xvi The United. 



this instance, and yet I believe that the crossed blood of 

 the United is better suited to the Ludlow Country than 

 the beautiful pack that hunts it. '* Self-willed devils," I 

 fancy I hear some good man say. " How can Borderer be 

 such a fool." Well granted even that, nevertheless more 

 sport and finer straightaway runs will be had with these 

 ' strong-willed,' dashing, low scented, persevering devils 

 over rough and smooth ground, taken together, than with 

 ..any other kind of hound you can mention. 



" Never did I hear 



Such gallant chiding ; for besides the groves, 

 The skies, the fountains, every region near 

 Seem all one mutual cry ; 

 ' I never heard so musical a discord, such sweet thunder."' 



'AH that is required with such a pack as the United 

 is good kennel management. By this I mean keeping 

 the x^ack under proper control, and teaching them a 

 due respect, and perfect obedience to their hunts- 

 man. They then become the easiest managed hounds in 

 the world, still retaining sufficient self-reliance to carry 

 ' them through difficulties, which a high-bred foxhound 

 ' would scorn to submit to without the cheering voice of his 

 huntsman. Such are the United now under the manage- 

 ment of Old Alec, once with the Wheatland, and still 

 mastered by Mr. John Harris, the most worthy yeoman 

 of the Montgomeryshire Ijorder, a man, who beyond all 

 others deserves the appreciation in which he is held far 

 and wide in his own country. The sport shown by the 

 United this year has been wonderful. The average of 

 foxes said to have been killed after good runs is some- 

 thing extraordinary, but I am afraid to repeat it from 

 \ hearsay. And if any of my readers, who are hound lovers, 



