ON BLOODING HOUNDS 119 



leap. It is the dash of the foxhound which dis- 

 tinguishes him, as truly as the motto of William of 

 Wickham distinguishes us, A pack of harriers, if they 

 have time, may kill a fox ; but I defy them to kill 

 him in the style in which a fox ought to be killed." 



In my edition of Thoughts on Hunting, on the page 

 opposite to that on which these words are printed, is 

 a picture of two couple of Beckford's hounds, and I 

 think they look very like catching any fox and doing 

 it in good style, too. Here are straight legs, round 

 feet, rare shoulders, deep chests, round ribs, strong 

 loins, and good quarters and thighs. The colour, to 

 be sure, would be too light for the taste of the present 

 day, but nothing of the heavy-jowled, crooked-legged 

 old Southern type is to be seen. 



"Although," writes Beckford, "I am a great advocate 

 for style in the killing of a fox, I never forgive a pro- 

 fessional skirter," and yet so important did he deem 

 plenty of blood to be to produce this excellence of style 

 that he declares in his opinion when blood is wanted 

 the huntsman should take "every advantage that he 

 can of the fox." " You will think," he said, " that he 

 may sometimes spoil his own sport by this ; it is true 

 he sometimes does, but then he makes his hounds, the 

 whole art of foxhunting being to keep the hounds well 

 in blood " ; and immediately afterwards he presses this 

 point still more strongly when he says, " I confess that 

 I esteem blood so necessary to a pack of foxhounds 

 that with regard to myself I always return better 

 pleased with but an indifferent chase with death at 

 the end of it than with the best chase possible if it 

 end with the loss of the fox." This may seem an 



