Fox-hunting Past and Present 



Mr. Assheton Smith would give any price for 

 good hounds. He offered Lord Forester 400 

 guineas for his bitch Careful, also 100 guineas 

 to Mr. Conyers for Bashful. A few more prices 

 of hounds early in the nineteenth century, and I 

 pass on to the twentieth. In 181 2 the then Lord 

 Middleton gave 1200 guineas for Mr. Mytton's 

 pack ; but their owner had played such tricks 

 with them they would hunt anything, " from an 

 elephant to an earwig." Mr. Horlock gave Mr. 

 Warde 2000 guineas for his when he gave up the 

 Craven country in 1825. 



The scope of this work does not admit of details 

 of various Peterborough hound shows now ancient 

 history. It is a generally accepted truism that 

 there is no hound to compete at all with the 

 well-bred English, Scotch, or Irish foxhound, not 

 only for hunting the fox, but also as an improver 

 of other kinds of dog. When you consider the 

 popularity of fox-hunting nowadays, it is no 

 wonder that the best hounds will fetch almost any 

 money. I would remind you that G. Osbaldeston's 

 bitches fetched 100 guineas each, and Lord Polti- 

 more's hounds topped that figure early in the 

 nineteenth century. And so at the sale of the 

 South Cheshire hounds in May 1907 Lord Lons- 

 dale gave 125 guineas each for two first season 

 bitches, Hecuba and Warcry, and nearly 2000 



guineas for 15I couples. It was said that Lord 



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