken, will not go into it at all. Your huntsman should ride into Z^6 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. the likeliest part of the coyer; and, as it is probable there will be no drag, the closer he draws the better : — he must not draw too much an end, but should cross the cover backwards and forwards, taking care, at the same time, to give his hounds as much the wind as possible *. It is not often that you will see a pack perfedly steady where there is much riot, and yet draw well : some hounds will not exert themselves till others challenge, and are encouraged -f-. I FEAR the many harriers that you have in your neigh- bourhood will be hurtful to your sport : by constantly disturbing the covers, they will make the foxes shy, and when the covers become thin, there will be but little chance of finding foxes in them : furze-covers are then the most likely places. Though I like not to see a huntsman to a pack of fox-hounds ever off his horse, yet, * Hounds that are hunted constantly at an early hour, seldom, I think, draw» well : they depend too much upon a drag, and it is not in the strong- est part of the cover that they are accustomed to try for it. + This relates to making hounds steady only, which always causes con- fusion, and interrupts drawing. When once a pack are become steady, they will be more likely to draw well than if they were not. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 357 at a late hour, he should draw a furze-cover as slowly as if he were himself on foot. I am well convinced that huntsmen, by drawing in too great a hurry, leave foxes sometimes behind them. I once saw a remarkable in- stance of it with my own hounds : we had drawn (as we thought) a cover, which, in the whole, consisted of about ten acres ; yet, whilst the huntsman was blowing his horn to get his hounds off, one young fox was halloo'd, and another was seen immediately after : it was a cover on the side of a hill, and the foxes had kennelled close to- gether at an extremity of it, where no hound had been. Some huntsmen draw too quick, some too slow. — The time of day, the behaviour of his hounds, and the covers that they are drawing, will direfl an observing huntsman in the pace which he oUght to go. When you try a furze- brake, let me give you one caution — never halloo a fox till you see that he is quite clear of it. When a fox is found in such places, hounds are sure to go off well with him ; and it must be owing either to bad scent, bad hounds, bad management, or bad luck, if they f^il to kill him afterwards. It is usual, in most packs, to rate, as soon as a young 23S THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. hound challenges. Though young hounds are often wrongy yet, since it is not impossible that they may be sometimes right, is it not as well to have a little patience, in order to see whether any of the old ones will join, before any thing is said to them ? — Hcrce-a-carel is fully sufficient, till you arc more certain that the hound is on a wrong scent. I mention this as a hint only : I am myself no enemy to a rate : 1 cannot think that a fox was ever lost, or pack spoilt, by it : it is improper encouragement that I am afraid of most. . When a fox slinks from his kennel, gets a great way before the hounds, and you are obliged to hunt after him with a bad scent ; if it be a country where foxes are in plenty, and you know where to find another, you had better do it*. While hounds are drawing for a fox, let your people place themselves in such a manner, that he cannot go off unseen. I have known them lie in sheep's scrapes, on the * Yet, if this were praftised often, it might make the hounds indifFe. rent when upon a cold scent. Hounds should be made to believe they are to kill that game which they are first encouraged to pursue. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 259 sides of hills, and in small bushes, where huntsmen never think of looking for them j yet, when they hear a hound, they generally shift their quarters, and make for closer co- vers. Gentlemen should take this necessary part of fox- hunting on themselves ; for the whipper-in has other busi- ness to attend to*. I APPROVE not of long drags in large covers: they give too great an advantage to the fox ; they give him a hint to make the best of his way ; and he frequently will set off a long while before you. This may be prevented, by throwing your hounds into that part of the cover in which he is most likely to kennel : for want of this pre- caution, a fox sometimes gets so far the start of hounds, that they are not able to do any thing with him after* wards. Also, when hounds first touch on a drag, some huntsmen are so careless, that, while they are going on with it the wrong way themselves, a single hound finds- the fox, and is not caught any more by the pack, till he has lost him again. * Upon these occasions, when you see two gentlemen togct/jer, yoa may reasonably conclude, that one of thcin, at least, knows nothing of the jnatter, M m 26o ■ THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. Foxes are said to go down the wind to their kennel j but 1 believe they do not always observe that rule. Huntsmen, while their hounds are drawing, or are at a fault, frequently make so much noise themselves, that they can hear nothing else : they should always have aa ear to a halloo. I once saw an extraordinary instance of the want of it in my own huntsman, who was making so much noise with his hounds, which were then at fault, that a man halloo'd a long while before he heard him ; and, when he did hear him, so little did he know whence the halloo came, that he rode two miles the wrong way, and lost the fox. When hounds approach a cover which it is mtendcd they should draw, and dash away towards it, whippers-in ride after them to stop them : it is too late, and they had better let them alone : it checks them in their draw- ing, and is of no kind of use : it will be soon enough to begin to rate v/hen they have found, and hunt improper game. When a huntsman has his hounds under good com- mand, and is attentive to them, they will not break off till he chooses that they should. When he goes by the side of THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. - 26l a cover which he does not intend to draw, his whippers-in must be ill their proper places j for if he should ride up to a cover with them unawed, uncontrolled ; a cover where they have been used to find — they must be slack indeed, if they do not dash into it. It is, for that reason, better, not to come into a cover always the same way : hounds, by not knov^ing what is going forward, will be less likely to break off, and will draw more quietly. I have seen hounds so flashy, that they would break away from the huntsman as soon as they saw a cover ; and I have seen the same hounds stop when they got to the cover-side, and not go into it. It is want of proper discipline which occasions faults like these. Hounds that are under such command, as never to leave their huntsman till he encourage them to do it, will then be so confident, that they will not return to him again. Were fox -hounds to stop, like stop-hounds, at the smack of a whip, they would not do their business the worse for it, and it would give you many advantages, very essential to your sport; — such as, when they have to wait under a cover-side 3 when they run riot ; when they change scents s when a single hound is on before ^ and when a fox M m 2 202 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. is headed back into a cover. Hounds that are not under good command, subje6l )^ou to many inconve- niencies ; and you may, at times, be obliged to go out of your way, or be made to draw a cover against your will. A famous pack of hounds in my neighbour- hood, I mean the late Lord C n's, had no fault but what had its rise from bad mana2;ement : nor is it possible to do any thing with a pack of fox-hounds, unless they be obedient ; they should both love and fear the huntsman : they should fear him much, yet they should love him more. Without doubt, hounds would do more for the huntsman, if they loved him better. Dogs that are constantly with their masters, acquire a wonderful deal of penetration ; and much may be done through the medium of their aifedions. 1 attribute the extraordinary sagacity of the buck-hound to the manner in which he is treated : he is the constant companion of his instrudor and bene- fador ; the man whom he was first taught to fear, and has since learned to love. Ought we to wonder that he should be obedient to him. ? — Yet who can view without surprize, the hounds and the deer amusing themselves familiarly to- gether upon the same lavv^n ; living, as it were, in the most friendly intercourse i and know that a word from the THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 263 keeper will dissolve the amity ? The obedient dog, gentle when unprovoked, flies to the well-known summons : how changed from what he was ! — Roused from his peaceful state, and cheered by his master's voice, he is now urged on with a relentless fury, that only death can satisfy— the death of the very deer he is encouraged to pursue \ and which the various scents that cross him in his way can^ not tempt him to forsake. The business of the day over, see him follow, careless and contented, his master's steps, to repose upon the same lawn where the frightened deer again return, and are again indebted to his courtesy for their wonted pasture — wonderful proofs of obedience, sagacity, and penetration ! — The many learned dogs and learned horses, that so frequently appear and astonish the vulgar, sufficiently evince what education is capable of; and it is to education that I must chiefly attribute the superior excellence of the buck-hound, since I have seen high- bred fox-hounds do the same, under the same good mas- ters. But, to return to my subjedt — • Young foxes that have been much disturbed, will li^ at ground. I once found seven or eight in a cover, where, the next day, I could not find one s nor were they to bp 264 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. found elsewhere : the earths, at such times, should he stopt three or four hours before day, or you will find ncx" foxes. The first day you hunt a cover that is full of foxes, and you want blood, let them not be checked back into the cover (which is the usual prafitice at such times), but let some of them get off: if you do not, what with continual changing, and sometimes running the heel, it is probable that you will not kill any. Another precaution, 1 thinky may be also necessary — that is, to stop such earths only as you cannot dig. If