26 FOX-HUNTING 



movement had spread, and there were several packs 

 then kept solely for fox-hunting. The Belvoir 

 and the Brocklesby were fashioning the material 

 they already had in their kennels, whilst Maynell 

 and Beckford were building up packs from differ- 

 ent sources with science and judgment. When 

 we read how it was possible to get together in a 

 very few years an excellent pack of fox-hounds, 

 one marvels how it was done and where the 

 material came from. Though no hound had been 

 devoted solely to the fox and no regular packs 

 were in existence as they are now, nearly every 

 nobleman and landed proprietor kept what were 

 called buck-hounds, with which they hunted deer, 

 hare, fox, marten-cat, and anything that would 

 show sport. Each owner of hounds went a-hunt- 

 ing whenever it pleased himself and guests. At 

 Belvoir, Badminton, and other large houses, those 

 buck-hounds had probably been bred with care 

 for a great many years, and were handed down 

 to successive generations as family heirlooms, but 

 as they were not confined to hunting one par- 

 ticular animal, the object for which they were to 

 be bred was not very clearly defined. The con- 

 sequence of this was that the individual who had 



