86 Recollections of the Vine Hunt, 



Mr. Pole did equal good by obtaining, I know not 

 by what influence, 'a first-rate dog called Racer, from 

 the Duke of Beaufort. He certainly could not have 

 been drafted for any fault, for he had none : he was 

 only a two or three years' hunter, perfect in shape and 

 in work. This hound ran for several seasons in the 

 pack, and helped to improve them by his stock. Mr. 

 Fellowes continued this good beginning by sending 

 occasionally, though sparingly, to some dog in the 

 kennel of Mr. Assheton Smith, Mr. Villebois, or Sir 

 John Cope. The result was that, during the six or 

 seven years of which I am now speaking, the Vine 

 hounds were more full of power than they had been 

 when Mr. Apperly had first known them : not that any 

 individual hound was larger, or of a different stamp 

 from what Mr. Chute had originally bred, but that all 

 were brought up to nearly the same standard, and 

 no under-sized bitches were allowed amongst them. 

 Certainly their old character remained unimpaired : 

 their brilliancy in cover and their industry in hunting 

 were generally admitted. The master of another pack 

 of foxhounds, an excellent judge, observed to me, at 

 that time, that the Vine hounds seemed to him to do as 

 much work at a check, in one minute, as most hounds 

 do in tzvo ; and if I were to be asked which I con- 

 sidered the best pack of foxhounds I had ever hunted 

 with, though I might hesitate to answer the question, 

 yet certainly there are none whom I could set before 

 the Vine hounds during the first five years of Mr. 

 Fellowes' mastership. I do not know exactly at 

 what time, or by what degrees, their character was 

 altered ; but I know that the change was completely 

 effected by the year 1 848. I do not mean to say that 



