34 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



Upon my succession to the country, I received a very 

 kind letter from Mr. Smith, inquiring after his protege. 

 Wisdom, which was then still, and may be now, in 

 Mr. Sebright's possession, and offering to assist me in 

 carrying further the proposed scheme for improving the 

 breed of hounds. I replied, that, till I had reason to 

 beheve any animal had been bred to equal a thorough- 

 bred foxhound, I should beg to prefer that description 

 to any mongrel in the scale of creation ; and by this 

 faith and opinion shall I still, for the present, abide. 

 I would, therefore, earnestly advise any young gentleman 

 who may succeed me in Hertfordshire, or any man 

 undertaking to hunt any country, to stick to the best 

 blood ; and, moreover, to spare no pains in obtaining it, 

 wherever it is to be found. He may then, eventually, 

 have the satisfaction of shewing a pack which, in shape 

 and make, will prove their high breeding. To sum up 

 my advice, as to the well-bred and well-shaped hound 

 I would have him maintain in our country, I will say — 

 supposing him to have drafts from various kennels, or to 

 have the choice of so many, of his own breeding, that he is 

 unhmited in numbers, requiring not more than fifty or sixty 

 couples for service— draft freely. Never keep a hound 

 with faulty shape, on account of his pedigree ; still less 

 should you be induced to retain a hound of inveterate 

 ill habits, on account of his appearance. Draft, I say, 

 freely, let them be handsome as pictures, or lineally 



