38 A PLEA FOR INTEREST IN HOUNDS 



good, honest, quiet dog, not at all brilliant. Of others 

 purchased from the Grove he writes that : — 



"Driver was noted for bringing the fox's brush to his huntsman out of 

 Harpswell Gorse. His son Desperate showed the same characteristic. 

 A fox having been left in a rabbit-hole in Carlton sandhills, the hounds 

 were called away. Desperate gave the men the slip, went back to the 

 hole, and scratched down to his cub, bit off half his brush, and brought 

 it on to old Dick at Scampton. Driver's little daughter, Dorcas, would 

 never allow any dog, however big, to take the head from her — she 

 invariably carried it home any distance." 



Of hounds purchased at Mr. Drake's sale, Lord 

 Henry in 1851 writes : — 



" Hector and Herald were two good dogs until they became free of 

 tongue. 



" Smuggler, the crack dog in Drake's pack, and a most brilliant animal 

 until he turned rogue after being brought out two dags running by 

 Stevens. Despot also began very well, and ended by getting wide. 

 These hounds prohahhj only luent wrong from Stevens' infamous 

 feeding, and from being brought out day after day totally unfit to run. 

 Goodall picked out these hounds for me as being the best stuff in Drake's 

 kennel." 



This opinion, coming as it did from one of the 

 greatest fox-hunters and most successful hound- 

 breeder of all time, is surely worthy of the attention 

 of all who go out hunting, and should impress those 

 who read it with the fact that foxhounds are not 

 mere hunting machines for them to ride after, but 

 animals of peculiar and sensitive organisation, pos- 

 sessing intense individuality. So markedly is this 

 the case that few in one pack have precisely the 

 same characteristics, and the greatest care and atten- 



