THE AMERICAN FOXHOUND 45 



stock in its greatest purity, and carefully guards his out-crosses 

 to maintain original characteristics. 



Looking into the breeding of all the now well-known working 

 strains of foxliounds of the South, it will be found that July 

 blood leavens most of them. Their short, choppy notes are 

 found wherever a trace of their blood exists. This prepotency is 

 something wonderful, and proves the Irish hound to be the 

 strongest blooded and most distinct of the hound family in the 

 South. 



The Goodmans, or more properly speaking, the Robertson- 

 Maupin cross, get their fifty to seventy per cent of Irish blood 

 through Tickler, Whitey and Fury. The Trigg hounds are Irish 

 crossed on Maupin-Walker blood and native Kentucky. Col. 

 Trigg visited Mr. Birdsong and bought a large number of 

 hounds from him, and on his return to Kentucky with these 

 Birdsong Julys, bred them as before stated. All that is best in 

 the Wild Goose strain comes from the Irish, both through 

 Birdsong's kennels and Ben Robertson's; Callie Gates, Mr. 

 Lewis' best bitch, was bred to Longfellow, a hound which 

 strains back to the Robertson-Maupin cross. 



The following notes, taken from the old American Turf 

 Register and Sporting Magazine, volume 3, Nos. 6, 7, 8, 10, 

 February, 1832, a copy of which is now owned by Major G. V. 

 Young, Waverly, Miss., gives us some idea of the Irish hound in 

 his days of greatest purity : 



No. 6. — "The most remarkable and distinct family of hounds 

 recollected in Maryland sprang from two that were brought 

 some twenty odd years since from Ireland by Bolton Jackson, 

 Esq. They fell into the hands of Col. Sterrett Ridgely, at that 

 time one of the most gallant horsemen, as well as one of the 

 most ardent and most hospitable sportsmen in the state. They 

 were remarkable as were their descendants, according to their 

 degree of the original blood, for great speed and perse verence, 

 extreme ardor, and for casting aliead at a loss; and in this, and 

 their shrill, chopping, unmusical notes, they were distinguished 

 from the old stock of that day, which, when they came to a loss, 

 would go back, and dwelling, take it along inch by inch, until 

 they got fairly off again, whilst these Irish hounds would cast 

 widely, and by making their hit ahead would keep their game at 

 the top of his speed, and break him do^^^l in the first half hour. 

 The blood of these Irish dogs before mentioned is to be found, as 



