19 



Now I have no knowledge of any master or hunts- 

 man having erred in forgiving a hound lack of hunting 

 abihties on account of good looks, but I have a strong 

 suspicion that it may have occasionally happened in 

 small kennels. It is easy to understand when a moderate- 

 looking pack breeds a hound that would not be out of 

 place at Peterborough, there is a strong temptation to be 

 lenient in criticising his performance in the field. The 

 huntsman almost unconsciously is apt to follow the advice 

 often given to a wife on taking unto herself a husband, 

 "Be to his virtues ever kind, and to his faults a little 

 blind." The argument I have frequently heard expressed 

 is that even if a hound does not display marked abiUty 

 in hunting, he may safely be used as a sire if his 

 breeding is right. The weak point in this argument is 

 that although even great grand sires and great grand 

 dams on both sides may have enjoyed stainless reputa- 

 tions the individual is Uable to inherit some weakness 

 from a more remote ancestor. If then he is bred from, 

 he is quite likely to transmit the failing to his progeny. 



In the days when foxhounds were not as 

 numerous as now, there would certainly be some with 

 a leaven of sin in their composition, and it is that faint 

 trace handed down through perhaps a hundred genera- 

 tions which is Uable to reappear again. 



Breeding from a hound with some imperfection, 

 throwing back to an ancestor in the far distant past, 

 would be risking the re-incarnation of a fault, almost 

 blotted out by repeated infusions of honest blood. 



Everyone has the right to indulge his taste or 

 fancy about the minor points of a hound and to 

 breed an animal along the lines which please his eye. 

 I do, however, dispute the right of anyone calling 

 himself a sportsman to allow his taste for appearance 



