Thoughts Upon Hunting: In a Series of Familiar Letters to a Friend

Front Cover
J. Debrett, 1802 - Fox hunting - 360 pages
 

Selected pages

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 10 - First let the kennel be the huntsman's care, Upon some little eminence erect, And fronting to the ruddy dawn ; its courts On either hand wide opening to receive The Sun's all-cheering beams, when mild he shines, And gilds the mountain tops.
Page 39 - When the game is found, you cannot be too quiet : the hare is an animal so very timorous, that she is frequently headed back, and your dogs are liable to overrun the scent at every instant...
Page 33 - The vigorous hounds pursue, with every breath 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.
Page 13 - Far-gleaming, dart the same united blaze ; Reviewing generals his merit own ; How regular ! how just ! and all his cares Are well repaid, if mighty George approve — So model thou thy pack, if honour touch Thy generous soul, and the world's just applause.
Page 29 - 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 Huntsmen without such an assistant. You will say, perhaps, that a good Huntsman will make a good Whipperin ; not such, however, as I mean ; his talent must be born with him.
Page 28 - ... though, if he be a good horseman, the objection of his weight will be sufficiently 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 unpardonable : 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.
Page 13 - I perfectly agree with you, 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, Nee diversa tamen, qualem decet esse sororum.
Page 38 - Harriers, to be good, like all other hounds, must be kept to their own game: if you run fox with them, you spoil them. Hounds cannot be perfect, unless used to one scent, and one style of hunting. Harriers run fox in so different a style 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...
Page 32 - Should some more curious sportsman here inquire, Whence this sagacity, this wondrous 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. The blood that from the heart incessant rolls In many a crimson tide, then here and there In smaller rills disparted, as it flows Propelled, the serous particles evade Through the open pores, and with the ambient air Entangling...
Page 27 - ... be exact, civil, and cleanly ; he should be a good horseman and a good groom : his voice should be strong and clear ; and he should have an eye so quick, as to perceive which of his hounds carries the scent when all are running ; and...

Bibliographic information