BREEDING AND HUNTING OF FOXHOUNDS. 71 



Berkeley Castle kennels, with whom I had hunted 

 stag. I liad drafted them very closely, and well knew 

 that, could I but get a fox on foot and cheer them 

 on, to them, the new chase, they would stick to it and 

 work it as well as if tliey had been entered at it 

 all their lives. To these splendid hounds, all of 

 whom seemed to know all I said or Avished them to 

 do, I added, not a lot of able villains drafted from 

 other packs of foxhounds for their faults , but some 

 old steady hounds that were simply p)<^^rted with for 

 not being able to run at the head of their packs ; 

 and to these Avere added, by friendly masters of 

 hounds from one country or the other, a few useful 

 ones, that, at all events, would help me to find a 

 fox and maintain the line, however much my too 

 large and wild body of young hounds, that I was 

 obliged to enter, might overrun it. 



I had inspected all drafts announced for sale, 

 and picked out very old, but still, to some extent, 

 able, honest hounds, avoiding those tliat by my 

 eye I could see no reason for their being parted with, 

 deeming that their dishonest tricks alone must 

 account for their discarded situation. Among tliose 

 old hounds so selected from drafts hj me wore 

 Stamford and Proctor, and each had Sir 



