THE EIGHTH DUKE 



twenty-six couples. Young dogs, ten and a half 

 couples ; bitches, seven and a half couples. Seventy- 

 two couples in the kennel, sixty-nine couples of 

 working" hounds." 



It was an anxious undertaking to hunt a pack of 

 hounds that had been made by another man. 

 There can be no doubt that hounds work very 

 differently for a stranger, and the man they have 

 known from puppyhood. Moreover the older 

 hounds will have become accustomed to the ways 

 and the methods of their huntsman, for it is certain 

 that a kind of tradition grows up, that makes them 

 know what the huntsman will do in certain emer- 

 gencies — whether they can look to him for help or 

 whether they must trust to themselves. The old 

 dog hound is a great conservative. He resents 

 any change, and will always respond more readily 

 to the accustomed voice and horn. It is well 

 known that hounds have refused to work at all for 

 a strange huntsman. Such a case occurs to me. 

 In Mr. Courtenay Tracy's pack of otterhounds 

 was one named, I think. Nobleman, that had been 

 a mainstay of Mr. Collier's pack. This hound, 

 on finding himself in new quarters and with a 

 stranger carrying the horn, refused to do any work, 

 nor could anything induce him to take any interest 

 in what went on in the field. 



To take a fresh pack in hand then in October 

 is a work that few masters would care to venture on, 

 and fewer still would be likely to be successful in 



173 L 