some foxes should go to ground, it will be as well j and if you should be in want of blood at last, you will then know where to get it. It is usual, when people are not certain of the stea- diness of their hounds -from deer, to find a fox in an ad- jacent cover, that they may be on their right scent when they come where deer are. 1 have my doubts of the pro- priety of this proceeding. If hounds have not been well awed from deer, it is not fit that they should come among them; but, if hounds be tolerably steady, I would rather find a fox with them among deer, than bring them afterwards THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING, ^6^ into covers where deer are. By drawing amongst theni;, jthey wiU, in some degree, be awed from the scent, and possibly may stick to the fox when he is found ; but should unsteady hounds, when high on their mettle, run into a co- ver where deer are in plenty, there is no doubt that, the first check they come to, they will all fall off. I always have found hounds most inclined to riot when most upon their mettle : such as are given to sheep will then kill sheep, and such as are not quite steady from deer, will then be most likely to break off after them. When hounds are encou- raged on a scent, if they lose that scent, it is then that an unsteady hound is ready for any kind of mischief, I HAVE already said, that a huntsman ought never ;to flog a hound. When a riotous hound, conscious of his offence, may escape from the whipper-in, and fly to the huntsman, you will see him put his whole pack into conr fusion, by endeavouring to chastise him himself. This is the height of absurdity. Instead of flogging the hound, he ought to encourage him, who should always have some place to fly to for protedion. If the offence be a bad one, let him get off his horse, and couple up the dog^ leaving him to be chastised by the whipper-in, after he 2156 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING* himself is gone on with the pack ; the punishment over, let him again encourage the hound to come to him. Hounds that are riotous in cover, and will not come off readily to the huntsman's halloo, shoqid be flogged in the cover, ra- ther than out of it : — treated in this manner, you will not find any difficulty in getting your hounds off'; otherwise, they will soon find that the cover will save them ; from whence they will have more sense, when they have commit- ted an offence, than to come to receive punishment. A fa- vourite hound, that has acquired a habit of staying back in large covers, had better not be taken into them. I AM more particular than I otherwise should have been, upon a supposition that your hounds draw ill -, however, you need not observe all the cautions that I have given, unless your hounds require them. Some art may be necessary, to make the most of the country that you hunt. 1 would advise you not to draw the covers near your house, while you can find else- where : it will make them certain places to find in when you go out late, or may otherwise be in want of them : — for the same reason, I would advise you not to hunt those THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING.. 267 covers late in the seamen : they should not be much dis- turbed after Christmas: foxes will then resort to them;, will breed there ; and you can preserve them with little trouble. This relates to the good management of a pack, of hounds, which is a business distind: from huntmg them** Though a huntsman ought to be as sil.^iit as possible at going into a cover, he cannot be too noisy at coming out of it again J and, if at any time he should turn back suddenly, let him give as much notice of it as he cati to his hounds, or he will leave many behind him ; and, should he turn down the wind, he may sec no more of them. I SHOULD be sorrv that the silence of mv huntsman should proceed from cither of the following causes : — A huntsman that 1 once knew (who, by the bye, 1 believCj is at this time a drummer in a marching regiment) Went out one morning so very drunk, that he got off * Breeding, feeding, steadying, drafting, and placing, are the essential parts of fox-hunting ; when these are properly attended to, the hounds will require but little assistance from the huntsman, whose chief business then will be to keep with them, say little, and do nothing. N n ^ 26S THOUGHTS UPON HUNTINGc his horse in the midst of a thick cover, laid himself down, and went to sleep : he was lost ; nobody knew what was become of him 5 and he was at last found in th_e situa- tion that I have just described. He had, however, great good luck on his side ; for, at the very instant he was found, a fox was halloo'd ; upon which he mounted his horse, rode desperately, killed his fox handsomely, and was forgiven. I REMEMBER another huntsman silent from a different cause : this was a sulky one. Things did not go on to please him ; he therefore alighted from his horse in the middle of a woody and, as quietly as he could, colleded his hounds about him : he then took an opportunity, when the coast was clear, to set off silently, and by himself, for another cover. However, his master, who knew his tricks, sent others after him to bring him back : they found him running a fox most merrily j and, to his great astonishment^ they stopped the hounds, and made him go back along with them. This fellow had often been severely beaten, but was stubborn and sulky to the last. To give you an idea, before I quit this subjeA, how little some people know of fox-hunting, I must tell you. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 2^9 that, not long ago, a gentleman asked me, If I did not send people out the day before, to find vyhere.the foKes lay ? What relates to the casting of hounds, shall be thp sub- jed of my next Letter. Nn 2 2,70 THOrCHTS UPON HUNTING, LETTER XX. IN my seventeenth Letter, I gave you the opinion of my friend **** — *' that a pack of fox-hounds^ {f ^^/^ entirely *' to themselves, zvould never lose a fox.'' — I am always sorry when I differ from that geiitleman in anything; yet lam so far from thinking they never would Jose a fox, that 1 doubt much if they would ever kill one. There are thnes when hounds should be hel/^-d, and at all times th-^y mu>t be kept forward. Houads will naturally tie on a cold scent, when stopped by sheep, or other, impedi- lUiiUs i and, when they are no longer able to get forward, will oftentimes hunt the old scent back again, if they find that they can hunt no other. It is the judicious encou- raging of hounds to hunt, when they cannot run, and the preventing them from losing time by hunting too much when they might run, that distinguishes a good sportsman from a bad one*. Hounds that have been well * In hunting a pack of hounds, a proper medium should be observed ; for though too much help will make them slack, too little will make them tie on the scent, and hunt back the heel. THOLTGHTS UPON HUNTING. 2/1 taught, will cast forward to a hedge, of their own ac<:ord ; but you may assure youfself that this excehence is never acquired by such as are left entirely to thsniseives. To suu'jf a pack of fox-houncU to hunt through a flock of sheep, when it is easy to make y be, that they are paid for looking after them. igZ THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. are really fond of it, I must tell you what happened to rhe not long ago: — My hounds, in running a fox, crossed the great Western road, where I met a gentleman travelling on horseback, his servant, with a portmanteau^ following him. He no sooner saw the hounds, than he rode up to me with the greatest eagerness. " ^/r," said he, " are you after a foxf'' — When I told him that we were, he immediately stuck spurs to his horse, took a monstrous leap, and never quitted us any more till the fox was killed. 1 suppose, had I said that we were after a hare, my gentleman would have pursued his journey. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 293 LETTER XXL YOUR huntsman, 5^ou sa}', has hunted a pack of har- riers : it might have been better, perhaps, had he never seen one 3 since fox-hunting and hare-hunting differ almost in every particular; — so miich, that I think it might not be an improper negative definition of fox-hunting to say, it is, of ^// huntings that which resembles hare-hunting the least. A good huntsman to a pack of harriers, seldom succeeds in fox-hunting : — like old hounds, they dwell upon the scent, and cannot get forward ; nor do they ever make a bold cast ; so much are they afraid of leaving the scent behind them. Kence ic is, that they poke about, and try the same place ten times over, rather than leave it ; and, when they do, are totally at a loss which way to go, for want of know- ing the nature of the animal they are in pursuit of. As hare-hounds should scarcely ever be casf, halloo'd, or taken off their noses, hare-hunters are too apt to hunt their ^94 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. fox-hourids in the same manner; but it will not do; nor could k please you if it would. Tak'e away the spirit of ) fox-huntinp, and it is no lonfirer fox huntini^: it is stale small- beer compared to brisk champagne. You would also find in it more fatigue than pleasure. It is said, /here is a pieasure in being mad, zvhich oily madmen knozv ; and it is the enthusiasm, 1 believe, of fox hunting, that is its best support : strip it of that, and you had better leave it quite alone. The hounds themselves also differ in their manner of ' bunting. The beagle, who has always his nose to the pround, will puzzle an hour on one spot, sooner than leave the scent ; while the fox-hound, full of fife and spirit, is always dashirg and trying forward: — a high- bred fox-hound, therefore, shews himsdf to most advan- tage' v.'hen foxes are at their strongest, and run an end. A pack of harriers- will kill a cub better, perhaps, than a pack of fox-liounds ; but, when foxes are strong, they liave not the method of getting on with the scent which fox-hounds have, and generally tire themselves before tlie fox. To kill foxes, when they are strong, hounds must fun, as well as hunt : besides, catching a fox by hard THOUGHTS Upon HUNTING. ±() ^ i-unnlng, is alvva^^s preferred, in the opinion of a fox-hunter. ?