THE AMERICAN FOXHOUND 31 



and clean. Messrs. Griffee and Garrett have the pure-bred July 

 and the Sugar Loaf cross. 



The history of the Sugar Loaf hound is very simple but in- 

 tensely interesting. Mr. Plummer bred, hunted and improved 

 him for many years, and gloried in his striking peculiarities. 

 Unlike other hounds the Sugar Loaf dog was brindle in color, 

 and vicious in disposition. The average fox-hunter would not 

 accept a brindle puppy as a gracious gift for fear that he might 

 prove to be a mongrel. But Mr. Plummer liked the brindle 

 markings. His dogs frequently came with glass eyes. But these 

 queer characteristics pleased the Irishman; he had something 

 that nobody else had. But, withal, Mr. Plummer knew the 

 marks of a good hound, and could always get the best work out 

 of the pack or the individual. His dogs drove hard, and long, 

 and never quit until the fox was killed or denned. 



All of the Maryland hunters of Mr. Plummer's day, except 

 Messrs. Hardey and Linthicum, are dead. Mr. Linthicum has 

 retired but Mr. Hardey is still breeding and hunting the Howard 

 county hound. He bred Lade, the dam of the famous July, 

 whose record is known throughout the foxhound world, and let 

 a friend have her, and who, in turn, gave her to Nimrod 

 Gosnell. Messrs. Hardey, Gosnell and Linthicum bred and run 

 together, and formed a trio that sent to Georgia, in the latter 

 60's and the early 70's, fifty or more fine hounds. George L. F. 

 Birdsong, the South 's most noted fox-hunter, crossed his Henry 

 hounds on those of these gentlemen. 



Mr. Nimrod Gosnell took annual hunts with Mr. Joe 

 Plummer, on the Sugar Loaf mountain, in Frederick county. 



Mr. Plummer hunted whether the weather conditions were 

 favorable or not, his dogs being trained to do the best they could 

 under the circumstances. On one occasion, when Mr, Gosnell 

 was on a camp hunt with Mr. Plummer, the meal supply gave 

 out and the hunters had no dog feed. Mr. Plummer sent his 

 hired man to the nearest mill for meal ; no wagon being handy, 

 a sled was used. The meal was out tliere and the servant re- 

 turned without any, but Mr. Plummer started him to another 

 mill with orders to keep going till he got plenty to last till the 

 week's hunt was over, the ground being covered with snow did 

 not worry him. That is the sort of a man Mr. Joe Plummer 

 was, and his dogs seemed to be made of the same kind of 

 material, for they, too, were determined and tough, and did not 



