THE FOXHOUND. 



213 



Royal. But there must be the greatest of 

 the great. I think I shall be correct in 

 naming the following hounds as the twelve 

 best England has ever seen : — 



Mr. Corbet's Trojan (1780), by the 

 Pytchley Tomboy out of Tidings. 



Lord Middleton's Vanguard (1815), by 

 Lord Vernon's Vaulter out of Traffic. 



Mr. Osbaldeston's Furrier (1820), by 

 Belvoir Saladin out of Fallacy. 



Lord Henry Bentinck's Contest (1848), 

 by Comus out of Sanguine. 



Lord FitzHardinge's Cromwell (1855), by 

 Contest out of Crazy. 



Mr. Drake's Duster (1844), by Bachelor 

 out of Destitute. 



Sir Richard Sutton's Dryden (1849), by 

 Contest out of Daphne. 



The Duke of Rutland's Senator (1862), by 

 Singer out of Destitute. 



The Duke of Rutland's Weathergage 

 (1874), by Warrior out of Royalty. 



The Earl of Coventry's Rambler (1874), 

 by Lord FitzHardinge's Collier out of 

 Ransom. 



Mr. E. P. Rawnsley's Freeman (1884), by 

 Belvoir Weathergage out of Freedom. 



The Grafton Woodman (1892), by Wonder 

 out of Durable. 



Breeding Foxhounds is one of the most 

 fascinating of all the pleasures of animal 

 culture, as the above list, so full of extreme 

 merit, can be traced for nearly a hundred 

 and thirty years from Trojan to Vanguard, 

 and the Oakley Driver, the great-great- 

 grandsire of Durable, the dam of the 

 Grafton Woodman. Then the many 

 branches to the Osbaldeston Furrier, the 

 share of Lord Henry Bentinck's Contest 

 through Dryden, and also the Drake Duster 

 in the Belvoir Senator, and so on to Weather- 

 gage, the sire of Why-not the sire of Work- 

 man the sire of Wonder the sire of the above- 

 named Grafton Woodman. The truth is that 

 Frank Gillard and Frank Beers, the Grafton 

 huntsmen, were great friends and allies, 

 and when the former had found quite a 

 precious gem in the shape of a Foxhound, 

 he imparted the fact to Beers, who conse- 

 quently used Weathergage in his second 

 season to the ultimate benefit of a great 



many packs as traced through Why-not, 

 Workman, Wonder, and Woodman, and con- 

 tinued to some extraordinary families for 

 work, notably the V.W.H. (Mr. Batt Miller's) 

 Worcester, and the Puckeridge (Mr. E. 

 Barclay's) Councillor. It was in this way 

 that the old school of sportsmen bred 

 Foxhounds. Men such as Mr. G. S. Fol- 

 jambe, Captain Percy Williams, Mr. Oakley, 

 Mr. Nicholas Parry, Lord Portsmouth, Mr. 

 Robert Arkwright, and Mr. George Lane 

 Fox. What a debt is due to them from 

 the hunting world ! There is, however, a 

 present generation to continue the good 

 work. None are keener, or can love Fox- 

 hounds more, than the Duke of Beaufort, 

 Lord Harrington. Lord Middleton, Lord 

 Bathurst, Mr. Batt Miller, Mr. Edward 

 Barclay, Mr. J. C. Monro, Mr. Gerald 

 Hardy, or Mr. Fernie. They breed on the 

 lines that have been made famous, and they 

 have brought the Foxhound to a greater 

 pitch of perfection than ever. 



THE VALUE OF THE FOXHOUND. 



It cannot be said that the prices paid 

 for Foxhounds in very recent times have 

 greatly exceeded those of the past. In 

 1790 Colonel Thornton sold Merkin for 

 four hogsheads of claret, and the seller 

 to have two couples of the whelps. Then 

 in 1808 Mr. John Warde sold a pack of 

 hounds to Lord Althorpe for 1,000 guineas, 

 and the same gentleman sold another pack 

 for the same sum a few years later. In 

 1838 Lord Sufneld offered 3,000 guineas for 

 Mr. Lambton's pack, and afterwards sold 

 it to Sir Matthew White Ridley for 2,500. 

 In 1834 Osbaldeston sold ten couples of 

 bitches, all descendants of Furrier, for 

 2,000 sovereigns or £100 a hound — a record 

 that was almost eclipsed at the sale of 

 Lord Poltimore's hounds in 1870, when 

 twenty-two couples of dog-hounds sold for 

 3>3 6 5 guineas. 



Of late years there has been the sale of 

 the Quorn for, it was said, £3,000, and the 

 late Lord Willoughby de Broke valued the 

 North Warwickshire for the county to 

 purchase at £2,500. In 1903 the Ather- 

 stone was valued by Mr. Rawlence, the 