>Iuch depends on the stile in which it is done ; and I think, \vithout being sophistical, a distindiion might be made be- twixt hunting; a fox and fox-huntins;. Two hacknevs be- come not racers by running round a course ; nor does the mere huntin.g; of a fox chanere the nature of the harrier. I have also seen a hare hunte'd by high-bred (ox-hounds ; yet, I confess to you, it gave me not the least idcfa of what hare- hunting ought to be. Certain ideas are necessarily annexed to certain words — this is the use of hmguage — and when a fox-hound is mentiohed, 1 should expeft not only a par- ticular kind of hound, as to make, size, and strength (by which the fox-hound is easy to be distinguished) ; but I should also expecl by fox-huniing, a lively, animated, and eager pursuit, as the very essence of it*. Eagerness and ^ impetuosity are such essentia] parts of this diversion, that ' I am never more surprized than vv-hen I see a fox-hunter ' without them. One hold hard, or reproor, unnecessarily > * The six following lines may h.T'.e a dangerous tendency.- Cnly a good sportsman can know when a reproof is given U7tneces$arilj, and only a bad one will be deserving of reproof. This passage, therefore, should be compared with pages 162, 204, 2c6, 223, v/hcre the meaning of the author is very clearly expressed. 296 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTrNG". - given, would chill me more than a north-east wind j it I w^ould damp 015^ spirits, and send me home. The en- thusiasm of a fox-honter should not be checked in its- ^ career ; for it is the very life and soul of fox-hunting. If it be the eagerness with which you pursue your game that makes the chief pleasure of the chase, fox-hunting surely should afford the greatest degree of it ; since you ) pursue no animal with the same eagerness that you pursue • a fox. Knowing your partiality to hounds that run in a good stile, I advise you to observe strictly your own, when a fox , is sinking in a strong cover : that is the time to see the I true spirit of a fox-hound. If they spread not the cover, but run tamely on the line of one another, 1 shall fear it is a sort that will not please you long. A fox-hound that: has not spirit and ambition to get forward at a tim.e like this, is at no other likely to do much good. You mention, in your last Letter, pretty hounds : cer- tainly I should net pretend to criticize others, who am so incorred myself, yet, with your leave, I think I can set THOUGHTS UPON HUNTIls^G. 297 you right in that particular. Pretty is an epithet im- properly appUed to a fox-hound : we call a fox-hound handsome, when he is strong, bony, of a proper size, and of exadl symmetry ; and fitness is made essential to beauty. [ A beagle may be pretty j but, according to my idea of the word, a fox-hound cannot : bur, as it is not to be sup- posed that you will keep a pack of fox-hounds for the pleasure of looking at them, without doubt, you will think goodness more necessary than beauty. Should you be ambitious to have a handsome pack of hounds, on no ac- count ought you to enter an ugly dog, lest you be tempted to keep him afterwards. I ONCE heard an old sportsman say, that he thought a fox, to shew sport, should run four hours at least ; and I suppose lie did not care how slow his hounds went after him. This idea, however, is not conceived in the true spirit of fox-hunting — which is not to walk down a fox, or starve him to death j but to keep close at him, and kill him as soon as you can. I am convinced that a fox-hound may hunt too much : if tender-nosed, and not over-hurried, he will always hunt enough j whilst the highest-bred hounds may 2pS THOUGHTS UPON HUNTIKG. be made to tie upon the scent, by improper manage- ment*. It is youth, and good spirits, which suit best with fox- hunting: slackness in the men occasions slackness in the hounds ; and one may see, by the manner in which hounds hunt, what kind of men they have been accustomed to. The speediest hounds may, by degrees, be rendered slow ; and it is impossible for the best to do their business as they ought, unless followed with life and spirit. Men who are slack themselves, will be always afraid of hurry- ino- their hounds too much ; and, by carrying this humour too far, will commit a fault which has nothing to excuse it. The best method to hunt a fox, they say, is never, upon any account, to cast the hounds; but, on the contrary, to. let tavern tie upon the scent as long as they will, and that they will hit it off at kst. I agree with them partly: it certainly must be the best method to hi-nt a fox ; for, by this means, you may hunt him from rnoyning till night j and, if you have the luck to find him," may hunt him * It more frequently is owing either to want of patience or want c>f mettle, than to Wcint of ncse, that a hound does not hunt well. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 299 again the next day : — the hkellest method, however, to kill him, is to take every advantage of him that you can. All hounds go fast enough with a good scent; but it is the particular excellence of a fox-hound, when rightly managed, to get on faster with an indifferent scent than any other hound*: — it is the business of a huntsman to encourage this ; and here, most probably, the hare-hunter will fail. He has been used to take his time ; he has enjoyed a cold scent, like a southern hound ; and has sitten patiently upon his horse, to see his hounds hunt. It is, to be sure, very pretty to see ; and, when you consider that the hare is all the time, perhaps, within a few yards of you, and may leap up the next minute, you are perfectly contented with what you are about : — but it is not so in fox-hunting : every minute that you lose is precious, and increases your difficulties ; and while you are standing still, the fox is running miles. It is a satisfadion to a hare- hunter to be told where his game vv'as seen, though a long while before ; but it is melancholy news to a fox-hunter, * ft is a quick method of hunting, that I mostly value in any hound : such as are possessed of it, arc seldom long-off the scent : it is the reverie of slackness. R r I^GO THOl/GHTS UPON HUNTING-. whose game is not likely to stop. 1 believe I mentioned to you, in a former Letter on hare-hunting, a great fault which I had observed in some harriers, from being let alone too much — that of running back the heel, J have seen a pack of high-bred fox-hounds do the same, for the same reasons. When hounds flag, from frequent changes, and a long day, it is necessary for a huntsman to animate them as much as he can : he must keep them forward, and press them on j for it is not likely, in this ease, that they should over-run the scent. At these times the whole work is ge- nerally done by a few hounds, and he should keep close to them. Here I also fear that the hare -hunter will fail*. * It is at a time like this that good sportsmen may be of great service to hounds : it is the only time when they want encouragement ; and it is (I am sorry to say) almost the only time when they do not receive it. Those who ride too forward in the morning, will, in the evening, perhaps, be too far behind, and thereby lose an opportunity that is offered them of making some amends for the mischiefs they have already done. When hounds flag from frequent changes, and the huntsman's horse sinks under the fatigne of a tiresome day, then it is that sportsmen may assist them. Such as know the hounds, should then ride up to them: they should en- deavour, by great encouragement, to keep them runningy and get those forward that may be behind ; for when hounds that are tired once come to THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 3QI If they come to a long fault, it is over, and yoy had bep* rer then go home. The many chances that are against you in fox-hunt- ing j the changing frequently ; the heading of the' foxes; their being coursed by sheep-dogs ; long faults j cold hunting; and the dying away of the scent; make it ne- cessary to keep always as near to the fox ^s you can; which should be the first and invariable principle of fox-hunting. Long days do great hurt to a pack of fox- hounds. I set out one day last winter from the kennel at half past seven, and returned home a quarter before eight at night, the hounds running hard the greatest part of the time : the huntsman killed one horse and tired another, and the hounds did not recover for more than a week*: we took them off at last, when they were running with a better scent than they had had the whole day. — huntings they tie upon the scent, and, by losing time, lose every chance they had of killing the fox : great encouragement, and proper and timely assistance, only can prevent it. * Hounds, after every hard day, should have two clear days to rest : it does them less hurt to hunt two days following, when their work is easy, tlian to hunt, before they may be perfeftly recovered, after having been hard-run. R r 2 302 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. I also remember, after it was quite dark, to have heard a better view-halloo from an ozvl, than I ever heard from a sportsman in my life, though I hope that I shall never hear such another. A long day, nevertheless, once or twice in a season, is of use to a huntsman : it shews the real goodness and stoutness of his hounds. When long days happen to hounds that are low in flesh, nothing will get them up again so effedlually as rest : it is for this reason, hounds, that are kept constantly hunted, ought always to be, as sportsmen call it, above their work. If your hounds, either from accident or inat- tention, should ever be in the low condition here alluded to, be not impatient to get them out of it : should you feed them high with fleshy the mange, most probably, would be the immediate consequence of it : it is rest, and wholesome meat, that will recover them best. It will surprize you, to see how soon a dog becomes either fat or lean : a litile patience, therefore, and some attention, will always enable you to get your hounds into proper con- dition i and I am certain, that you can receive no pleasure in hunting with them, if they be not. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 3OJ I FORGOT, in my Letter upon the feeding of hounds, to observe, that such hounds as have the mange adtually upon them, or only a tendency towards it, should be fed sepa- rately from the rest : they should have no flesh ; their meat should be mixed ijp rather thin than thick j and they should have vegetables in great plenty*. 1 must also add, that if my hounds return from hunting earlier than they were expeded, I now order them to be shut up in the lodging-room till their meat be made ready for them. Hounds never rest contented till they have been fed ; nor will they remain upon their benches, unless they be confined : yet, without doubt, lying upon the pavement, or even standing out in the cold after violent exercise, must be prejudicial to them. I AM glad to hear that your huntsman knows the coun- try which he is to hunt : nothing in fox-hunting is more essential than that-, and it may make amends for piany faults. Foxes are not capricious : they know very well what they are about j are quick, I believe, at determin- ing, and resolute in persevering: they generally have a * Sulphur made into a ball with butter, or hog's-lard, and given two or three mornings following, may also be necessary. 