The Royal B2ickho2tnds. 163 



for with effect, I would cite the fact of the oppor- 

 tunity which was afforded him, when in the ser^^ce 

 of Lord Portsmouth some years since, of witnessing 

 the progress of the direful outbreak, which occurred 

 when his lordship had collected together some two 

 hundred couples of hounds for the purpose of form- 

 ing a pack of the very best animals that could be 

 found. This opportunity, combined with the interest 

 he took in his calling and his natural aptitude for the 

 charge of hounds, has rendered him, in my opinion, 

 a more trustworthy judge of the symptoms and 

 progress of this little understood disorder than 

 those studious persons whose knowledge is simply 

 theoretical. 



The number of hounds in the Ascot kennels at 

 the present time is a little over forty couples, and 

 an examination of the list shows that they owe 

 their superiority to the judicious selection of strains 

 of blood from the very best packs in the country, 

 such as Sir W. Wynn's, the Tedworth, Mr. Lane 

 Fox's, Lord Middleton's, Mr. Portman's, Mr. Garth's, 

 Lord Coventry's, Lord Fitzhardinge's, the Bel voir, 

 the Heythrop, etc. It would indeed have been a 

 misfortune had Goodall feared to undertake the 

 reponsibility of watching and caring for his hounds 

 when so frightful a complaint first showed itself, 

 and when it was impossible to say to what extent 

 it might have ravaged the pack, and it would have 

 been an easy way of getting over the difficulty had 

 he recommended the clestruction of the lot. Now 

 the loss has been minimised by patient care and 

 observation ; and the result is that some four dis- 

 tinct cases of hydrophobia have occurred with fatal 



