THE FOXHOUND. 



215 



question whatever. The fact that from 

 the very first they were both countenanced 

 and supported by such great sportsmen 

 as the Duke of Beaufort, Lord Willoughby 

 de Broke, and Mr. Robert Arkwright, was 

 a certain guarantee that the policy of the 

 show ring was correct and sound. Lord 

 Willoughby de Broke gave the greatest 

 evidence of all this, as 

 in twenty-five years he 

 made the Warwickshire 

 to be as nearly as pos- 

 sible equal to the Bel- 

 voir, and he never missed 

 showing. He used such 

 champions as the Ouorn 

 Alfred, the Fitzwilliam 

 Richmond, the Pytchley 

 Prompter, and others 

 seen on the Peter- 

 borough flags. Then 

 his lordship's own prize- 

 takers, Hermit, Wild- 

 boy, Furrier, Trampler, 

 Sampson, and many 

 more had the patronage 

 of the kingdom through 

 their good looks at 

 Peterborough. Lord 

 Willoughby's quiet re- 

 buke to a would - be 

 fault-finder that he was 

 not at all likely to 

 breed from or even to keep a faulty 

 hound was quite enough to show that only 

 the best were good enough for his lord- 

 ship. Splendidly managed by a strong 

 committee and most able secretary, Mr. 

 John Smart, who has held the post for 

 twenty-seven years, the Peterborough shows 

 afford excellent opportunities for seeing 

 the best hounds and for breeders to com- 

 pare notes as to what they are breeding 

 themselves, and how other people are 

 breeding. At any rate, Foxhounds have 

 very much improved in looks during the 

 past five-and-twenty years, and unques- 

 tionably they are quite as good in the field 

 or better. Whenever hounds have good 

 foxes in front of them, and good hunts- 

 men to assist or watch over them, they are 



as able as ever, but the drawbacks to good 

 sport are more numerous now than they 

 used to be. The noble hound will always 

 be good enough, and ever and anon this is 

 shown by a run of the Great Wood order, to 

 hunt over five-and-twenty to thirty miles 

 at a pace to settle all the horses, and yet 

 every hound will be up. There has been 



OLD BERKELEY FOXHOUNDS GEOFFREY AND HAWKER. 

 PROPERTY OF ROBERT LEADBETTER, ESQ., M.F.H. 

 Photograph by Russell and Sons. 



a slight tendency to increase size of late 

 years. The Belvoir dog-hound is within 

 very little of 24 inches instead of 23J, 

 the standard of twenty years ago, and this 

 increase has become very general. In 

 elegance of form nothing has been lost, and 

 there can be no other to possess beauty 

 combined with power and the essential 

 points for pace and endurance in the same 

 degree as a Foxhound. 



William Somerville's poetical description, 

 written in 1735, still applies to the perfect 

 Foxhound of to-day. 



" See there with countenance blithe, 

 And with a courtly grin, the fawning hound 

 Salutes thee cowering, his wide opening nose 

 Upwards he curls, and his large sloe-black eyes 

 Melt in soft blandishments, and humble joy ! 



