xii INTRODUCTION 



sires. Crazy was by Lord Stamford's Hermit, and Pillager's grand-dam 

 Ruby was by Mr. Smith Barry's famous hound Blue-cap who won the famous 

 ' trial ' at Newmarket, beating her kennel companion Wanton, Mr. Mey- 

 nell's Richmond and another, a bitch hound whose name is not recorded. 



While building up his pack, Beckford's soul was vexed by the short- 

 comings and vices which vex the soul of the master to-day. He condemns 

 the pottering hound, the skirter, the babbler, the hound that hangs in covert 

 and the ' unsteady old hound ' that would run mute ' if he finds that he 

 can run no other way.' He lays stress on the danger of leaving hounds 

 behind in covert. ' When left to themselves they seldom refuse any blood 

 they can get ; they acquire many bad habits ; they become conceited a 

 terrible fault in any animal and they learn to tie upon the scent ; besides 

 this they frequently get a trick of hunting by themselves and are seldom 

 worth much afterwards.' 



Mention of this last bad habit invites the reflection that it is well known 

 to-day, but as the outcome of good qualities rather than of bad. Com- 

 mander W. B. Forbes, R.N., author of Hounds, Gentlemen, Please ! has 

 been kind enough to write me on this point to which, he observes, Beck- 

 ford does not devote as much notice as it deserves. Apropos of our autho- 

 rity's reason for stopping a single hound when he gets away (Letter XVII) 

 Commander Forbes says : ' In my opinion, when it is known that there 

 are hounds away ahead of the main body, the main body should at once 

 be lifted and galloped forward, the huntsman cheering and exciting them 

 as much as possible, and endeavouring to get a nick in and short-cut the 

 leaders, so as to let the latter have as little as possible of that supreme 

 pleasure which destroys so many brilliant hounds, i.e., getting away by them- 

 selves. This is the point Beckford does not mention ; I have seen so 

 many hounds ruined by being allowed to slip away alone that I consider 

 it one of the great dangers to a pack. All good hounds delight in getting for- 

 ward, the best delight in a lead, and to get away alone often becomes a 

 passion : when a hound is mastered by this passion, he almost invariably 

 becomes mute in order to increase his chance of indulging in it. Such 

 hounds should of course be drafted at once : but the old saying " It is easy 

 to draft from the tail but not from the head " applies here : for the M.F.H. 

 or huntsman is slow to believe that his brilliant hound has become a rogue, 

 and keeps him to make quite sure ; he generally keeps him too long and the 

 evil spreads. Highly bred fox-hounds are terribly jealous creatures ; they 

 don't like to see a comrade getting a start, and will watch him in covert, 

 find out all his tricks and copy them. I know a pack of which three couple 

 of hounds, I thought last season to be faultless in their work, have been 

 drafted for this cause/ One priceless old bitch (priceless, that is to say 

 till last season) did the mischief. She discovered about the end of the cub- 

 bing season that there were some very smart young hounds that could 



