THE AMERICAN FOXHOUND 19 



Dime Danforth, out of Fauuy. Jim inherited all of Dime Dan- 

 fortli's speed and endurance, aiid got additional dash and heel 

 from his sire, Bugle, who was a winner on the bench, as well as 

 in the first annual field trials of the B. F. C. Jim won the 

 silver endurance medal in the B. F. C, field trials in 1892. He 

 was a small black and tan, with white legs and breast, a blaze 

 on face, and tail tipped white. He was closely and strongly 

 made, and had the greatest stride I ever saw in a hound of his 

 inches. His owner was Mr. Richard Seely of Portsmouth, N. 

 H., and he was bred by Mr. A. M. Gerry of South Paris, Me. 

 His markings he got from his Soutliern side. 



The coat of the Buckfields at one time was mostly coarse, 

 with heavy feather on hams and tail, but out-crosses have intro- 

 duced smooth coats, and the majority are now^ closer coated 

 than their primal ancestors. Mr. C. M. Smith of Norw^ay, Me., 

 has the shaggiest hound extant of the breed, and the feather on 

 his brush is said to be ten inches long. The markings of the 

 Buckfield hounds of to-day are red or tan, red and white, red 

 and wdiite mottled, or red and blue mottled, and now and then a 

 solid black one, a reversion of old Tige, tlie original sire. 



Finally, I must speak of a famous hound which was said to 

 have come from the Buckfields, but whose breeding it has not 

 been possible to trace clearly back to the various Dimes and 

 Bose. I refer to grand Ben Butler, now alas! dead, wdio was 

 owned by Mr. L. O. Dennison of the Brunswick Fur Club. It 

 was my pleasure to have hunted with Ben for several years, and 

 he certainly had many characteristics of the strain. His judge- 

 ment in taking a trail was marvelous and his nose was so good 

 that he never put it nearer than four or five inches of the 

 ground, even in the hardest place. The hound never lived that 

 could drive a fox smoother, and when he got his game up he 

 kept it going steadily from daylight till dark. He was a strong 

 hound, of good size, blue mottled and tan in marking, and he 

 never was known to be foot-sore. He won first in endurance in 

 the first annual trial of the B. F. C, and his nose and endurance 

 mark him as a Buckfield, even though his breeding cannot be 

 clearly traced. He was bred in Maine, and came from within 

 thirty miles of Buckfield, and there can be but little doubt that 

 the blood of Tige and Skip flowed richly in his veins. 



In this history of the Buckfield foxhounds seven generations 

 are given, that is, counting Tige and Skip as the first and Jim 