304 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING, point to go to ; and, though headed and turned dire<5lly -from it, seldom fail to make it good at the last : thiSy therefore, is a great help to an observing huntsman. . Suffer not your huntsman to encourage his hounds too much on a bad-scenting day, particularly in covers where there is much riot. Hark! hark! hark! which inju- dicious huntsmen are so fond of upon every occasion, must often' do mischief, and cannot do good : while bounds are near together, they will get sooner to the hound that challenges without that noise than with it. If it be a right scent, they will be ready enough to join ; and if it be a wrong one, provided they be let alone, they will soon leave it : — injudicious encouragement, on a bad day, might make them run something or other, right or wrong. I KNov^' of no fault so bad in a hound as that of run- ning false : it should never be forgiven. Such as are not stout, or are stiff-nosed, or have other faults, may at times (do good, and, at their worst, may do no harm j but such as run false, most probably, will spoil your sport. A hound capable of spoiling one day's sport, is scarcely THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. ^Q^ worth your keeping : — indifferent ones, such as I have above described, may be kept till you have better to sup*- ply their places. A HUNTSMAN should know how to marshal every hound in his pack, giving to each his proper rank and prece- dence ; for, Vv'ithout this knowledge, it is not possible that he should make a large draft, as he ought. There are, in most packs, some hounds that assist but little in killing the fox 5 and it is the judicious drafting off of such hounds that is a certain sign of a good huntsman. My huntsman is very exa6l : he always carries a list of his hounds in his pocket, and Vvhen in a distant country, he looks it over, to see if any of them be missing : he has also a book, in which he keeps a regular account where every fox is found, and where he is killed. Your huntsman, you say, knows perfectly the country that he has to "hunt : let him then acquire as perfedl a know- ledge of his hounds : good sense and observation v. ill do the rest J at least, will do as much as you seem to require 206 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. of him ; for I am glad to find, that you would rather depend upon the goodness of your hounds for sport, than the ge- nius of your huntsman : it is, believe me, a much surer dependance. ■H0UGHT5 UPON HUNTING. LETTER .XXIL 3^7 ARE not your expedlations somewhat too sano-uine,, when you think that you shall have no occasion for ba^-^ foxes to keep your hounds in blood the first season ? — It may be as well, perhaps, not to turn them all out, till you can be -more certain that your young pack will keep good and steady without them. When blood is much wanted, and they are tired with a hard day, one of these foxes will put them into spirits, and give them, as it were, new strength and vigour. You desire to know. What I call being out 'of blood? — In answer to which, 1 must tell you, that, in my judgment, no fox-hound can fail of killing more than three or four times following, without being visibly the worse for it. When hounds are out of blood, there is a kind of evil ge- nius attending all that theydo; and, though they may seem to hunt as well as ever, they do not get forward j — while s s o oS THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. a pack of fox-hounds well in blood, like troops flushed with conquest, are not easily withstood. What we call /// luck, day after day, when hounds kill no foxes, may frequently, 1 think, be traced to another cause, namely, iheir being out of blood ; — nor can there be any other reason assigned why hounds, which we know to be good, should remain so long as they sometimes do without k'liing a {o:!L^> — Large packs are least subjeft to this inconveni- ence : hounds that are quite fresh, and in high spirits, least feel the want of blood: — the smallest packs, there* fore, should be able to leave at least ten or twelve couple of hounds behind them, to be fresh against the next hunting day. If your hounds be much out of blood, give them rest ; take this opportunity to hunt with other Lounds ; to see how they are managed j to observe what stallion hounds they have j and to judge yourself, whether they be such as it is fit for you to breed from.— If what I have now recommended should not succeed ; if a little rest, and a fine morning, do not put your hounds into blood * A pack of hounds that had been a month without killing a fox, at last ran one to ground, which they dug, and killed upon the earth : the Ticxt seven days that they hunted, they killed a fox each day. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 309 again, I know of nothing else that will ; and you must attribute your ill success, I fear, to another cause. You say, that you generally hunt at a late hour : after a tolerably good run, do not try to find another fox. Should you be long in finding, and should you not have success afterwards, it will hurt your hounds : should you try a long time, and not find, that also will make them slack* Never try to find a fox after one o'clock; you had better return home, and hunt again on the next day : — not that 1, in general, approve of hunting two days following with the same hounds : the trying so many hours in vain, and the being kept so long off their food, both contribute to make them slack; and nothing, surely, is more contrary to the true spirit of fox-hunting; for fox-hounds, I have already said, ought always to be above their work. This is another particular, in which hare-hunting and fox- hunting totally differ ; for harriers cannot be hunted too muclj, as long as they are able to hunt at all : the slower they go, the less likely they will be to over-run the scent, and the sooner, in all probability, will they kill their game. I have a friend, who hunted his five days follow- 5 8 2^ 3IO THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. ing, and assured me, that he had better sport with them the hist day than the first. I REMEMBER to have heard, tiiat a ccrtahi pack of fox- hounds, since become famous, were many weeks, from a mixture of indifferent hounds, bad management, and worse luck, without killing a fox ; however, they killed one at last, and tried to find another : — they found him, and they lost him ; and were then, as you may well suppose, another month without killing another fox : — this was ill-judged : they should have returned home im- mediately. When hounds are much out of blood, some men pro- ceed in a method that nmst necessarily keep them so ; they hunt them every day, as if tiring them out were a means to give them strength and spirit : — this, however, proceeds more fiom ill -nature and resentment, tlian sound judgment*. As I know your temper to be the re- verse, without doubt, you will adopt a different method j * It is r.ot the want of blood only that is prejudicial to hounds : tlie trying long in vain to recover a lost scent, no less contributes to make •jijsem slack. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. ^11 cind, should your hounds ever be in the sta.,te liere described, you will keep theai fresh for the first fine (.b.y ; when, sup- posing them to be all perfedly steady, I do not question that they will kill their fox. When hounds are in want of blood, give them every advantage; go out early, choose a good quiet morning, and throw ofFyour hounds where they are likely to find, and are least likely to change : — if it be a small cover, or furze- brake, and you can keep the fox in, it is right to do it ; f jr the sooner you kill him, when you are in want of blood, the better for the hounds. When hounds are in want of blood, and you get a fox into a small cover, it must be your own fault if you do not kill him there: place your people properly, and he cannot get off again. You will hear, perhaps, that it is impossible to head back a fox. No animal is so shy ; consequently, no animal is so easily headed back by those who understand it. "When it is your intention to check a fox, your people must keep at a little distance from the cover-side ; nor should they be sparing of their voices; for,, since you cannot keep him in (if he be de- 312. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. termined to come out), prevent him, if you can, from be- ing so inclined. All kind of mobbing is allowable, when hounds are out of blood * ; and you may keep the fox in cover, or let him out, as you think the hounds will manage hiin best. Though I am so great an advocate for blood, as to judge it necessary to a pack of fox-hounds, yet 1 by no means approve of it, so far as it is sometimes carried. I have known three young foxes chopped in a furze- brake in one day, without any sport j a wanton destrudion of foxes, scarcely answering the purpose of blood ; since that blood does hounds most good which is most dearly earned. Such sportsmen richly deserve blank days j and, without doubt, they often meet with them. Mobbing a fox, indeed, is only allowable v,'hen hounds are not likely to be a match for him v/ithout it. One would almost be icclined to think blood as necessary to the men as to the hounds, since the best chase is flat, unless you kill the fox. When you ask a fox- hunter. What sport he has had? and he rephes, It was ^ood-, I think the next * Yet, how many foxes owe their lives to the too great eagerness of their pursuers ? THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 313 question generally is, Did your hounds killf — If he should say, They did ;z7/, the conversation ends; but if, on the con- trary, he tell you that they did, you then ask a hundred questions, and seldom are satisfied till he has related every particular of the chase. When there is snow on the ground, foxes will lie at earth*. Should your hounds be in want of blood, it will at that time be easy to dig one to turn out before them, when the weather breaks : — but I seem to have forgotten a new dodrine which 1 lately heard, that blood is not ne- cessary to a pack of fox-hounds. \i you also should have taken up that opinion, I have only to wish, that the good? ness of your hounds may prevent you from changing it, or from knowing how far it may be erroneous -f. Before you have been long a fox-hunter, I exped to hear you talk of the ill-luck which so frequently attends * Earths should be watched when there is snow upon the ground ; for foxes then will lie at earth. Those who are inclined to destroy them, can track them in, and may dig them out. + Those who can suppose the killing of a fox to be of no service to a pack of fox-hounds, may suppose, perhaps, that it does them hurt : it is going but one step further. 