44 RECORDS OF THE CHASE 



endowed with so much acuteness of scent. The others 

 had large, square-formed heads, with long ears, slow, 

 but persevering, and possessed of most delicate nose. 



We may readily understand the gradations through 

 which the hound has passed ere he reached the degree 

 of excellence at M'hich he has arrived. Masters of 

 hounds are not contented unless they can combine many 

 more perfections in their packs than those which 

 flourished Anno Domini 1750. Pace, for example, was 

 a quality not so much valued. It was not till the ardent 

 spirits who were the first to press upon hounds in chase 

 in the days of Mr. Meynell, that it was considered 

 essential to breed them so fleet as to render it difficult 

 to override them. Thorough-bred horses becoming 

 more numerous and being introduced in the hunting- 

 field, is another reason why it became necessary to 

 procure speedy hounds, and by breeding from that sort, 

 the quality of pace has been attained. From the ac- 

 counts we read of runs in the earlier days of fox-hunting, 

 it is quite certain they did not go anything like the 

 pace of the present time. In another chapter I propose 

 to give some accounts of those chases in illustration of 

 this assertion ; it is therefore unnecessary to dwell upon 

 that subject. There may be some persons who are of 

 opinion that in the attainment of speed, the scenting 

 faculty has been reduced; it may be so, to a trifling 

 extent ; but the excitement of the chase, and the per- 

 fection of the hound, have been materially enhanced. 

 Old Towler of 1748 might have been supposed able to 

 hunt a scent ten minutes later than the Duke of 

 Beaufort's Potentate of 1848 could own it. Supposing 

 Potentate ran his fox over six miles of country in thirty 

 minutes, and it took Old Towler forty minutes to ac- 

 complish the same distance, they would, as far as 

 hunting properties are concerned, be upon equal terms 

 at that point ; but as foxes usually travel on, Potentate 

 would have considerably the best of it at the end of the 

 next three miles. 



It would be interesting if we could trace the pedigrees 



