x INTRODUCTION 



nowadays the thing is done with as little advertisement as may be ; a cen- 

 tury ago there was no concealment ; the master who intended to hunt a 

 new country brought foxes with him or bought them openly, and the master 

 who would ensure a run, turned out a bagman under the eyes of his field 

 who regarded the proceeding as a matter of course. We need not seek 

 beyond the pages of the old Sporting Magazine for evidence of this. 



Hound-breeding in Beckford's time was in the constructive stage. Be- 

 fore the reign of George III fox-hunting had come into its own ; it had sup- 

 planted hare-hunting in the affections of sportsmen ; but the necessary work 

 of evolving the hound best suited for the sport was by no means completed, 

 though as far back as Queen Anne's time masters were breeding carefully 

 with the aim of producing the fox-hound. When in 1733 Mr. Bright of the 

 Badsworth sent Luther to the Duke of Richmond at Charlton, 1 he sent with 

 the hound its pedigree set out to the great-great-grandsire on either side ; 

 and the document has significance inasmuch as it shows interchange of blood 

 between prominent masters. The three great kennels, it is true, were firmly 

 established ; the Brocklesby, whose hound lists date back to 1746, the Milton, 

 whose existing Pedigree Book 2 dates from 1760, and the Belvoir, which, says 

 Cecil, first stooped to fox in 1762 3 ; but over the kingdom generally the fox- 

 hound was still ' in the making,' and the average pack seems to have been 

 very mixed and uneven, as witness these passages from Letter III : ' I have 

 seen very good sport with very unhandsome packs consisting of hounds of 

 various sizes differing from one another as much in shape and looks as in their 

 colour ; nor could there be traced the least sign of consanguinity among them.' 

 Again, ' there is a pack now in my neighbourhood of all sorts and sizes which 

 seldom miss a fox,' and a few lines further on, ' packs which are composed of 

 hounds of various kinds seldom run well together. '. . . The M.F.H. who pro- 

 posed to build up a pack for himself in those days had no lack of material 

 from which to choose, and wide scope for making mistakes. The breeds 

 of hounds were many ; there was the old Talbot, or stag-hound ; the sharp- 

 nosed Northern Beagle, famed for its speed, whose blood was most used 

 in developing the fox-hound ; the Southern Hound, whose wide muzzle 

 indicated its wonderful scenting powers ; the Little Beagle, and various 

 breeds of Harrier, whose descendants are still carefully bred in certain 

 kennels in our own day. There was this large diversity of breed and, we 



1 Records of the Old Charlton Hunt. 



8 The earlier book was burned in a fire at the kennels several years ago. 



8 Twenty -three years later the Belvoir had been brought to an advanced state of perfection, 

 if we may draw an inference from the letter written (Hist. Mss. Comni.) by Mr. Thomas 

 Thoroton to the reigning Duke of Rutland on April 15, 1785. He wrote : ' I have been con- 

 fined ever since my last by a sprained knee and have not dared hunt. It is very unlucky 

 as a prodigious tribe of Meynelh'tes and Noelites and Lord Spencer's Hunt came to Burleigh 

 to Lord Winchelsea's to hunt with your Grace's hounds. They have had very fine sport and 

 their expectations have been thoroughly satisfied all are in raptures with the hounds.' 