314 TPIOUGHTS UPON HITNTIKG. this diversion. I can assure you, it has provoked me often, and has made even a parson szvear : — it was but the other day that we experienced an extraordinary instance of it : we found at the same instant a brace of foxes in the same cover 3 and they both broke at the opposite ends of it. The hounds soon got together, and went off very well with one of them; yet notwithstanding this, such was our ill-hick, that, though the hunted fox took a circle of several miles, he at last crossed the line of the other fox ; the heel of which we hunted back to the cover from whence we came : it is true, we perceived that our scent worsted, and were going to stop the hounds; but the eoinp" offijf a Vvhite frost deceived us also in that. o o Many a fox have 1 known lost by running into houses and stables. It is Jiot long since my hounds lost one^ when hunting in the Nev/ Forest : — after having tried the country round, they had given him up, and were gotten home; when in rode a farmer, full gallop, with news of the fox : he had found him, he said, in his stable, and had shut him in. The hounds returned : the fox, how- ever, stood but a little while, as he was quite run up before. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 315 Some years ago, my Iiounds running a fox across an open country in a thick fog, the fox scarcely our of view, three of the leading hounds disappeared all of a sudden ;- and the whipper-in, luckily, was near enough to see it happen. They fell into a dry well, near a hundred feet deep : they and the fox remained there together till the next day, when, with the greatest difficulty, we got them all four out. Another time, having run a fox a burst of an hour and a quarter (the severest 1 ever remember), the hounds at last got up to him by the side of a river, where he had stayed for tl^iem. One hound seized him as he was swim- ming across, and they both went down together : the hound came up again, but the fox appeared no more. By means of a boat and a long pole, we got the fox out. Had he not been seen to sink, he would hardly have been iried for under water ; and, without doubt, we should have wondered what had become of him. Now we are in the chapter of accidents, I must men- • fion another, that lately happened to me on crossing a T t o l6 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING, river, to draw a cover on the other side of it : — The river Stower frequently overflows its banks, and is also very rapid and very dangerous. The flood that morning, though sud- den, was extensive : the neighbouring meadows were all laid under water, and only the tops of the hedges appeared. There were posts to dired us to the bridge ; but we had a great length of water to pass before we could get at it : it was, besides, so deep, that our horses almost swam ; and the shortest-legged horses, and longest-legged riders, were worst off. — The hounds dashed in as usual, and were immediately carried, by the rapidity of the current, a long way down the stream. The huntsman was far behind them ; and, as he could advance but slowly, he w^as constrained to see his hounds w^ear themselves out in a useless contention with the current, from their efforts to pet to him. It was a shocking scene! — many of the hounds, when they reached the shore, had entirely lost the use of their limbs; for it froze, and the cold was intolerable ; some lay as if they were dead, and others reeled as if they had been drinking wine. Our ill-luck was not yet complete : the weakest hounds, or such as were most afFeded by the cold, we now saw entangled in the tops of the hedges, and heard their la- THOUGHTS UPON HUNTINC?. 317 mentations. Well-known tongues ! and such as I had never before heard without pleasure. It was painful to see their distress, and not know how to relieve it. A number of people, by this time, w-ere assembled near the river-side ; but there was not one amongst them that would venture in. However, a guinea, at last, tempted one man to fetch out a hound that was entangled in a bush, and would otherwise have perished. Two hounds re- mained upon a hedge all night; and, though at a consider- able distance from each other when we left them, yet they got together afterwards ; and the next morning, when the flood abated, they Vv^ere found closely clasping each other : without doubt, it was the friendly warmth which they afford- ed each other that kept both alive. We lost but one hound by this unlucky expedition, but could not save any of our terriers. They were seen to sink, their strength not being sufficient to resist the two enemies they had to en- counter (powerful, when combined) — -the severity of the cold, and the rapidity of the stream. You ask. At what time you should leave off hunting? It is a question which I know not how to answer ; as it depends as much on the quantity of game that you have, T t ^ •^l3 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING, as on the country that you hunt : however, in my opi- nloHy no good country should be hunted after February j nor should there be any hunting at all after March» Spring-hunting is sad destruction of foxes : in one week you may destroy as many as would have shewn you sport for a whole season. We killed a bitch-fox one morning, with seven young ones, which were all alive. I can assure you, we missed them very much the next year, and had many blank days which we needed not to have had, but through our own fault. I should tell you, this nota- ble feat was performed, literally, on the first of April, If you will hunt late in the season, you should at least leave your terriers behind you. I hate to kill any animal- out of season. A hen-pheasant with egg, I have heard, is famous eating , yet, I can assure you I never mean tc taste it y — and the hunting a bitch -fox big with young,, appears to m.e cruel and unnatural. A gentleman of my acquaintance, who killed most of his foxes at this season- was humorously called, midwife to the foXes. Are not the foxes' heads, which are so pompously ex- posed to view, often prejudicial to sport in fox-hunting ? — How many foxes are wantonly destroyed, without the least THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING". ^ig service to the hounds or sport to the master j that the huntsman may say, he has killed so many brace ! — How many are digged out and killed, when blood is not wanted, for no better reason ! — foxes that, another day, perhaps, the earths well stopped, might have run hours, and died gallantly at last- I remember, myself, to have seen a pack of hounds kill three in one day j and, though tlie last ran to ground, and the hounds had killed two before, therefore could not be supposed to be in want of blood, the fox was digged out, and killed upon the earth. How- ever, it answered one purpose which you would little ex- pedl — it put a clergyman, who w^as present, in mind that he had a corpse to bury^ which otherwise had been forgotten, I SHOULD have less obje6lion to the number of foxes' heads that are to be seen against every kennel-door, did it ascertain with more precision the goodness of the hounds j which may more justly be known from the few foxes they lose, than from the number that they kill. When you inquire after a pack of fox-hounds, whether they be good, or not, and are told they seldom miss a fox ; your mind is perfedly satisfied about them, and you inquire no fur- 320 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. ther : — it Is not always so, when you are told the number of foxes they have killed. If you ask a Frenchman, What age he is of? he will tell you that he is in good health. In like manner, when I am asked, How many brace of foxes my hounds have killed ? I feel myself inclined to say, the hounds are good; an answer v/hich, in my opinion, goes more im.mediately to the spirit of the question than any other that I could give ; since the number of foxes* heads is, at best, but a presumptive proof of the goodness of the hounds. In a country neighbouring to mine, foxes are difficult to be killed, and not easy to be found ; and the gentlemen who hunt that country, are very well con- tented when they kill a dozen brace of foxes in a season. My hounds kill double that number :, ought it to be in- ferred from thence that they are twice as good ? All countries are not equally favourable to hounds. 1 hunt in three, all as different as it is possible to be; and the sane hounds that behave well in one, sometimes appear to behave indifferently in another. Were the most famous pack, therefore, to change their good country for the bad one I here allude to (though, without doubt. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTINGi 32I they would behave well), they certainly would meet with less success than they are at present used to : our cold flinty hills would soon convince them^ that the difference of strength between one fox and another — the difference of goodness betwixt one hound and another — are yet but trifles, vAien compared with the more material difference of a good-scenting country and a bad one*. I CAN hardly think you serious, when you ask me, If the same hounds can hunt both hare and fox ? — However, thus far you may assure yourself, that it cannot be done with any degree of consistency. As to your other ques- tion, of hunting the hounds yourself, ihal is an undei- taking which, if you will follow my advice, you will let alone. It is your opinion, I find, that a gentleman might make the best huntsman : I have no doubt that he would, * Great inequality of scent is very unfavourable to hounds. In heathy countries the scent always lies ; yet I have remaiked, that the many roads which cross them, and the many inclosures cf poor land that surround them, render hunting in such countries, at times, very difficult to hounds. The sudden change from a good scent to a bad one, puzzles their noses, and confuses their understandings ; and many of them, without doubt, follow the scent unwillingly, owing to the little credit that they give to it. In my opinion, therefore, a scent which is less good, but more equal; is more favourable to hounds. 