2IO 



THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG. 



took out a whole pack of twenty-one 

 couples of Furriers. The old hound and 

 his sons Ranter, Castor, Random, Falstaff, 

 Ferryman, and Sir Tatton Sykes' Furrier 

 were bred from immensely by other kennels, 

 and to-day it would be no uncommon thing 

 to find a hound with forty crosses of Furrier 

 in him. 



The fourth in greatness next to Furrier 

 might be Lord Henry Bentinck's Contest 

 by Comus, son of Mr. Foljambe's Herald 

 by the Osbaldeston Ranter, son of Furrier. 

 Mr. Foljambe had two brothers, Herald 

 and Harbinger, by Ranter out of Harpy 

 by Herald, a son of the Belvoir Saladin (the 

 sire of Furrier), and they almost made 

 the Grove pack. Lord Henry Bentinck's 

 Contest, however, had much to do in 

 spreading the sort, and he must have been 

 a very exceptional hound, as Lord Henry 

 was never emotional. He would have the 

 best, discarding anything the least faulty. 

 In his diary he speaks of Contest more than 

 once as a very remarkable hound, and he 

 also refers to him as a wonderful jumper. 

 He lent him to some of his old friends, 

 such as the Duke of Beaufort and Sir 

 Richard Sutton, and it was during his stay 

 at Badminton that he was used very success- 

 fully by Harry Ayris with a bitch called 

 Crazy by the Warwickshire Tarquin out of 

 Charity. One of the litter so obtained was 

 Cromwell, who came after his grand-sire 

 Tarquin in being a grey pied. For seven 

 seasons he was far and away the best hound 

 in Lord FitzHardinge's kennel. He, too, 

 could not possibly do wrong, so Harry 

 Ayris used to say, and the old man would 

 go almost into tears as, when quite past 

 duties in the hunting field, and resting a 

 gouty foot on the skin of Cromwell, he 

 would never tire in recounting the great 

 days he had seen with him. Contest gained 

 much honour, too, in the kennels of Sir 

 Richard Sutton, as there he was the sire 

 of Dryden, thought by some huntsmen to 

 have been the best hound ever seen in 

 Leicestershire, and never to be forgotten 

 in pedigrees, as he was the sire of Destitute 

 the dam of the Belvoir Senator. 



The Grove — or, rather, Lord Galway's — 



Barrister was a very remarkable hound. 

 Jack Morgan, his huntsman, thought him 

 one of the best he had ever hunted, and 

 inheriting as he did all Mr. Foljambe's old 

 sorts, and hitting three times to Ranter 

 the son of the Osbaldeston Furrier, it was 

 no wonder that Lord Galway maintained 

 the great prestige of the Grove in a measure 

 through Barrister. The Drake Duster was 

 another hound held in the highest esteem 

 by breeders, and this was probably due to 

 the fact that both Mr. Drake and his son 

 Mr. Tom Drake, junior, thought him un- 

 deniably good in every part of a run, and 

 their judgment was greatly respected. Duster 

 went back to Mr. J. M. Warde's sorts, as 

 he was by Bachelor son of Regent, son of 

 Mr. Warde's Rascal, and in three or four 

 other lines he hit to Mr. Warde's. It 

 is sixty-three years since Duster was 

 entered, and yet the mention of the Drake 

 family is the mention of Duster. Such is 

 the power of the Foxhound. 



Senator must always be regarded as 

 one of Belvoir's chief landmarks, and he 

 inherited the blood of nearly all the hounds 

 mentioned above. He had plenty of Furrier 

 in him ; his dam Destitute was by Sir 

 Richard Sutton's Dryden son of Lord 

 Henry Bentinck's Contest, and his grand- 

 dam's sire was by the Drake Duster. He 

 was therefore a combination of the great 

 ones, and no hound ever put more character 

 into his progeny. He was a good honest 

 hound, a rare finder, and would run with 

 his hackles up right to the front and drive 

 hard to the death. Then he was a demon, 

 would fight another hound in his terrible 

 passion for blood, and no run could tire 

 him. 



Huntsmen will say that the Senators 

 were all like this. There was Lord Polti- 

 more's Woldsman of that strain, and his 

 son the Bicester Whipster, after him — 

 devils incarnate as they were called, and 

 at a kill the whips, if they could get at 

 them, would always couple them up to 

 avoid mischief. But Senator left his mark 

 at Belvoir and elsewhere in regard to a 

 commanding carriage and colour. The 

 exquisite Belvoir tan, and just half the 



