T 



Preface 



O THE Mastee^ of the United States and Canada and 

 TO THE Readers of this Volume:— 



Some years ago, the perusal of a book edited by Sir Hum- 

 phrey F. de Trafford, Bart., entitled " The Foxhounds of Great Britain and 

 Ireland," led the authors of this volume to think that a similar publication, 

 which would tell the histories of the packs of the Western Hemisphere, 

 would be welcomed as supplying a chapter heretofore lacking in the annals 

 of the sport, and serve to bring the hunting men and women of both 

 countries into closer touch with one another. 



From Oregon to Virginia is a far cry, and no one who has not come in 

 personal contact, as it were, with the Hunts throughout the country can re- 

 alize the difficulty of getting together the material for this book. Most of 

 the packs have been in existence a comparatively short time and many of 

 them have kept no records at all. Up to the present time no accurate list 

 even of the Hunts and their Masters has been extant, and though data con- 

 cerning the more important ones have been published from time to time, they 

 were so fragmentary that the authors venture to hope that this volume will 

 prove useful to their fellow sportsmen throughout the country. 



We wish to take this opportunity to thank the Masters of Hounds of 

 America and also the Hunt Secretaries who have, almost without exception, 

 co-operated with us by sending data and photographs and by re-reading and 

 correcting their respective articles before they were sent to press. We wish 

 also to tender our gratitude to the following authors from whose writings we 

 have drawn much useful information : — 



Mr. Ralph N. Ellis, late Master of the Meadow Brook, for his article in 

 " The Book of Sport," published by Messrs. J. F. Taylor & Co., Mr. George 

 E. Darlington, from whose volume, " Fox Hunting in Delaware County, Penn- 

 sylvania," many important items have been gleaned. Captain E. Pennell-Elm- 

 hirst ("Brooksby") for his chapter in "The Best of the Fun," on the Meadow 



