THE WILLEY KEJ^^fELS. 87 



■" Hounds stout and healttiy, 



Earths well stopped, and foxes plenty," 



being mottoes of tlie period. The dogs were of the 

 " heavy painstaking breed '' that '^ stooped to their 

 work." How, it was said, 



" Can the fox-hound ever tell, 

 Unless hy pains he takes to smell, 

 Where RejTiard's gone ?" 



Experience taught the Squire the importance of a 

 principle now more generally acted upon, that of 

 selecting the qualities required in the hounds he 

 bred from ; and by this means he obtained develop- 

 ments of swiftness and scent that made his pack 

 one good horses only of that day could keep up 

 with. He prided himself much upon the blood of 

 his best hounds, knew every one he had by name, 

 and was familiar with its pedigree. Portraits of 

 four of his favourites were painted on canvas and 

 hung in the hall, with lines beneath expressive of 

 their qualities, and the dates at which the paintings 

 were made. The Right Hon. Lord Forester takes 

 great care of these, as showing in what way the 

 best dogs of that day diflPered from those of the 

 present ; and through his kindness we have been 

 enabled to get drawings made, of which his lord- 



