26 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



wliicli I was seldom disappointed. How far I succeeded 

 in establishing this pack of harriers it does not become 

 me to say ; I leave it to the decision of those judges 

 who may have seen them upon their transmission into 

 Norfolk, having, upon taking the foxhounds, sold them 

 to Sir James Flower, whose energy and zeal are suffi- 

 cient warrant for the perpetuity of their character f for 

 my present purpose, it is enough to say, that I at once 

 decided upon a reliance on Lord Segrave's blood for 

 hunting the fox in Hertfordshire, and this is the blood 

 to which, after due trial, I am most anxious to adhere. 

 In the coldest and most adverse state of atmosphere, 

 they are to be seen ploughing the ground with their 

 noses, and recovering any particle of scent which has 

 not been dissipated. In the best of days, when every 

 nerve is strained to maintain the pace at which I have 

 seen them complete six miles in eighteen minutes, they 

 will be found first in the foremost flight. When the 

 whoo-whoop resounds, it is ten to one that the hound 

 first and fast locked in mortal gripe and struggle with 

 the prostrate victim, is one of these my favourites, who 

 are alike to be distinguished on all occasions, as many 

 a deep indenture upon their faces will prove, made by 

 the fangs of many an old dog fox, in memento of an 

 existence which, but for their relentless perseverance, 

 might have been for years prolonged. 



* The merits of this crack establishment have been already so well 

 and justly described, in prose and verse, in the pages of the New Sport- 

 ing ]\Iagazine, that any eulogy from my pen would be more than 

 superfluous. 