322 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. if he chose the trouble of it. I do not think there is any^ profession, trade, or occupation, to which a good edu- cation would not be of service ; and hunting, notwith- standing it is at present exercised by such as have not had an education, might, without doubt, be carried on much better by those that have. I will venture to say, fewer faults would then be ' committed ^ nor would the same fcmlts be committed over and over again, as they now are. Huntsmen never reason- by analogy, nor are they much benefited by experience. Having told you, in a former Letter, what a huntsman ought to be, the following, which I can assure you is a true copy, will shew you, in some instances at least, what he ought not to be : "* SIR, Yours I received the 24th of this present Instant June and at your request I will give you an impartial account of my man John G 's CharaAer. He is a Shoemaker or Cordwainer which you please to call it by trade and THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 32J now in our Town he is following the Carding Business for every one that wants him he served his Time at a Town called Brigstock in Northamptonshire and from thence in great Addington Journeyman to this Occu- pation as before mentioned and used to come to my house and foqnd by riding my horses to v/ater that he rode a horse pretjty well which was not at all mistaken for he rides a horse well and he looks after a kennel of hounds very well and finds a hare very well he hath no judgment ir> hunting a pack of hoynds now tho he rides well he dont with discretion for he dont know how to make the most of 3. horse but a very harey starey fellow will ride over a church if in his way tho may prevent the leap by hay- ing a gap within ten yards of him and if you are not 14 the field with him yourself when you are a hunting to tutor him about riding he will kill all the horses you have in the stable iri one month for he hath killed dovynright and lamed so that will never be fit for use no more than five horses since he hath hunted my hounds which is two yesLVs and upwards he can talk no dog language to a hound he hath no voice speaks to a hound just as if his head were in a drum nor neither does he know how to draw a hound when they are at a loss no more^than a Uu 324 THQUGHTS UPON HUNTING. child of two 5'ears old as to his honesty I alwaj^s found him honest till about a week ago and have found him dishonest now for about a week ago I sent my servant that I have now to fetch some sheep's feet from Mr. Stanjan of Higham Ferrers where G used to go for feet and I always send my money by my man that brings the feet and Stanjan told my man that 1 have now that I owed him money for feet and when the boy came home he told me and I went to Stanjan and when 1 found the truth of the matter G had kept my money in his hands and had never paid Stanjan he had been along with me once for a letter in order for his charad:er to give him one but I told him I could not give him a good one so I would not write at all G is a very great drunkard cant keep a penny in his pocket a sad notorious lyar if you send him upon an errand a mile or two from Uppingham he will get drunk stay all day and never come home while the middle of the night or such time as he knows his master is in bed he can nor will not keep any secret neither hath he so much wit as other people for the fellow is half a fool for if you would have business done with expedition if he once gets out of the town or sight of you shall see him no more while the next morning he serves me so and THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 325 SO you must exped the same if you hire him I use you just as 1 would be used myself if 1 desired a charader of you of a servant that I had designed to hire of yours as to let you know the truth of every thing about him. 1 am Sir Your most humble servant to command jp.s. He takes good care of his horses with good looking jlfter him as to the dressing e'm but if you dont take care he will fill the manger full of corn so that he will cloy the horses and ruin the whole stable of horses. Great Addmgton June the 28th 1734. Uu 2 ^26 TIfOUGHTS UPON HUNTING^ 4? LETTER XXIII, I TOLD you, 1 believe, at the beginning of our cor- respondence, that I disHked bag -foxes : 1 shall now tell you what my obje food. Foxes turned out answer best, when left to breed. THGLTGHTS UPON HUNTING. $$$ a private mark on every fox which you turn out, that you may know him again. Your cubs, though they may get off from the covers where they were bred, when hunted will seldom fail to reiuni to them. Gentlemen who buy. foxes do gi'eat injury to fox- hunting; for they encourage the robbing of neighbouring hunts : in which case, without doubt, the receiver is as bad as the thief. It is the interest of every fox-hunter to be cautious how he behaves in this particular. Indeed, I be- lieve most gentlemen are ; and it may be easy to retaliate on such as are not. — 1 am told, that in some hunts it is the constant employment of one person to watch the earths at -the breeding time, to prevent the cubs from being stolen. Furze-covers cannot be too much encouraged, for that reason ; for there they are safe. They have also other ad- vantages attending them : they are certain places to find in : foxes cannot break from them unseen ; nor are you so liable to change as in other covers*. * A fox, when pressed by hounds, will seldom go into zfurze^brake. Rabbits, which are the fox's favourite food, may also be encouraged there, and yet do little damage. Were they suffered to establish themselves in XX 2 334 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. Agq37A1Nted as I am with your sentiments^ it would be peedless to desire you to be cautious how you buy foxes. The price that some men pay for them, might well encourage the robbing of every hunt in the kingdom, their own not excepted. But you despise the soi disant gentleman v;ho receives them, more tlian the poor thief who takes them. Some gentlemen ask no questions, and flatter themselves they have found out that convenient viez^o termino for the easy accommodation of their consciences. With respe(5t to the digging of foxes that you run tp ground — what 1 myself have observed in that business, I will endeavour to rccolle6t. My people usually, I think, follow the hole, except when the earth is large, and the terriers have fixed the fox in an angle of it ; for they then find it a more expeditious method to sink a pit as near to him as they can. You should always keep a terrier- in at the foxi for, if you do not, he not only may move, but also, in loose ground, may dig himself further in. In your woods, it would be difncult to destroy them afterwards. Thus far I objeft to them, as a farmer : I objcft to them also, as a fox-hunter ; since nothing is more prejudicial to the breeding of foxes, than disturbing your wcods late in tliQ season, to deitroy the rabbits. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 33^5 -diggixig, you should keep room enough ^ and care should be taken not to throw the earth where you may have it to move agahi. In following the hole, the surest way not to lose it is to keep below it. — When your hounds are in want of blood, stop all the holes, kst the fox should bok out unseen. It causes no small confusion when this hap- pens : the hounds are dispersed about, and asleep in differ- ent places ; the horses are often at a considerable distance j and many a fox, by taking advantage of the moment, has saved his life. If hounds want blood, and have had a long run, it is the best way, without doubt, to kill the fox upon the .earth ;— but, if they have not run long; if it be easy to dig out the fox, and the cover be such a one as they arc '•not likely to change in — it is better for the hounds to turn liim out upon the earth, and let them work for him. It js the blood that will do them most good, and rnay be ser- viceable to the hounds, to the horses, and to yourself. — ^'toging ^ fox is cold work, and may require a gallop afterwards, to warm you all again. Before you do this, if there be any other earths in the cover, ^hey should b? stopped, lest the fox should go to ground again. 2^6 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING, Let your huntsman try all around, and let him be per-? fe6tly satisfied that the fox is not gone on, before you try an earth : for want of this precaution, 1 dug three hours to a terrier, that lay all the time at a rabbit. There was another circumstance, which I am not likely to forget — *' ibat J had twenty miles to ride hom^ afterivai-ds.'" — A fox sometimes runs over an earth, and does not go into it : he sometimes goes in, and docs not stay : he may find it too hot, or may not like the company that he meets with there. I make no doubt that he has good reasons for every thing he docs, though we are not ahvays acquainted with them. Huntsmen, when they get near the fox, will some- times put a hound in to draw him. This i?, however, a cruel operation, and seldom answers any other purpose than to occasion the dog a bad bile, the fox's head gene- rally being towards him ; besides, a fgw minutes digging will render it unnecessary. If you let the fox first seize your whip, the hound will draw him more readily*. * Yon may draw a fox, by fixing a piece of whip. cord, made into a noose, at the end of a stick ; which, wlien the fox seizes, you may draw him out by . tHOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. :>3 37 Vou should not encourage bldgers in your woods: they inake strong earths, which will be expensive and trouble- some to you, if you stop them 5 or fatal to your sport, if you do not. You, without doubt, remember an old Oxford toast : Hounds stout, and horses healthy^ Earths well stopp'd, and foxes plenty. All, certainly, very desirable to a fox-hunter; yet, 1 appre- hend the earlhs stopped to be the most necessary j for the others, without that^ would be useless. Besides, I am not certain that earths are the safest places for foxes to breed in j for frequently, when poachers cannot dig them, they will catch the young foxes in trenches dug at the mouth of the hole, which I believe they call tunning them. A few large earths near to your house, are certainly desirable, as they will draw the foxes thither, and, after a long day, will sometimes bring you home* If foxes should have been bred in an earth which you think unsafe, you had better stink them out : that, or in^ {^ztA any disturbance at the mouth of the hole, will make the old one carry them oif to another place. ^^8 THOUGI^ITS tJfON flU^ITtNG'. In open countries, foxes, when they are mueh disturbed, Xvili He at earth. If you have difficulty in