A PLEA FOR INTEREST IN HOUNDS 35 



at the check " — a sort of jealousy or vanity that 

 prevents them from keeping silent, though they know 

 full well they are doing wrong. 



The ladies are said to be the most jealous, and, as 

 a M.F.H. once rudely wrote on this subject, " It is 

 the hen-cackle that I complain of most." 



"Couldn't you write for us," asked another corre- 

 spondent, " something on the wonderful intelligence 

 and sagacity and the immense value of hounds that 

 would interest people, and make them think a bit 

 more about the pack when they go out hunting?" 

 Alas ! my dear sir, they have Beckford, " The Druid," 

 "Hambledon" Smith, and "Scrutator" to read, and 

 what can be said by the present writer, what tales 

 can he tell that have not been already better told 

 by those great celebrities ? And I fear few people 

 read nowadays of the marvellous deeds of foxhounds. 

 All like to peruse a good account of a run, no doubt ; 

 but when it comes to the adventures of the hounds 

 alone " no thank you ! " 



Among recent contributions to hunting literature 

 the most delightful is, I think, Sir Reginald Gra- 

 ham's Fox-hunting Recollections, and the most inter- 

 esting chapter in that work was to me the one 

 relating to the Burton Hunt and Lord Henry Ben- 

 tinck, whose success as breeder of foxhounds was 

 almost phenomenal. " But," as Sir Reginald remarks, 

 " Lord Henry devoted a lifetime and his great talents 

 to the breeding of hounds, but he well knew that his 

 labour was in vain unless they were carefully and 

 judiciously handled in the field. Every detail of 

 information was recorded daily in his private kennel- 



