CHASING AND RACING 77 



the hammer. I managed to secure three and a half 

 couples of the glorious bitches. Blanche, Lady Water- 

 ford had long been disabled from hunting, but her 

 interest in the celebrated pack never waned, and it was 

 a sad day, as she informed me, when it was dispersed. 

 She wrote me a charming letter entering into minute 

 details concerning each bitch that had so fortunately 

 come into my possession ; heartening me by her 

 congratulations on my having secured the flower of 

 the pack. Indeed, these bitches proved of inestimable 

 value, not only in the field, but in the harem. It is 

 generally agreed that it takes even a knowledgeable 

 houndman at least seven years to produce a good and 

 level pack from draft stock, however well bred ; but 

 at the end of my third season it was freely 

 admitted, by some of the shrewdest houndsmen and 

 huntsmen in the kingdom, that I had got together 

 as smart a little lot as any enthusiast might wish to 

 follow. 



The combined divisions of the Hunt which I had 

 taken over presented physical features of great variety ; 

 consequently a distinct type of hound was required for 

 each. To meet the situation I divided my hounds into 

 three sections, (i) The big dog hounds ; (2) the big 

 bitches and smaller dog hounds mixed ; and (3) the 

 little bitches ; sometimes drawing from the tally of 

 each, hounds which were of approximate inches to the 

 larger or smaller ones, as the case might be, in the 

 other sections. Thus I found that the big dog hounds 



