FOXES FOXHOUNDS & FOX-HUNTING 



big one." Again, to quote The Druid, Earl 

 Fitzhardinge did not fancy any dog hound above 

 twenty-three inches, and he never cared how 

 small the bitches were. He never liked them 

 shy of tongue, and it was no matter whether they 

 were straight or coarse provided their work was 

 all good. " I don't care for their looks," he was 

 wont to say. " Huntsmen forget to breed 

 hounds for their noses, they are all for looks — 

 give me the pack that will kill foxes." 



Here again we have expert opinion from men 

 who were practical fox-hunters, and knew the 

 value of a working hound. With regard to 

 comparison of looks, m hounds of the Rallywood 

 type and those of the present standard sort, this 

 is surely a case of individual opinion. The eyes 

 of those who have been brought up amongst 

 hounds of the standard type have been educated 

 to approve of the heavy bone, round feet and m- 

 toed as well as out-at-elbow appearance that 

 such hounds present, whereas those who are 

 used to fell and Welsh hounds, or the old-fashioned 

 harriers like the Cotley, consider beauty lies in 

 the outlines of the light framed, back at the knee 

 sort, with hare feet. The upholders of the latter 

 type have not however bred for looks, but always 

 for working qualities. It is the shows which 

 have been the great incentive to breeding for 

 appearance, and thus we see the standard type of 

 hound has been in many mstances practically 

 turned into a cripple, owing to the show judges 

 laying such great stress on certain points which 

 have now been developed in abnormal fashion. 



Individual hounds of this type fetch inflated 

 prices at the sales, despite the fact that they 

 knuckle forward at the knee, and do not stand 

 squarely on their feet, but more or less on their 



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