His Hounds. xv 



kennel huntsman and first whip. This happy union 

 lasted till 1879, when Lockey went as huntsman to 

 Captain Ames in Worcesterslnre, and J. Overton took 

 his place with the Ludlow. Since then there have been 

 frequent changes in the kennels, until at the beginning of 

 last season the Master once more resigned the horn to 

 Johnson, who holds the place still, and I believe goes on 

 with Sir William Curtis, in the same capacity. So great 

 and adept at kennel management and hound lore is 

 Mr. "Wicksted, that he has compiled a regular hound 

 stud book, which shows the descent of his present pack 

 from 1853, when Mr. Sitwell first became Master, and he 

 has most cleverly contrived to trace his own blood 

 throughout more than thirty years of management. The 

 Ludlow is such a wide Count/-y, running into four 

 Counties, and its woodlands are so strong that it requires 

 immense energy and love of hunting for a man to succeed 

 in it. It requires, too, a pack of hounds full of tongue 

 and drive to get foxes away from their strongholds, and 

 this has been the chief difficulty that all Masters of this 

 Country have had to contend with since Borderer's 

 earliest hunting days. Wicksted taking the cue from his 

 father has always been a stickler for blood — a hound 

 cannot be too high-bred for him — unmindful, I venture 

 often to think, that it is not the strong point of these 

 high-bred ones to struggle through difficulties, speaking 

 frequently and carrying a head through coverts of from 

 one-hundred to a thousand acres ; consequently he has 

 suffered from slackness in his pack, when the scent has not 

 served, and long tiring days have brought him little or no 

 blood. We none of us like to acknowledge our neighbours 

 to be better than ourselves, nor are they, altogether, in 