finding, stinking the earths will sometimes produce them again. The method ivhich I use to stink an earth, is as follows :— Three pounds of sulphur and one pound of asafostida are boiled up to- gether : matches are then made of brown paper, and light- ed in the holes, which are afterwards stopped very close. Earths that are not used by badgers, may be stopped early, which will answer the same purpose ; but, where badgers frequent, it would be useless ; for they would open them again. Badgers may be caught alive in sacks placed at the mouth of the hole : setting traps for them would be dan- gerous, as you might catch your foxes also : — they may be caught by stinking them out of a great earth, and af- terwards follovying them to a smaller one, and digging them. YotJR country requires a good terrier. I should prefer the black or white terrier: — some there are so like a fox, that aukv/ard people frequently mistake one for the other. If you like terriers to run with your pack, large ones, at THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 339 limes, are useful j but in an earth they do little good, as they cannot always get up to a fox. You had bettef not enter a young terrier at a badger. Young terriers have not the art of shifting like old ones ; and, should they be good for any thing, most probably will go up boldly to birr' at once, and get themselves most terribly bitten : for this reason, you should enter them at young foxes when you can. Before I quit this subjed, I must mention an ex« traordinary instance of sagacity in a bitch-fox that was dig- ged out of an earth, with four young ones, and brought in a sack upwards of twenty miles to a gentleman in my neighs bourhood, to be turned out the next day before his hounds. This fox, weak as she must have been, ran in a straight line back again to her own country, crossed two rivers, and was at last killed near to the earth out of which she had been digged the day before. Foxes that are bred in cliffs near the sea, seldom are known to ramble any great distance from them : and sportsmen, who know the count:'y where this fox was turned out, will tell you, that there is not the least reason to think that she could have had any knowledge of it. Besides the digging of foxes (by which method many young ones are taken, and old ones destroyed), traps, &c. vy <^^0 THOUGHTS UPON HtTNTlNG. too often are fatal to them :— farmers for their lambs 5 (which, by the bye, few foxes ever kill) ; gentlemen for their game ; and old women for their poultry — are their inveterate enemies. I must, however, give an instance of civility that I once met with from a farmer : — The hounds had found, and were running hard: the farmer came up in high spirits, and said, " I hope. Sir, you will kill him : " he has done me much damage lately : he carried away *' all my ducks last week. I would not gm him though — *' too good a sportsman for that." — So much for the ho- nest farmer. In the country where 1 live, most of the gentlemen arc sportsmen ; and even those who are not, shew every kind of attention to those who are. 1 am sorry that it is other- wioe with you ; and that your old gouty neighbour should destroy your foxes, I must own, concerns me, I know some gentlemen, who, when a neighbour had destroyed all their foxes, and thereby prevented them from pursuing a favourite amusement, loaded a cart with spaniels, and went all together and destroyed his phea- sants. 1 think they might have called this very pro- perly, lex talionis 3 and it had the desired effed , for, as THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. ^41 the gentleman did not think it prudent to fight them all^ he took the wiser method — he made peace with them : — he gave an order, that no more foxes should he destroyed j and they never afterwards killed any of his pheasants. Yy 2 *42- THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. LETTER XXIV. I AM now, my friend, about to take leave of 3'ou ^ and, at the same time that 1 give repose to you, let me en- treat you to shew the sam^ favour to your hounds and horses. It is now the breeding season ; a proper time, in my opinion, to leave off hunting j since it is more likely to be your servant's amusement than yours 5 and is always to the prejudice of two noble animals, which we sportsmen are bound in gratitude to take care of. After a long and tiresome winter, surely the horse de- serves some repose. Let him, then, enjoy his short-lived liberty J and, as his feet are the parts which suffer most, turn him out into a soft pasture. Some there are who disapprove of grass, saying, that, when a horse is in good order, the turning him out undoes it all again. It cer- tainly does : yet, at the same time, I believe that no horse can be fresh in his limbs, or will last you long» THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 34^ without it. Can standing in a hot stable do him any ' good ? — and can hard exercise, particularly in the sum- mer, be of any advantage to him ? — Is it not soft ground and long rest that will best refresh his limbs, while the night air and morning dews will invigorate his- body ? — Some never physic their hunters j only observing, when they first take them up from grass, to work them gently : some turn out theirs all the j'ear. It is not unusual for such as follow the latter method, to physic their horses at ■ grass : they then are taken up, well fed, and properly ) exercised, to get them into order : this done, they are turned out for a few hours every day when they are not { ridden. The pasture should be dry, and should have V but little grass : there they will stretch their limbs, and \ cool their bodies, and will take as much exercise as is ne- (. cessary for them. I have remarked, that, thus treated, they catch fewer colds, have the use of their limbs more'x freely, and are less liable to lameness, than other horses. Another advantage attends this method, which, in the horses you ride yourself, you will allow to be very mate- rial: — Your horse, when once he is in order, will require less strong exercise than grooms generally give their 344 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. horses ; and his mouth, in all probabiHty, will not be the worse for it. ' " The Earl of Pembroke, in his Military Equitation, is, I find, of the same opinion : — He tells us, " it is of the ** greatest consequence for horses to be kept clean, regu- ** larly fed, and as regularly exercised : but whoever chooses *' to ride in the way of ease and pleasure, without any ** fatigue on horseback ; or, in short, does not like to ** carry his horse, instead of his horse's carrying him — " must not suffer his horse to be exercised by a groom ; " standing up on his stirrups, holding himself on by means " of the reins, and thereby hanging his whole dead weight " on the horse's mouth, to the entire destru(5tion of all that " is good, safe, or pleasant, about the animal."— And in another place he says : " Horses should be turned " loose somewhere, or walked about every day, when " they do not work, particularly after hard exercise : " swelled legs, physic, &c. will be saved by these means, " and many distempers avoided." — He also observes, that ** it is a matter of the greatest consequence, though few " attend ro it, to feed horses according to their work. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 545 " When the work is hard, food should be in plenty | when *' it is otherwise, the food should be diminished immedi- " ately — the hay particularly." 1 HAVE no doubt that the noble author is perfedly right in these observations : I am also of opinion, that a handful or two of clean wheaten straw, chopped small, and mixed Vvith their corn, would be of great service to your horses, provided that you have interest enough %vith your groom to prevail on him to give it them. Such of my horses as are physicked at grass, have two doses given them when they are turned out, and three more before they are taken up. Grass-physic is of so mild a kind, that 3'ou will not find this quantity too much ; nor have I ever known an accident happen from it, although it has been given in very indifferent weather. 1 should tell you, that my horses are always taken in the first night after their physic, though the printed dire(flions, I believe, do not require it. Such horses as are full of hu- mours should be physicked at house, since they may require stronger doses than grass-physic will admit of; which 1 think more proper to prevent humours than to remove them. The 346 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. only use I know in physicking a horse that does not appear to want it, is to prevent, if possible, his requiring it at a time when you cannot so well spare him j I mean the hunt- ing season. .Should an accident of this kind happen. Stibi- um's balls, of which I send you the receipt, will be found of use. Crocus metallorum, levigated, 2 ozs. Stibium's ditto, - - 2 Flower of brimstone, - 1 Castile-soap, - - i Liquorice-powder, _ - i Honey q. s. to make it into a paste. A ball (of one ounce weight) is to be given for three mornings successively. The horse must be ke^t fasting for two hours after he has taken it : he then may have a feed of corn, and soon after that, moderate exercise: the same should be repeated four days afterwards. These balls purify the blood, and operate on the body by insensi- ble perspiration. I FREQUENTLY give nitre to such of my hunters as are not turned out to grass : it cools their bodies, and is of service to them : it may be given either in their wa- ter or in their corn : I sometimes give an ounce in each. THOUGHtS UPON HUNTING. 