Mr. Wardes Hounds. 93 



this stable. For keeping up the circulation and 

 brightening the coats of his horses, Mr. Warde 

 trusted to hard manual labour; for he was fond of 

 another old maxim, — ' It is elbow-grease that makes 

 the horse shine.' I have heard him say, ' I like to sit 

 on the corn-bin, when the helpers are strapping their 

 horses, and see that they put out their whole strength, 

 and that they sweat well themselves \ and then I like 

 to wind them as they pass by me : a fellow who does 

 not stink after rubbing down a hunter will never do 

 for me.* 



Mr. Warde hunted four times a week, with an 

 occasional fifth day, which his large and well-stocked 

 country could well stand, and for which he kept a 

 very sufficient number of hounds and horses. If I 

 remember right, the pack consisted of rather more 

 than fifty couples. These hounds were in many 

 respects remarkable. First, for their great size. 

 They seemed to have been bred for the purpose of 

 carrying weight, rather than for only carrying a scent. 

 There was one huge animal, called Maniac, upwards 

 of twenty-seven inches high, who could carry the 

 huntsman's son, a boy about eleven or twelve years 

 old, round the kennel on his back. Of course it was 

 scarcely possible to breed dogs of such a size with- 

 out some degree of heaviness and coarseness ; but it 

 must be allowed that many of the dogs, and nearly 

 all the bitches, were beautifully formed, and were 

 really magnificent animals. 



They were also remarkable for the closeness and 

 accuracy with which they would hunt a bad scent, and 

 for the impossibility of driving them beyond it, or of 

 lifting them to a halloo. When Mr. Warde was 



