48 Recollections of the Vine Hunt. 



very quick and lively, spreading wide at a check, but 

 carrying a better head, and covering less ground when 

 running hard than most hounds do ; and this pecu- 

 liarity, together with their uniformly dark colour, oc- 

 casioned more difficulty in distinguishing one hound 

 from another in a run, than in any other pack that I 

 ever saw. They had plenty of tongue, but it was of 

 a lighter and more treble tone than that of ordinary 

 foxhounds. The faults chiefly to be watched against 

 were unsteadiness, wildness, and overrunning the scent. 

 Their peculiar merit was in cover, while their faults 

 came out chiefly in the open. They spread very wide 

 in drawing, yet got together with wonderful rapidity 

 when a fox was found. I never saw hounds who 

 could push through a strong cover so quickly. In a 

 run, they generally came out of a large wood on better 

 terms with their fox than when they entered it. It 

 was not unusual for strangers, who had gone well with 

 them over the country, to be completely thrown out 

 by a cover like Bramdown or Waltham Trinlies : they 

 would imagine that the wood aflbrded an opportunity 

 for a pull at their horses, and consequently slacken 

 their pace, and see no more of the run. A gentle- 

 man from a distant country, who chanced to be 

 hunting one season with the Vine, was much struck 

 by this quality in the pack. He said he should 

 like to see ten couple of these hounds, ten couple of 

 the Duke of Beaufort's, and ten couple of any other 

 crack pack, put into a large wood to find a fox, and 

 he was confident that a large majority of the ten 

 couple that came out first with him would be the 

 Vine hounds. 



I had once a remarkable opportunity of testing the 

 merits of this breed of hounds in cover. It was in 