347 To such of my horses as are thick-winded, and such as carry but little flesh, I give carrots. In many stables they are given at the time of feedings in the corn : I prefer giving them at any other time j for it is a food which horses are so fond of, that if by any accident you should omit the carrot Sy I doubt whether they would eat the corn readily without them. I THINK you are perf^dly in the right to mount your people well : — there is no good economy in giving them bad horses : they take no care of them, but wear them out ias soon as they can, that they may have ethers. The question that you ask me about shoeing, I am un- able to answer : yet I am of opinion, that horses should be shod with more or less iron, according as the country wherein they hunt requires j but in this a good farrier will best direft you. Nothing, certainly, is more necessary to a horse than to be well shod : — the shoe should be a pro- per one, and it should fit his foot. Farriers are but too apt to make the foot fit the shoe*. My groom carries a * I venture to give the following rules on shoeing, in a short and deci. sive manner, as founded on the stridest anatomical and mechanical princi- 348 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTINGi false shoe, which just serves to save a horse's hoof, whert he loses a shoe, till it can be put on again. In some countries you see them loaded with saws, hatchets, &c. 1 am glad that the country in which I hunt does not re-* quire them. In the book that I have just quoted, you will find the shoeing of horses treated of very much at large. I beg leave, therefore, if you want further information on that head, to refer you to it. Having declared my disapprobation of summer-htint- pies laid down by the best masters : — The shoe should be flat, and not turned up at the heel, or reach beyond that or the toe ; but the middle part should extend rather beyond the outward edge of the hoof, that the hoof may not be contrafled ; the outward part of which may be pared, to bring it down to an even surface, to fit it for the fixing on of the shoe* if the foot be too long, the toe may be pared, or rasped down ; which, in many cases, may even be necessary to preserve the proper shape of the hoof, and bring the foot to a stroke and bearing the most natural and ad- vantageous. Neither the horny soal, or frog (meant by Nature for the guard of the foot and safety of the horsej, are upon any account to be pared, or cut away. The small, loose, ragged parts that at times appear, should be cut off with a pen-knife ; .but*^hat destruftive instrument called the butteris, which, in the hands of stubborn ignorance, has done more injury to the feet, of horses tHan all the chases of the world, should be banished for cvex. THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 349 ing, on account of the horses, 1 must add, that I am not less an enemy to it on account of the hounds also : they^ I think, should have some time allowed th^rm to recover the strains and bruises of many a painful chase ; and their diet, in which the adding to their strength has been, perhaps, too much considered, should now be altered. No more flesh should they now eat j but in its stead should have their bodies cooled with whey, greens, and thin meat. Without this precaution, the mange most pro- bably would be the immediate consequence of hot weather^ perhaps madness — Direful malady ! As a country life has been recommended in all ages (not less for the contentment of the mind than the health of the body), it is no wonder that hunting should be con- sidered by so many as a necessary part of it, since nothing conduces more to both. A great genius has told us, that it is Better to hunt in fields for health unbought. Than fee the do(5W for a nauseous draught. With regard to its peaceful -state, according to a moderi> poet. 35® THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. No fierce unruly senate threatens here. No axe or scaffold to the view appear. No envy, disappointment, and despair. } And, for the contentment which is supposed to accompany a country life, we have not only the best authority of our own time to support it, but even that of the best poets of the Augustan age. Virgil surely felt what he wrote, when he said, " 0 fortunatos nimium, sua si bona itorint, agricolas /'* and Horace's famous ode, " Beatus ilk qui procid ncgotiis^^ seems not less to come from the heart of a man who is generally allowed to have had a perfedt knowledge of man- kind ; and this, even at the time when he was the favou- rite of the greatest emperor, and in the midst of all the magnificence of the greatest city, in the world. The elegant Pliny also, in his Epistle to MInutlus Fundanus, which is admirably translated by the Earl of Or- rery, v\hilst he arraigns the life that he leads at Rome, speaks with a kind of rapture of a country life: — "Welcome," says he, " thou life of integrity and virtue ! — Welcome, " sweet and innocent amusement ! — Thou art almost pre- " ferable to business and employment of every kind !" — And it v/as here, we are told, that the great Bacon expe- THOUGHTS UPON HUNTING. 3^1 fienced his truest felicity. With regard to th,e oiium cu?n dignitate^ so much recom mended, no one, I beheve, un- derstands the true meaning of it better, or pradises it more successfully, than you do, A RURAL life, I think, is better suited to this kingdom than to any other ; because the country in England affords pleasures and amusements unknown in other countries ; and because its rival, our English town (or ton) life, perhaps is a less pleasant one than may be found elsewhere. If this, upon a nice investigation of the matter, should appear to be stfidlly true, the conclusion that would ne- cessarily result from it might prove more than I mean it should ; therefore we will drop the subjeifl:. Should you, however, differ from me in opinion of your town- life, and disapprove what I have said concerning it, you may excuse me, if you please, as you would a lawyer who does the best he can for the party for whom he is re- tained. I think you will also excuse any expressions that I may have used, which may not be current kere ; if you find, as I verily believe you may, that I have not made use of a French word, but when I could not have expressed my meaning so well by an English one. It is only an unne- ^^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^- THOUGHTS UPON HUNTIL^G. 353 Ksaudart, ^ivhich, as a French author informs us, an army of twenty thousand French chasseurs went out in vain to kilL If my time In writing to you has not been so well employed as it might have been, you at least will not find that fault with it : nor shall I repent of having employed it in this manner, unless it were more certain than it is, that I should have employed it Metier. It is true, these Letters are longer than I first intended they should be : they would have been shorter, could I have bestowed more time upon them. — Some technical words have crept in imperceptibly, and with them, some expressions better suited to the field than to the closet : nor is it neces- sary, perhaps, that a sportsman, when he is writing to a sportsman, should make excuses for them. In some of my Letters you have found great variety of matter : the variety of questions contained in yours, made it some- times unavoidable. I know that there must be some tauto- logy. It is scarcely possible to remember all that has been said in former Letters ; let that difficulty, if you please, excuse the fault. I fear there may be some contradidions for the same reason ; and there may be. many exceptions. 354 THOUGHTS UPON HUNTliTG. I trust them all to your candour; nor can they be in better' hands. I hope you will not find that I have at different times given different opinions; but, should that be the case,' without doubt you will follow the opinion which coincides most with your own. If on any points I have differed from great authorities, I am sorry for it. I have never hunted with those who are looked up to as the great masters of this science; and, when I diifer from them, it is without design. Other methods, doubtless, there are, to make the keeping of hounds much more expensive ; which, as I do not pradlise myself, I shall not recommend to you : — -treat- ed after the manner here described, they -will kill foxes,' and shew you sport. I have answered all' your questions as concisely as I was able ; and it has been my constant en- deavour to say no more than I thought the subjedt required. The time inay come, when more experienced sportsmen, and abler pens, may do it greater justice : — till then, accept the observations that 1 have made : — take them, read thetn, try them. — There was a time when I should rea- dily have received the information which they give, imperfed as it may be ; for experience is ever a slow teacher, and I have had no other. With regard to books, Somerville is- THOUGHTS. UPaN HUNTING. 355 tke only author whom I have found of any use on this sub? jeit. You will admire tlie poet, and esteem the man ; yet 1 am not certain that you will be always satisfied with the lessons of the huntsman. Proud of the authority, I have quoted from him as often as it would suit your pur- pose i and for your sake have I braved the evident disad- vantage that attended it. I wish this elegant poet had answered all your questions: you then would have re- ceived but one letter from me, to refer you to him.. That no other writer should have followed his steps, may, I think, be thus accounted for : — Those gentlemen who make a profession of writing live chiefly in town, conse- quently cannot be supposed to know much of hunting ; and those who do know any thing of it, are either servants who cannot write, or country gentlemen who will not give themselves the trouble. However, I have met with some curious remarks, which I cannot help communicating to you. One author tells us, that " coursing is niore agree- " able than hunting, because it is sooner over j" — " that a ** terrier is a mongrel greyhound ;" — and, " that dogs hav§ " often coughs from eat ijig fish-bones,^* Another (a French author) advises us to give a horses 356 THOUGHTS UAON HUNTING. - after hunting, *' a soup made of bread and wine, and an ** onion." — I fear an English groom would eat the onion and drink the wine- The same author has also a very peculiar method of catching rabbits, which you will please to take in his own words : he calls it, Cbasse dii lapin a Vecrevisse. " Cette *' chasse convient aux personnes qui ne veident employer ni fu- *' rets ni armes a feu: on tend des pochcs a une extremite d^un " terrier^ et a r autre on gtisse une ecrcvisse; eel animal arrive " peu-a-peu an fond de la retraite dii lapin, le pique, s'y at- '* tathe avee tant de foree, que le quadrupede est oblige defuir,- " emportant avee lui son ennetni, et vient se faire prendre dam •* le filet qu'on lui a tendu a Voiiverture du terrier, Cette ehasse " demande beaueoup de patience: les operations de Vecrevisse ** sont lentes, mais aussi elks sonl quelquefois plus sttres que •' celles du furet.''* This gentleman's singular method of hunting rabbits ivith a lobster, reminds me of a method that Harlequin* has of killing hares (not less ingenious) with Spanish snuff. * The Harlequin of the Italian theatre, whose tovgue is at liberty, as well as his hvds. 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 2 358 THOUGHTS Ui>6N tiViftl^t, " than matter, and of that which is, for the most part^ *' very erroneous." — All who have written on the subje}v \ \ ■^ ?5 "^ ^ ^ ^ ^ i^ ^'i '=:) ^. ^ >b^ ' ^ ^ ^ § ^^ '-5 ^ ^ 1 ^ :f ^ ^ ■4 J '^ §l^^^ S .S ] § J \ ^ ^ u VS ^ ''■^^Mm'f^X