xx INTRODUCTION 



At the moment Beckford commenced to breed a pack 

 of fox-hounds, others were doing the same thing in different 

 parts of England, and the middle of the eighteenth century- 

 may be considered the period when the movement became 

 general. For those who took the trouble to travel to 

 different kennels there was ample material to choose 

 from, and the few years it took to build up a first-rate 

 pack proves the goodness of that material. The hour had 

 arrived when the excellence of our English hound was 

 to be recognised, and his many different qualities improved 

 by judicious breeding. The one or two names of men 

 that have been handed down were not the only breeders, 

 and the fox-hound of to-day owes many of his good qualities 

 to quiet country gentlemen, who were little known in their 

 own time and are never heard of now. 



Whilst Mr. Meynell was forming his celebrated pack in 

 the Midlands, Beckford and others were doing similar good 

 work in different counties. Because the names of their 

 hounds do not appear in the pedigrees of our packs, it does 

 not follow their blood does not flow now in the veins of the 

 lions of the field and the winners on the flags at Peterboro'. 

 I have not the slightest doubt that Beckford's choicest strains 

 have helped to form some of the best packs that are in 

 existence to-day ; but breeders then were as selfish as they 

 are now. Whatever the animal we may wish to breed, we 

 are always ready to forget the claims of the man from whom 

 we obtained the strain, if by so doing we get more credit to 

 ourselves when the animal eventually produced becomes a 

 success. 



If the few facts which I have here set down concerning 

 the individuality of our author prove half as interesting to 

 those who read them as they have been to me in collecting, 

 I shall feel more than satisfied. The many readers and 

 admirers of Beckford would view with horror the slightest 

 alteration in the original text, and I am not sure whether 



