THE PATAPSCO 



hunting there is not so interesting as in the mid-county, since the land- 

 owners — who raise no stock, but use their land entirely for truck fanning — 

 build very little fencing. 



As Howard County embraces every possible type of hunting country, it 

 is hard to specify any particular type of horse which is best suited to it. 

 Many of the Field ride half-breds, and in the trappy portions of the country 

 where the enclosures are cramped, they seem to have a little the better of 

 it. There is, however, a large contingent of "first-flighters" who will ride 

 nothing but thoroughbreds, and when a strong mid-county fox gives the 

 pack a good burst over the grass v«th its clean timber fences, they are sure 

 to be in the lead. 



And now a word as to the hounds. To quote from Major Wadsworth's 

 "Bible"; — "A Master is supposed, by courtesy, to know more about his 

 oviTi hounds than outsiders;" — Mr. Williams has been too busy to tell us of 

 his hounds, but the Hunt Secretary, Mr. Rowland C. West, has been kmd 

 enough to do so, and as his remarks are far more mteresting than anythmg 

 which the authors of this volume could write, they are given in full, as 

 follows: 



" The original pack owned by the Club was formed from hounds picked 

 up in small lots all over the county. Nearly all the gentlemen who organized 

 the Club owned hounds before it was formed, and turned them over to the 

 general pack after the kennels on Overbrook Farm were built. 



"From the Catonsville Hunt we acquired seven and a half couples, among 

 them a bitch called ' Beulah,' bred by Mr. Hardy of Howard County, and 

 given by him to Mr. Hanson, the M. F. H. of the Catonsville Hunt. Mr. 

 Hardy claimed that this bitch was descended directly from the famous old 

 July strain, and she has certainly proved that she is ' bred in the purple.* 

 Being a two-season hunter when she came to us in 1 898, she has hunted 

 through every season up to that of 1 906-7, and although bred every year 

 since reaching the age of five, has never, so far as I can find out, whelped a 

 bad puppy. Old grandma 'Beulah* can be depended on to produce a litter 

 every spring, all of whom are good enough to put on in the next year's entry. 



" We caimot be said to have had really good success in breeding, yet we 



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