46 Recollections of the Vine Hnnt. 



saw a coarse or throaty hound amongst them. Mr. 

 Chute loved to boast no man could make his finger 

 and thumb meet round the arm of his model dog, 

 Larkspur, yet Larkspur was by no means the tallest 

 dog in the kennel. They were perhaps rather too 

 short in the neck : the back part of the head was 

 broad, the nose long and pointed ; and as the kennel 

 mark was a slit cut in the upper lip, there was a pecu- 

 liarly sharp expression in their countenance. In colour 

 they were very dark, of rich tan and black, but many 

 of them had small white flecks sprinkled, like snow 

 flakes, over their black and tan coats. A yellow or 

 badger-pied hound was rarely seen amongst them ; and 

 Mr. Chute had a peculiar aversion to a hound who had 

 one side of the head and face white. I remember his 

 entering one such who proved too good to be drafted ; 

 but his master was never reconciled to him, and I fear 

 that poor Romulus often got a cut from his whip in 

 consequence of his bald face. They were chiefly bred 

 from the Egremont blood ; but as Mr. Chute oftea 

 visited at Castle Ashby, not far from the Duke of 

 Grafton's kennel, he sometimes obtained there a very 

 useful cross of a somewhat larger type. He always 

 considered ' Newforest Jasper' to be the chief ancestor 

 of his pack, and the model to which he desired to 

 bring them. Newforest Jasper was a hound of great 

 fame in his day, and much bred from. He was bred 

 by Lord Egremont, but obtained his name and fame 

 as one of the pack of Mr. Gilbert, of the Newforest, 

 a cotemporary and friend of the grandfather of the 

 present Sir William Heathcote.* Mr. Chute had a 



* There is at Hursley Park a half-length painting, by Gardiner, 

 of this Mr. Gilbert, together with his friend Sir W. Heathcote 



