18 The Hunting Field With Horse and Hound 



distances apart, that instead of packs of hounds being hunted 

 by organised clubs, individual ownersliip became the rule. 



This individual ownership of hounds in America is still -the 

 rule, except on special days like Thanksgiving, election day, 

 Christmas or New Year's, when all the neighbouring hounds 

 are brought in to some town or farm agreed upon for a general 

 hunt to be followed by a dinner, or a dance, or both. 



There are, of course, a good number of organised packs 

 of hounds in America, hunting with either English or Amer- 

 ican hounds, that hunt on regular days throughout the season 

 after the English custom, but the great fraternity of fox 

 hunters in America are confined to private or individual packs, 

 which probably number among the thousands. Then there 

 are a few semi-organised packs that are hunted with some 

 regularity and are somewhat under control of an appointed 

 9r recognised huntsman, as in Lexington, Kentucky. I refer 

 to that most prominent hound breeder of the blue grass 

 country, Col. Roger Williams. When his pack goes out and 

 is heard giving tongue, every hound from every plantation 

 within hearing joins in by his own invitation (of course he is 

 welcomed), and although his independent methods of hunting 

 make him an ungovernable member of the pack, — 



''He joins the glad throng 

 That go racing along. 

 For he must go hunting to-day" 



Next to Kentucky, there is probably no keener lot of fox 

 hunting men than is to be found in New England. The casual 

 observer would never suspect it, but a little inquiry among the 

 rival towns will show that "the woods are full of it." 



Among the organised hunt clubs of New England the 

 Brunswick Fur Club, an organisation that was started as an an- 

 nual fox hunt, but of late years has come to be a hound show with 



