ATJLD LANG SYNE. 333 



regular coverts. The whole country was a mass of 

 straggling gorse, heather, or weeds, and it was quite 

 a chance where you could find a fox. The only cer- 

 tainty was getting on a dra^ and hunting up to him, 

 which was the system invariably pursued. We con- 

 fess we are at a loss to know from whence the present 

 splendid foxhound originally sprung. The beagle 

 and the bloodhound are the sorts we chiefly have re- 

 cord of. It might have been a cross between the two. 

 The beagle might have been preserved in its original 

 state, and the bloodhound, with the cross of the bea- 

 gle, might have constituted the foxhound. Be that as 

 it may, before the days of Meynell the world were in 

 a mist as to the science of the chase. He it was who 

 first introduced quick hunting ; he found that the 

 only way to kill a good fox was never to let him get 

 ahead of him. His hounds were quick and powerful, 

 and never hung on the line, but got to head before 

 they began to handle the scent. The consequence 

 was that there was always a body fighting for it, and 

 making the most of it, good or bad which ever it 

 might be. He had plenty of line hunters; but when 

 the forward hounds struck the <Dcent, they flew to the 

 head, and did not chatter and tie on it. Instead of 

 hunting each other, they were hunting the fox. 

 It was delightful to see them come out of covert, 

 when he was away. They did not all go through 

 the same gap, but be the fence what it might, they 

 generally got together, before the leading hounds 

 were over the first field. Before hard riding (that 

 bane of hunting) became the fashion, it is reported 

 that he bred his hounds with more chase than in later 

 days j but when the system of pressing them began, 

 he was obliged to breed them with more hunt, or 

 they could not have kept the line. It was not from 

 their great speed, but from their everlasting going, 

 and never leaving it, which tired the horse and killed 

 the fox. The Quorn hounds had one great disad- 



