THE AMERICAN FOXHOUND 37 



"Monocacy," the captain being instructed to bring over eight 

 pairs of red foxes upon his next voyage, which he was successful 

 in accomplisliing. These foxes were turned out in several parts 

 of the county and soon began to multiply. 



The red fox was first seen on this side of Chesapeake Bay after 

 the tremendous hard winter of 1780, when the bay was frozen 

 over from November until April. It took them twenty years to 

 work their way up into the above mentioned counties. The 

 advent of the red fox compelled fox-hunters to change their 

 ideas of what constituted a good hound. The gray fox dog, who 

 was slow and sure on his rabbit-like quarry, would not in any 

 way do to make sport after the swift red fox who invariably left 

 his pursuers so far behind, the race gradually became a trail, 

 and at last, with exceptions, a dead loss. 



About 1812, Mr. Bolton Jackson, a famous fox-hunter ■ of 

 Maryland, sent to Ireland^and imported a pair of hounds. After 

 a few years tliey fell into the hands of Col. Sterrett Ridgely, a 

 fine old Maryland gentleman, whose far-reaching hospitality and 

 great horseman -ship are still characteristics of his descendants 

 in this state. 



These hounds, "Mountain" and "Muse," were given to Gov. 

 Ogle about 1823, who was so impressed with their excellence he 

 bred them pure, and from his pack came the great hound 

 "Sophy." She was such a noted hound it is said her portrait 

 was published in the Turf Register of that day. Old Mountain 

 was presented to Mr. Carroll of Carrollton. So superior were 

 these hounds for chasing the red fox that every fox-hunter in 

 this part of Maryland promptly bred to the Ogle pack, and other 

 Irish hounds were imported, but none equalled that particular 

 importation. 



These Irish dogs, (whose ancestors had hunted the red fox in 

 very much such a country as Maryland, and in very much the 

 same fashion of hunting, by their masters in Ireland, as was 

 practiced by the old Maryland fox-hunters) could get upon even 

 terms with the heretofore impossible red fox, at once, not so 

 much by their speed, as their fox sense, especially exemplified in 

 their tremendous casting ahead, at losses frequently, gaining 

 more on a loss than had they continued on the line. They had 

 shrill, choppy notes, short ears, as compared with the old gray 

 fox hound, large, prominent dark eyes, were dappled in color, or 

 flecked with bluish, gray colored spots. They had rough, coarse 



