30 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



ness as any, if not less, I will venture to say that, in no 

 country are more hounds lamed in the course of a day's 

 work. I have drafted hounds which, from slight de- 

 fects in their feet, have been utterly incapacitated, but 

 which have continued, in other and deeper country, 

 perfectly effective. Some contend that a hound should 

 be perfectly straiglit from his withers to his stern ; but 

 I am myself fond of what are called arched loins, or 

 ivheel hacks, with an inclination to drooping quarters, 

 with that development in the muscle of both which 

 enables them to fly their fences. I fancy, also, that 

 arched loins are better adapted to hills, and are most 

 in liarmony with the symmetrical outline requisite for 

 speed and bottom. 



The sketch at the head of this Chapter, however 

 imperfect, may convey, better than any power of descrip- 

 tion which I possess, my notion of a well-shaped hound. 

 It might seem absurd to record my conviction of the 

 necessity that your hounds should be not only well- 

 shaped but ivell-hred, having already stated that nothing 

 canine will hunt like a high-bred foxhound; and surely 

 none will contend that anything else can run with 

 them ; but it is too fresh in my memory, that, in these 

 daj-s of innovation, attempts have been not only sug- 

 gested, but made, to reform, and thereby, of course, 

 improve, the blood of this old English foxhound. This 

 circumstance is of too recent date to admit of being 

 left to the silence of oblivion. 



About two years before Mr. Sebright retired from 



