A uld Lang Syne. 323 



heather, or weeds, and it was quite a chance where you 

 could find a fox. The only certainty was getting on a 

 drag and hunting up to him, which was the system 

 invariably pursued. We confess 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 record of. It might have 

 been a cross between the two. The beagle might have 

 been preserved in its original state, and the blood- 

 hound, with the cross of the beagle, might have con- 

 stituted 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 whichever it might be. He had 

 plenty of line hunters ; but when the forward hounds 

 struck the scent, 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 ; 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- 

 vantage to contend against, which was, that they had 

 no woodlands, where they could begin early in the 



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