THE FOXHOUND'S FEET 



up for many seasons in much rougher countries 

 than that in which he was used, and it is safe to 

 say that if a pack of hounds of his type were 

 taken to the Shires to-day, they would come 

 out oftener, and last longer than a pack composed 

 of hounds such as we now see exhibited at 

 Peterborough, while as regards pace they would 

 be quite as fast, and in all probability faster. 



The hound breeders of Rallywood's time knew 

 quite as much about the requisite working quaUties 

 m a foxhound as do present day experts. If 

 therefore they acknowledged that hounds of 

 Rallywood's type were in the first rank as fox- 

 catchers, how is it that the modern breeder's 

 ideas with regard to legs, feet, and bone differ 

 so radically from theirs ? Rallywood stood back 

 at the knee and carried light bone, but he was 

 first class in the field, and could stay for ever. 

 Has the introduction of heavy bone, short, up- 

 right pasterns and contracted feet, plus a decided 

 tendency to knuckle forward at the knee, been any 

 improvement from a working point of view ? 

 We can safely answer no. In this case then, the 

 only possible improvement must be in appearance. 

 Here we must grant that in hounds in general, 

 there has been improvement as regards balance 

 and symmetry, but in the case of individual 

 points, such as bone, pasterns, and feet; the 

 tendency appears to be in the opposite direction. 



With regard to bone, Lord Macclesfield's 

 hounds were light boned, and when someone 



crabbed" them on that account, his Lordship 

 remarked that he ' ' had not noticed thin legs to 

 break easier than thick ones." Lord Yarborough 

 preferred medium sized hounds with no lumber 

 about them, and he used to say that " a little 

 powerful hound could last much longer than a 



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