22 The Hunting Field With Horse and Hound 



hound ever produced in England, it will be seen that Vaulter 

 comes very near to fitting the scale. Be that as it may, he is a 

 very grand specimen. 



Mr. J. I. Chamberlain, who was referred to in the preface, 

 designed Mr. Higginson's kennels, which possess so many 

 valuable features. Not only is the Master to be congratulated 

 on the up-to-date manner in which he has equipped the Middle- 

 sex Hunt establishment, but the great fox hunting fraternity 

 at large is under lasting obligations to him for the interest he 

 has taken in hound breeding. The writer believes his exertion 

 in this particular, will prove the beginning of a competition in 

 hound breeding among masters of hounds in America that will 

 not only add greatly to the interest of fox hunting, but elevate 

 the standard of the American bred hounds, be they of Ameri- 

 can or English descent, to the same exalted position which 

 they enjoy in England. 



The Meadowbrook Hunt, with kennels at Hempstead, 

 Long Island, has a wide reputation among the society folks 

 and is on that account often spoken of as "the Swagger Hunt 

 of America." 



While under the mastersliip of that most gentlemanly all 

 round sportsman, Mr. Ralph Ellis, it was the writer's good 

 fortune to visit the country for a few days and to participate in 

 the chase. 



The Meadowbrook was in those days a drag hunt, pure 

 and simple, but since then through the efforts of some real 

 hunting spirits, a pack of English bred hounds were imported 

 for hunting the wild red fox with which that portion of the 

 island has been liberally stocked. The writer, however, only 

 speaks from his personal experience with the club as a drag 

 hunt. Although this style of riding to hounds can, by no 

 stretch of the imagination, be called hunting, it has the ad- 

 vantage of insuring the members, most of whom are business 

 men in town, a sure gallop every time they go out. 



