MR. WARDS HOUNDS 87 



Baby, Placid, and Stella, -■'■ among the bitches, and they would be 

 more perfect to the eye ; but who would draft such hounds as some 

 of these are for such a gratification ? 



In answer to those who say that Mr. Ward's are the best hounds 

 in England, I have only to remark, that when we recollect by whom 

 they have been bred, they have a right to be so ; and but for the 

 fatal accidents which befel them, and the no less fatal change of 

 country, I have no doubt but they would long ere this have been 

 entitled to that honorable appellation ; but England is a wide 

 space, and "the best in England" a boastful and indefinite term. 

 This, however, I will pronounce of them — that if brought to Messrs. 

 TattersaU's hammer to-morroiv, they would fetch more money than 

 ever Jwunds sold for yet. 



I have no hesitation in saying, that Sovereign is, without excep- 

 tion, for nose and chase, the best and surest hound J ever saw in 

 a field. From first to last he is always in the front ; and if hounds 

 were to bring a scent out of covert twenty times a day, I would bet 

 an even wager that he would be one of the first five couples. He 

 has also another striking good quality. If he comes out of covert 

 with other hounds, feeling for the scent, and does not find it, he gets 

 back again directly to the line, and by his peculiar tongue (a short 

 chop) brings the rest back to him. He is a gi'andson of Mr. Ward's 

 celebrated Selim, and is the sire of his Abraham, a young hound of 

 great promise. 



A great many hounds in Mr. Ward's kennel are singularly and 

 rather unfortunately marked, being what is called " half-faced : " but 

 when we are told that this comes from his celebrated Statesman, 

 no more can be said. Nearly thirty couples of these hounds are also 

 stained with the blood of the New Forest Justice. Guardian is by 

 Aimwell out of Mr. Smith's Brilliant — Aimwell by a Son of Justice. 

 There are three Brothers by Guardian of this year's entry — viz. 

 Downright, Dragon, and Dryden — not to be excelled. A bitch 

 called Festive, almost the only open bitch remaining of the last pack, 

 Mr. Ward lost by madness, was also got by Jason, a Brother to 



* Stella is a particularly handsome bitch, and, if my memory serves me, of 

 the Bertram blood. 



