BRITISH SPORT PAST AND I'RESENT 



the Ullswater on Cross Fell Range : 23 lt)s., fom- feet four 

 inches from tip to tip : date not given. In March 1874 Mr. 

 F. Chapman weighed alive a bagman turned out at Palmer 

 Flat, Aysgarth, Yorkshire, 21 lbs. On 13th December 1877 

 the Melbrake killed two foxes, 20^ and 18J lbs. On 4th 

 January 1878 the Sinnington killed a lO^-lb. fox. The fox 

 that was too heavy for a 20-lb. scale, but was estimated to 

 weigh 26 lbs., must be regretfully omitted from the list. 



As I write comes one having pretty talent for conundrums, 

 to ask when the practice of rounding the ears of hounds came 

 into use. The question is difficult to answer. The few hound 

 pictures of Francis Barlow (b. 1626, dec. 1702) show no 

 rounded ears : the many pictures of John Wootton (b. circa 

 1685, dec. 1765) show ears rounded, but in less degree than at 

 a later date, but also ears in the natural state. In his ' Death 

 of the Fox ' some of the hounds are rounded and some are not : 

 in his ' Portraits of Hounds ' three arc rounded and one is not. 

 Unfortunately none of these works are dated. Stephen 

 Elmer's portrait of Mr. Corbet's Trojan, entered 1780, shows 

 the ears closely rounded. In the engravings from Wootton's 

 works some hounds' ears seem to be cut to a point ; ' peaked ' 

 would describe the shape ; but I have never seen any reference 

 in early hunting books to this or any other method of cutting 

 the ears. Peaking would answer much the same purpose as 

 rounding, an operation now not universally practised. 



Is there anything in the literature of the chase more 

 delightful than this from Charles Kingsley's ' My Winter 

 Garden ' ? ^ 



' . . . Stay. There was a sound at last ; a light footfall. 

 A hare races towards us, through the ferns, her great bright 

 eyes full of terror, her ears aloft to catch some sound behind. 

 She sees us, turns short, and vanishes into the gloom. The 

 mare pricks up her ears too, listens, and looks : but not the 

 way the hare has gone. There is something more coming ; I 

 can trust the finer sense of the horse, to which (and no wonder) 



' Prater's Magazine, April 1858. 



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