THE HOUND 37 



the same way the man who has been careless, and 

 taken no trouble about breeding his hounds, will 

 have spread abroad a noxious weed that will take 

 generations of careful culture to eradicate. You 

 cannot, even with an unlimited supply of money, 

 hope to build up a pack like the Belvoir in any- 

 thing less than a lifetime ; but by getting hold of 

 good material to start with, and using the best 

 sires, you should be able to breed a very decent 

 pack in a few years. I am not going to attempt 

 a treatise on the breeding of hounds, but there 

 are one or two points that the beginner would 

 do well to bear in mind. The first and most 

 important is never to put on a badly-made or 

 misshapen hound, lest he prove extraordinarily 

 good in his work and you be tempted to breed 

 from him. Then you must never breed from 

 hounds, however good-looking, if they have any 

 such vices as babbling, skirting, running mute, or 

 dwelling on the line. All these are hereditary, 

 and though they may be partially corrected by 

 discipline and education, they are certain to appear 

 again in the descendants. The two qualities most 

 essential in a fox-hound are goodness of nose and 

 drive. The fox-hound must get on with a scent. 



