2i 4 BRITISH DOGS 



Lieutenant Munro was also the Master of a pack, which he 

 regularly hunted, about the same period ; but from a note of 

 that gentleman, quoted by Mr. Millais, he appears rather to have 

 used them to beat rabbits to the gun than as hare-hounds. 

 Lieutenant Munro says : " Two years ago I had a very good 

 pack of eight couple working hounds, all good hunting, and staunch. 

 If one of my hounds gave tongue, I was certain that there was 

 a rabbit. I used to shoot over my Bassets, and have often killed 

 fifty couple rabbits a day over them. I believe, when bred carefully 

 for this object, they are the best sort of dogs for rabbiting." 



Speaking of the same hounds, Mr. Northcote, another well- 

 known admirer of Bassets, says : " He [Mr. Munro] used them 

 for rabbiting. I was delighted with them. Their lovely music, 

 like a Foxhound ; first-rate nose ; and, after finding, keeping 

 together in a pack after one rabbit, however many there were 

 about to me was enchanting, adding considerably to the sport." 



Mr. T. Pick, who had the care and management of the Earl 

 of Onslow's Bassets, and who continued to breed these hounds, 

 writing at the time when the Earl of Onslow had just given up the 

 breed, and made a present of most of his dogs to Mr. Pick, said : 



"They are the most intelligent dogs in the world. They are 

 very keen hunters, and I have hunted a hare with them, with two 

 inches of snow on the ground, for over two miles. I have also 

 hunted a hare with them for a mile, over a dust-blown field, with 

 a warm sun and a dry east wind, at four o'clock in the afternoon. 

 Once, when out with a pup a few days under four months old, 

 named Proctor, a rabbit crossed the gravel path, and when 

 the pup came on the scent he immediately gave tongue, and 

 followed up the scent for about 400 yards, when the rabbit got 

 into his hole. That pup had never seen a rabbit, or any other 

 game, in his life before. I once left a pup named Hector (now 

 belonging to Mr. Ramsay, of Bray) hunting a hare or something, 

 and, as I was in a hurry, I did not wait for him, but went on 

 to Gomshall, a distance of four miles from home, thinking the 

 pup would go home when he had lost me. But when I had just 

 got to Gomshall, which was about one hour after, I heard him 

 following full -cry ; so, after he had missed me, he got on my 

 scent, and hunted me down, though I had crossed over ploughed 

 fields, through very large woods, and through lanes, and on a 

 track that I had never been before. The pup was only eight months 

 old at the time. The same pup was out with Lord Burleigh's 

 hounds on January ist, 1881, when only seven months old, 

 and I had the chance of putting him on the scent of a fox, 

 to see if he would hunt him ; and he went off full-cry at once, 

 although he had never seen a fox in his life. I have hunted 



